Issue 4 | February 2014
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Editorial
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Dear Readers,
The arrival of 2014 signifies an important year in the lives of EU citizens, as they are called to fully assess the practical aspects of their lives and make some serious decisions.
For Gov2u, the freedom of speech -the right to express one’s views- is one of the most important aspects of democracy. It is the people after all, who have the power to judge and act. Voting is a hard won right that we should not neglect, as every vote counts. To raise awareness we introduce the Icount4eu initiative, a politically neutral initiative that aims to count the voters’ intentions in all 28 Member States of EU, and to initiate a dialogue among them in major issues of concern.
At the closing of this past year another project came to life, the Sense4us project. We are proud to be part of this project which aims to facilitate the policy-making processes.
And while these two newcomers deserve your attention in the newsletter to follow, be sure to take a look at all the projects that have kept us busy in the past few months, and all aim at making a difference in our lives!
With this said we hope you enjoy catching up on our latest!
The Gov2u Newsletter Team
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Our Project Updates
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ICOUNT4EU
Gov2u has always believed that voting is a hard won right that people shouldn’t neglect. With the European Parliament elections coming up this May 2014, we wanted to remind to all European voters the significance of their vote in this highly democratic process. This is a critical time for Europe and its citizens; we must all work together to make a change! Icount4eu is a politically neutral initiative that aims to count the intentions of the voters in the 28 Member States of the EU. Through this platform, a dialogue has been initiated among citizens in three major issues that concern them: Unemployment, Data protection and Citizen mobility. Icount4eu is the medium that will bring the results of these debates to the attention of the Italian Presidency in the second half of 2014 without any censorship. This way, the voice of the people will be brought to the attention of politicians and policy-makers. Join your voice with ours and let your opinion be known: www.icount4eu.eu!
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SENSE4US
This is a new project that was launched in October 2013, in which Gov2u is the Dissemination and Communications leading partner. Sense4us –“Data insights for policy makers and citizens”- was conceived in order to assist the policy-making process. Making and implementing policy at any governmental level is quite a difficult task. Policy-makers and other officials have to rely on information that is not necessarily up-to-date; moreover, they cannot take citizens’ views into consideration when forming policies.
Sense4us project will create two web-based tools that will facilitate this process. The first tool will help policymakers find and summarize information from multiple sources including official data, open data and citizen-generated data, highlighting what is relevant from the ocean of information that exists. The second tool will try to simulate the impacts of different policy options before they are adopted, in order to help policymakers choose the most effective and avoid unintended consequences.
The three-year "Sense4us" project is funded by the EU under the 7th Framework Programme and will run until September 2016. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
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STORK 2.0
In 2013 STORK 2.0 celebrated its first anniversary moving actively towards the creation of a fully operational framework and infrastructure for electronic identities (eIDs) and authentication in the EU. This year has been very creative and productive as not only major developments in all project work packages were made but also the consortium partners had actively participated in multiple events and conferences and successfully raised awareness of the project.
Further steps are currently being taken to foster engagement from third parties interested in STORK and STORK 2.0 developments. Moreover, Special advisory groups give the opportunity to industry players and members of public administrations to access early versions of documents, provide their feedback and be able to interact with STORK 2.0 team.
2014 started with efforts being focused on STORK 2.0 pilots -eLearning and Academic Qualifications, eBanking, Public Services for Business and eHealth- as STORK 2.0 consortium is looking forward to their launch scheduled for April 2014. Significant efforts are being made at all the levels of the project for a successful mise-en-scene.
Gov2u as SCYTL’s subcontractor for STORK 2.0 put a lot of effort in coordinating the presentation of the project in major events; managing daily the Member States Reference Group (MSRG) and Industry Monitoring Group counting today more than 400 members, as well as their Special Advisory Groups that keep increasing; contributed in the writing of deliverables and reports; provided the design of marketing materials like brochures, posters and presentations and being responsible for the daily online communication of STORK 2.0 via its website and social media Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
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iMENTORS
iMENTORS, that begun in April 2012 by Stockholm University and Gov2u, launched version three in December 2013 and is one step closer to mapping the majority of e-infrastructure (resources, tools and data supporting community research and development) of the past five years in Sub-Saharan Africa in order to lay a foundation for better services, encourage research and connect cross-continental progress.
iMENTORS’ Research Infrastructures (RIs) database is the first centralised portal of all high level research facilities and information sources in Africa or hosted elsewhere but focusing on Africa.
During the last recording period, a total of 1398 new organizations and 413 new projects were added to the database, an increase over the last recording period of approximately 67% and 290%, respectively. In addition, 330 research infrastructures were recorded- a brand new category of information has now been uploaded and available for search in the iMENTORS database.
“New data is entered into iMENTORS’ interactive map each week. By the end of the project our interactive system will contain at least 80% of all e-infrastructure available in Africa. The second component of the Decision Support System (‘what if’ analyses) is ready for the third version of the platform and submarine cables and terrestrial networks have been added to the map. The past few months the collection of data for the iMENTORS database focused on optimizing a method for recording these last-mile terrestrial networks, many of which are on-going projects,” Louis Papaemmanuel, Director of the iMENTORS project.
Take a look at the map and register your organization!
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BOTSWANA SPEAKS PARLIAMENTARY INITIATIVE
During these past months, Botswana Speaks Parliamentary Initiative was running its pilot phase which has been extended until the end of March 2014, although originally scheduled until December 10th, 2013. The use of the online platform was met with success and a lot of Batswana signed up to view ongoing polls, to discuss and debate issues that concern them.
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Citizens from Nata/Gweta, Boteti North, Maun West and South East South were able to use U-Speak to share an issue, an opinion or request information to their Members of Parliament (MPs). For those citizens coming from another constituency, their participation on Speak4Yourself allowed them to discuss and debate issues and legislation that are under discussion in the Parliament.
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Training workshops with MPs and Parliament staff and a number of constituency meetings were organized in Nata/Gweta, Boteti North, Maun West and South East South. Ongoing legislation was discussed and the project was presented to local authorities and citizens. Gov2u as the dissemination leader focused its efforts on the communication and marketing of the project worldwide by publishing four press releases related to the project’s developments and progress made and four quarterly newsletter issues highlighting the main achievements of each period, as well as by feeding daily the project’s social media with project news. Furthermore, within 2013 three papers were written with Gov2u’s contribution and were presented at three major events: the “Conference for eDemocracy and Open Government - CeDEM 2013” on May 22nd at Danube University in Krems, the “Right to Information & Technology Workshop” at Stanford University on 11th March 2013, and the “2013 IFIP ePart Conference” on September 19th in Koblenz. Finally, Gov2u provided a lot of dissemination materials for the offline activities of the project.
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MyUNIVERSITY
After a three-year successful implementation and a significant contribution to Higher Education and Bologna Process, MyUniversity-project concluded its lifecycle in Fall 2013. The project has achieved its main objective: to provide not only an eParticipation platform dedicated to Higher Education, but practically to suggest a new way of thinking about eParticipation. MyUniversity-project has stirred the active engagement of teachers and administrative units alike – a critical factor for the success of any initiative, while it has provided a secure space for step-by-step engagement and community building.
Gov2u, as the Communication and Dissemination Leader of the project, has also successfully disseminated the project’s news and achievements on a European and international level. We are still engaged in communicating news and events about Higher Education and will continue to share any future news from the consortium partners about their work, which may be helpful for other initiatives and research in the eParticipation field.
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Events
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7th Annual Corporate Data Protection and Privacy Compliance
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands Date: 26-28 February 2014
Ensuring Accountability in Light of the New Regulation and Technological Innovation. Key Topics
- Review the latest European data regulation updates
- Implement practical data protection compliance solutions
- Respond to a corporate data security breach
- Determine controllers’ and processors’ responsibilities
- Facilitate privacy-compliant data analytics
Visit their website for more information
Swiss eGoverment Forum 2014
Location: Bern (Switzerland) Date: 4 March 2014 - 5 March 2014
The Swiss eGovernment Forum 2014 is a two-day event that will be held on the margins of the InfoSocietyDays 2014, an industry-focused networking platform for innovation and change in the digital economy and society.
Visit their website for more information
CeBIT 2014
Location: Hannover, Germany Date: 10 March 2014 - 14 March 2014
CeBIT has steadily developed its strength as a trade fair for the information and telecommunication technology sectors, with the share of visitors from business rising to 82 percent.
Visit their website for more information
LOLA Conference 2014 - Local authorities focus on open standards and open data
Location: Brussels, Belgium Date: 13 March 2014
The first LOLA conference offers a unique opportunity to explore how Local Administrations use open standards to make information exchange efficient and effective, allowing them to operate at lower costs and provide better services.
Visit their website for more information |
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Interesting Publications
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Data Privacy Law: An International Perspective
Although over 70 countries have developed data privacy laws, there is a lack of expert guidance on these laws. This text is the first to examine the fundamental aims and principles of data privacy law, along with the mechanisms for its enforcement in an international context.
Bygrave analyses relevant law from around the globe, paying particular attention to international instruments and using these as a foundation for examining national law. Through a consideration of data privacy law within a broader legal and political framework, this book focuses upon its interrelation with human rights, administrative law, employment law, consumer protection law, intellectual property rights, and competition law. Bygrave also examines the regulatory challenges that face data privacy law, and explores its future utility and efficacy.
Find this book in Amazon
Online Personal Data Processing and EU Data Protection Reform
This report sheds light on the fundamental questions and underlying tensions between current policy objectives, compliance strategies and global trends in online personal data processing, assessing the existing and future framework in terms of effective regulation and public policy. Based on the discussions among the members of the CEPS Digital Forum and independent research carried out by the rapporteurs, policy conclusions are derived with the aim of making EU data protection policy more fit for purpose in today’s online technological context. This report constructively engages with the EU data protection framework, but does not provide a textual analysis of the EU data protection reform proposal as such.
Find and download the report from the CEPS website
EU Internet Law
This timely and detailed book is a state of the art overview of Internet law in the EU, and in particular of the EU regulatory framework which applies to the Internet. At the same time it serves as a critical evaluation of the EU's policy and governance methods and a comparative analysis, mainly contrasting American with EU solutions.
The book begins by examining the EU constitutional context within which the Internet is regulated and the various policy documents which informed the regulation over the years. It then continues to describe the basic instruments in each of the relevant fields, covering electronic commerce, jurisdiction, content regulation, intellectual property, consumer protection, privacy and criminal regulation. Each is observed as a framework through which the Internet is regulated. Rather than provide a comprehensive catalogue of applicable instruments, the author analyses their interaction.
Find this book in Amazon |
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