RE: [egov-ms] EU Consultation on European Interop Strategy

["David RR Webber \(XML\)" <david@drrw.info>]

Carol,

 

We have seen the same unfortunate abuse here in the USA also; on a daily basis.  It feels like we are the 'thin red line' - or as Laurent would say - the 'thin blue line'!

 

The report certainly covers all the relevant aspects - but as John noted vis government initiatives - the lack of clear vision and direction is dismaying.  Just looking at the report from a citizens perspective - aka the people who are ultimately paying for and hopefully benefiting from - you would expect the social benefits and impacts to get top billing - instead they often fall 5 or 6th.

 

WRT the recommendations however - their #1 is clearly where OASIS can be a main facilitator and partner.

 

Th EU may not want to hear that certainly in terms of XML work - CEN has hardly been a leading player - and I can say this but OASIS may not be able too - often CEN is part of the problem and an large inhibitor - rather than facilitator!  Personally I've seen this first hand - because too often these bureaucrats are focused on "what can you do for me and my department?" - and not on - this is important work - and I have to find a way to get these folks funding and get the train rolling.  And worse - projects hesitate to take leading work to CEN because the sense is they will somehow find a way to give it to their favorites who have given them kickbacks in the past!  OK - that's the ugly.  The positives are that none of this is impossible to fix - and provide ways forward.  Certainly OASIS could establish and do more if for example the EU were to provide limited funding to facilitate standard development - something we at OASIS have wished for but not been able to achieve.

 

It is good that someone at least is asking the right questions and collecting considered answers.  What happens as a result of all that however is then the key.

 

When you consider how pivotal IT is now for society - one would hope that we are worth some support in more than just words!?

Thanks, DW

 

 

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [egov-ms] EU Consultation on European Interop Strategy
From: Carol Cosgrove-Sacks <carol.cosgrove-sacks@oasis-open.org>
Date: Fri, March 19, 2010 3:06 am
To: "Charles-H. Schulz" <charles-h.schulz@arsaperta.com>
Cc: John Borras <john@pensive.eu>, egov-ms@lists.oasis-open.org,
'Laurent Liscia' <laurent.liscia@oasis-open.org>, 'James Bryce Clark'
<jamie.clark@oasis-open.org>, Peter F Brown <peter@pensive.eu>

Hello Charles and colleagues,
I would like to share information and impressions I have recently gained
from discussions with different parts of the European Commission. At
present, to summarize, the DG Info Society is probably the most open in
its policies. IDABC, who isued the EIS, is also pushing for reform but
it is more cautious. Finally, DG Enterprise, which is where the
responsibility for ICT standardization lies in the EU, is the more
conservative. This needs to be taken into account when you consider
OASIS eGov strategy.

In addition, the whole of the European Commission is subject to heavy
lobbying by IT companies, especially those who wish to push the status
quo and their proprietory standards over "open" standards and
interoperability. This activity makes the oficials in the Comission nervous.

Then a third level is the lack of coherence in the views of the EU
Member States, where countries like UK, Sweden and France are rather
more reformist than the more conservative ones, especially Germany and
Spain and Portugal.

In these circumstances, it is not surprising that there is no clear
direction! The reality is that in the EU there is no consensus.

Regarding your first point on "open" standards, I agree that it is the
role of the OASIS eGov group to press for clarification. I hope that you
will do so in a commentary on the Consultation on the EIS.

Regarding the status of OASIS and other international standards
consortia, this is very difficult. Soon DG Enterprise will issue a
Consultation Document. When this comes out, I think we should discuss
the best way to respond.I suggest that you focus on the second
Consultation (it is not open yet) for the issue of the status of
recognition of OASIS standards.

For more than a year I have been a member of the EXPRESS Panel on the
reform of the European Standardization System. The Panel was dominated
by conservative interests from the European and national standards
organizarions.
I attach a copy of the final Report. Personally I was disappointed that
we made little progress, but the great majority of the members resisted
any change to the current system.

I hope these comments help to move the debate forward in a positive way.

Best wishes,
Carol



Charles-H. Schulz wrote:
> Hello John,
>
> I have one but rather important request to formulate here, as I believe it is vital for this document : Because of various delays and watering down of other recommendations and other types of documents issued by the European Commission we find ourselves in a situation where no clear direction is being set and imprecise notions are causing confusion and lack of applicability and understanding of european policy.
>
> With respect to the EIS then, I would like the eGov Steering Committee to make a clear request to the Commission to define more precisely what they mean by Open Standards.
>
> Another, indirectly related but welcome inclusion would be to ask for a better consideration of the OASIS and other similar SDOs status with respect of their standing with the commission. I do not believe, but I don't think I'm the only one here, that the EUCOM can carry on considering the ETSI, the CEN - CENELEC and the ITU as their "first tier" standardization referrals. This does not reflect the ongoing changes in the state of the art of digital standards.
>
> Best Regard,
>
> Charles.
>
> Le 18 mars 2010 à 15:56, John Borras a écrit :
>
>
>> To All Members
>>
>> The eGov MS Steering Committee plans to respond to the consultation on the new European Interoperability Strategy, see details below. If Members have any particular views or opinions they would like us to incorporate in our response please let me have them by the end of next week, 26th March.
>>
>> Regards
>> John Borras
>> Chair eGov Member Section
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________________________
>>
>> See: http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7854
>>
>> Objective:
>> Since 2009 the European Commission has been working on the elaboration
>> of the European Interoperability Strategy for European Public Services
>> in close cooperation with the concerned Commission services and with the
>> Members States as well as with the Candidate Countries and EEA Countries
>> as observers.
>>
>> *The main objectives of the European Interoperability Strategy for
>> European Public Services are:*
>>
>> * to identify commonalities and areas of shared interest at Member
>> State and EU level
>> * to establish consensus around a strategic action plan for
>> interoperability, to be implemented in the coming years by both
>> the EU Member States and the Commission.
>>
>> The Consultation closes on April 4th 2010.
>>
>
> Charles-H. Schulz
> Associé / Founding Partner,
> Ars Aperta
>
>
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