Interoperability: the fight goes on!

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The European Commission recently released its “Digital Agenda“, one of the 7 initiatives it launched to help alleviate the economic crisis and prepare the EU economy for the challenges of the next decade: “Europe needs a new action plan for making the best use of information and*communication technologies (ICT) to speed up economic recovery and lay the*foundations of a sustainable digital future.”

Many reactions followed. Times on Line for example, underlined the proposal of the EU to widen access to the Internet, while BBC News detailed the investments the European governments will have to make to compete with others countries like the US.

Certainly, no one will complain that European institutions consider IT as an essential productivity factor for its businesses (”Half of European productivity growth over the past 15 years was already driven by information and communications technologies“).

I will let you check out these different initiatives, ranging from “creating a Digital Single Market” to “boosting internet trust and security” and “encouraging investment in research and development”.

I still believe that this is a lot of wishful thinking (the Digital Agenda is only a recommendation). There is still uncertainty regarding open standards, which have been removed from the latest version of this document, leaving only a vague mention about interoperability (for more details: http://www.laquadrature.net/en/eu-co...anger-freedoms).

To understand this evolution, one needs only to review the latest Documentation on the European Interoperability Framework. The new version no longer mentions “open standards” but only “open specifications”, which (according to the document) “can be achieved without openness”.

Too bad the EU is not supporting openness more overtly.* I guess the active lobbying from proprietary vendors plays a role here.* But clients understand the value, and consortiums Talend belongs to, such as OW2, are also key players here.

Bertrand




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