Ensuring utmost transparency

•  Watch the recording of the seminar

• Download the print version - study "Ensuring utmost transparency" (2nd edition)
• Download the scren version - study "Ensuring utmost transparency" (2nd edition)

About the seminar:

We are happy to invite you to the 5th Document Freedom Day that the Greens/EFA is organising with Free Software Foundation Europe to support their campaignhttp://documentfreedom.org/.  In this seminar we will present and discuss the study"Ensuring utmost transparency - Free Software and Open Standards under the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament" commissioned by the Greens/EFA on the implications of Rule 115 with regards to ICT. Under that rule, the Parliament has imposed upon itself a commitment to conduct its activities with the utmost transparency. The study concludes that ensuring this "utmost  transparency" is not only an essential procedural requirement but actually a fundamental democratic principle which brings precise duties.The study also emphasizes that the Parliament should whenever possible make Free Software and Open Standards mandatory for all systems and data used.
The study has been published in The International Free and Open Source Software Law Review and is available online here: http://www.ifosslr.org/ifosslr/article/view/105

Programme

17:00-17:15
Max Andersson, MEP - Welcome and opening

Max Andersson is a full member of the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) and asubstitute member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO). He is also a co-convener of the Greens/EFA Internet Core Group and a Patron of the European Parliament Free Software User Group (EPFSUG). Max Andersson is a member of the board of the Swedish Green Party and was a Member of the Swedish Parliament 2006–2010.

17:15-17:45
Professor Douwe Korff  - Presentation of the study "Ensuring utmost transparency - Free Software and Open Standards under the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament"

Professor Douwe Korff  is an Associate of the Oxford Martin School of the University of Oxford  and a member of the cybersecurity working group of its GlobalCybersecurity Capacity Centre; a Visiting Fellow at Yale University (in its Information Society Project); and a Fellow of the Centre for Internet & Human Rights of the European University Viadrina in Berlin.

17:45-18:30
Panel discussion with invited guests Invited guests:

• Giancarlo Vilella is the Director General for DG ITEC, the EPs Innovation and  Technological Support. DG ITEC provides Parliament with information and  communication technology services as well as printing and distribution  services. It implements Parliament's policy of  transparency and access  to information and helps Parliament to work more  efficiently.                   

• Martine Reicherts is the Director General of the EU´s Office for Official Publications in Luxembourg. Reicherts is the former European Commissioner responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship in the Barroso II Commission in 2014 and Deputy Head of Cabinet of Jacques Santer, the  President of the European Commission from 1995 to 1999.

• Jonas Smedegaard is a freelance systems administrator and Debiandeveloper working with resource sharing within and between organisations, mostly schools and NGOs,  trying to design systems that are both intuitive to use, strictly based  on open standards and purely built from Free Software.

• Karsten Gerloff is the President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. FSFE's mission as an independent not-for-profit organisation is to promote freedom in the information society through Free Software. 

The Document Freedom Day campaign is dedicated to highlighting the power of Open Standards. This effort is not limited to document formats. Free speech is a human right, and a cornerstone of any democratic society. To enable communication, it is important that documents can be opened and read by the people who are meant to receive them. In today's world, it is equally important that we have the ability to ensure that documents are read only by the people meant to receive them, to prevent a scenario where both censorship and self-censorship degrade the ability of citizens to speak freely to each other, develop new ideas, and drive the progress of our society. Document  Freedom Day is the international day of Open Standards and  happens every year on the last Wednesday of March. It is a day to come  together  and raise attention towards the ever growing importance of Open Standards for all aspects of our digital communication and information accessibility. For further information see following web pages:

• DFD2015 campaign site http://documentfreedom.org/
• EPFSUG homepage: http://epfsug.eu/

REGISTRATION: If you don't have a badge for entering the European Parliament, please register to the event by sending an email to max.andersson@europarl.europa.eu