en.europa-eu-audience

Inside the Google Books Algorithm

Version française

An interesting post about search engine

Source : http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/10/11/inside-the-google-books-algorithm/65422/

 

iPad is Best for Reading, Communicating, and Gaming

Usability news

November 2010, Vol. 12 Issue 2 | Volume 12 Issue 2 | Past Issues | A-Z List |

Usability News is a free web newsletter that is produced by the Software Usability Research Laboratory (SURL) at Wichita State University. The SURL team specializes in software/website user interface design, usability testing, and research in human-computer interaction.
Barbara S. Chaparro, Editor

Articles

• Survey Results: iPad is Best for Reading, Communicating, and Gaming
  by B. Nguyen & B. Chaparro
• Keyboard Performance: iPad versus Netbook
  by B. Chaparro, B. Nguyen, M. Phan, A. Smith, and J. Teves
• Creatures of Habit or Convenience? Users Still Use Browser Bookmarks and Email to Save Information
  by J. Owens, A. D. Shaikh, & B. Chaparro
• Exploring the Usability of e-Health Websites
  by C. Lauterbach 

See also the archives at http://www.surl.org/usabilitynews/archives.asp

 

USA : Plain Writing Act of 2010

Have a look on  http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-946

An interesting way to present the legislative process

 

UK : Open data, democracy and public sector reform

Have a look on this online report

This is an online report based on an MSc Dissertation at the Oxford Internet Institute by Tim Davies submitted to the University of Oxford, July 2010. It is shared using the Digress.it platform which allows for paragraph level commenting and hyperlinking to elements of the document.

A downloadable PDF copy of the report is available here.

The original research, underlying data, and further work has been blogged in detail on the Open Data Impacts blog. 

Abstract:
Governments are increasingly making their data available online in standard formats and under licenses that permit the free re-use of data. The justifications advanced for this include claims regarding the economic potential of open government data (OGD), the potential for OGD to promote transparency and accountability of government and the role of OGD in supporting the reform and reshaping of public services. This paper takes a pragmatic mixed-methods approach to exploring uses of data from the UK national open government data portal, data.gov.uk, and identifies how the emerging practices of OGD use are developing. It sets out five ‘processes’ of data use, and describes a series of embedded cases of education OGD use, and use of public-spending OGD. Drawing upon quantitative and qualitative data it presents an outline account of the motivations driving different individuals to engage with open government data, and it identifies a range of connections between open government data use of processes of civic change. It argues that a “data for developers” narrative that assumes OGD use will primarily be mediated by technology developers is misplaced, and that whilst innovation-based routes to OGD-driven public sector reform are evident, the relationship between OGD and democracy is less clear. As strategic research it highlights a number of emerging policy issues for developing OGD provision and use, and makes a contribution towards theoretical understandings of OGD use in practice.

 

Victorian Government Contacts and Services Directory wins the Government section of Australian Web Awards

On 6 November 2010 in Perth, the Victorian Government Contacts and Services Directory won the Government Section of the Australian Web Industry Association Awards. In addition the directory also announced as one of three shortlisted for the Overall Australian National Award.

Further information on Victorian Government Contacts and Services Directory wins the Government section of Australian Web Awards

EU citizens and European law – Introduction by Alain Lamassoure MEP

One of the better moves of the French president Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of France’s presidency of the Council of the European Union was to ask Alain Lamassoure MEP to make some practical proposals for improving the effective application of Community law for ordinary people.

The report is dated 8 June 2008, and Lamassoure handed it over to Sarkozy 27 June 2008, just a few days before the beginning of the six month French Council presidency.

The English web page of the European Commission’s Directorate-General Justice recently linked only to the French original, so I decided to look for other language versions in order to make the report accessible to a greater number of people.

Despite time wasted on some inconclusive searches, we only have to go Lamassoure’s own web page to find the report in French, German and English. If there are translations into other languages, someone could be kind enough to indicate where they can be found. However, here are the direct links to the three language versions:

Alain LAMASSOURE, Député européen: LE CITOYEN ET L’APPLICATION DU DROIT COMMUNAUTAIRE Rapport au Président de la République (8 juin 2008 ; 188 pages)

Alain LAMASSOURE, Mitglied des Europäischen Parlaments: DER BÜRGER UND DIE ANWENDUNG DES GEMEINSCHAFTSRECHTS Bericht an den Staatspräsidenten( 8. Juni 2008)

Alain LAMASSOURE, Member of the European Parliament: THE CITIZEN AND THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNITY LAW Report to the President of the Republic (8th June 2008)

Read more on the source (dated 5-11-2010) 

New Zealand: mix and mash, a competition

Competition now open!

A chance to show the world what you can do with New Zealand digital content and data.

Entries close Tuesday 30 November 2010

Source : http://www.mixandmash.org.nz/

Categories

There are 6 mashup categories and 5 remix categories, all with great prizes, plus a bunch of awesome Special Awards

See http://www.mixandmash.org.nz/categories.html

Data & content sources

mix & mash aims to encourage the use of New Zealand content and data. Make the most of the awesome material out there!

http://www.mixandmash.org.nz/sources.html

 

Proactive Disclosure

Why not by us ?

Checklist for a Data Management Plan

It could be useful

Have a look on the document

Download DCC_DMP_checklist_v2.2_100106-publicVersion

 

MIReG: Management Information Resources for eGovernment

Increasing demands are being made on public sector administrations for greater access to electronic information, documents and services. A key to such access, and to the interoperability between the systems necessary to deliver it, is the availability and implementation of agreed metadata standards. While the Dublin Core is the universally recognised metadata set for information discovery over the Internet, many EU Member States are also specifying their own metadata requirements for administrative information. MIReG is the first step towards bringing initiatives in this area together. 

http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/2361/5927.html

 

What is IDA MIReG?
Objectives
How does it work?
Achievements
Who benefits?
The role of IDABC
Technical information
Documentation

What is MIReG?

MIReG is a project that aims to develop extensions to the Dublin Core for government information based primarily on the national metadata recommendations of the Member States' public administrations.

 

Objectives

The Dublin Core metadata element set (ISO 15863) is a standard for cross-domain information resource description. It is probably the most widely used and recommended metadata set. In addition, many Member States have either mandated the Dublin Core as the standard for metadata in their public administrations or have already developed their own national metadata sets or variations of the Dublin Core. The purpose of MIReG is to look at these national recommendations and other international recommendations for metadata for public sector information and, based on these, to develop extensions to the Dublin Core for government information.

MIReG is also concerned with tools for the management of metadata through the storage and retrieval of XML schemata.

The objective of this action is to produce a metadata framework for government information in pan-European applications, with associated vocabulary control, ontologies and topic maps, and best practice guidelines.