Euroalert presents its experience at the Open Software World Conference 2012 and the W3C Day in Spain

Marc Garriga at the OSWC 2012

Last week, Euroalert experienced in Granada a few intense days during the celebration of the Open Software World Conference 2012 (OSWC2012), which it is organised every year by the Andalusian Regional Government in collaboration with the CENATIC and the Regional Government of Extremadura. It was intense because we had the opportunity to present our experience on two Open Data events, held during those days with very different approaches. In both events, we explain how we collect the data that we use as raw material for our business intelligence products based on a public procurement analysis.

On January 12, Euroalert participated in the W3C Day in Spain, to which we were invited by our friends from the W3C Spain Office – office which as you know is hosted by CTIC Foundation. Following a presentation on the OpenData initiative from the Andalusian Regional Government given by Cristina Puente, Carlos de la Fuente moderated a panel discussion which was provocatively entitled as follows "PSI re-use... is there anyone there?". On this panel, we could offer our views on issues such as the Spanish Royal Decree 1495/2011, the need for a transparency regulation or PSI re-use business characterization. Additionally to the consensus reached on the need to publish much more data, the main conclusion was the need to give some further steps to consolidate the Community Open Data in Spain. Euroalert certainly tries to contribute as much as possible to this aim. On the panel, we were accompanied by Emilio Garcia, from the Finance and Public Administration Ministry, Jorge Campanillas, from Iurismatica company, Alberto Ortiz from Open Data Euskadi and María Jesús Fernández, from Open Data Zaragoza. On the hashtag #diaw3c, there is much information on what it was said there.

On the other hand, on January 13 we contribute with our experience to the debate that was proposed in the "OpenData, an opportunity for business and competitiveness" panel, organised by the OSWC2012. The panel discussion was about the business opportunities that exist concerning the re-use of public sector information. It was moderated by Guzmán Garmendia, General Director of Open Government and New Technologies department from the Government of Navarre, and it was at the discussion Jose Antonio Recio from Fundecyt, Jesus María Alonso from AtoS and Marc Garriga, from the Barcelona City Council. The debate focused around the potential of public data to generate wealth and such as Guzmán Garmendia and Marc Garriga highlighted, the importance of the joint work of public administrations that release data and companies that intend to re-use them.

Throughout the conference we had the opportunity to talk with many members of the Spanish Open Data Community, and we were very proud to participate in the meeting organised by Open Data Sevilla. We were also kindly invited to bring our vision to this newborn group of proactive citizens in the development of open data initiatives, and we enjoyed the occasion to wish them all the luck in doing this work, which will benefit everyone.

In addition to the Euroalert photo album in the OSWC 2012, we want to share with all of you as usually, both presentation that we used in the Open Software World Conference:

Adding public procurement data to create value for SMEs

and the one we used on the W3C Day in Spain:

How does Euroalert use Spanish Open Data portals?

The Euroalert Community expands to Google+

In addition to wish you a happy and great 2012, we want to start sharing with you our new Euroalert's Google+ page. This page has been created to provide a new place to share our contents and for the conversation among the Euroalert Community members. If you add Euroalert page to your Google+ circles, you can make comments to the most significant contents provided by Euroalert. Of course, you can keep doing +1 to any content we publish and you liked or that have been useful for you.

Likely you are already part of one of the platforms and services that we use to enable to the Euroalert Community members a direct way to enjoy our contents. However, we will use this post to summarize all the services where you can find our contents completely for free. For example, more than 2200 users are already following Euroalert.net content concerning the European Union in both English and Spanish via Twitter. If you decide to follow Euroalert on Twitter, you will be able to find the latest news about the EU, the EU grants to finance projects and information on relevant public contracts and tenders. In other words, you will enjoy a small sample of the free contents published on the Euroalert website and included in more advanced products and services that you can find in our online store.

If you use other social networks like Facebook, Euroalert has also a page there and you can always contact us through this page, and through Euroalert page on Linkedin. Our team is available to receive your comments and suggestions through these channels in addition to other more traditional ways such as our e-mail.

On the other hand we also want to remind you about Euroalert free newsletter, that is currently being sent to several thousand people every week, and in which we inform on the most significant up to date European content, EU grants and public contracts. Besides of course this blog, which has as main objective to keep you up to date on our product enhancements and our small achievements as a company. Through Euroalert's profile on SlideShare we share materials from all the events where we participate with the aim of contributing with our experience as a company. From Euroalert albums in Picasa you can download the photos that we have taken in our visits throughout Europe and that we provide to the whole Community.

We would like to know your opinion, as we are always listening to our users in order to figure out the best ways to improve our services, so you can enjoy all the content related to the EU that we provide to the Euroalert Community. By the way, just for those who are already part of our Community, you will enjoy special offers and promotions like the one that we have just launched. Inserting the EURLRT11 code, you are able to get a discount on public contracts alerts and on the customized newsletter on European information.

New rules on thresholds applicable to EU public procurement already published

Today we want to announce you a new change that will affect public procurement market in the European Union. As we already did in the past by detailing you developments such as the introduction of new CPVs in 2008 or the adaptation to the new features put in place by TED in March 2010, this time it is the matter for the changes introduced by Commission Regulation (EU) nº 1251/2011 of 30 November 2011 which modifies procurement Directives in respect to their application thresholds for the procedures for the awards of contract, and was published in the Official Journal on 2 December.

According to this Regulation, the minimum thresholds applicable to public procurement have been slightly increased. Although these changes will not be quite significant, the new figures will nevertheless have to be taken into account both by contracting authorities when launching procurement procedures, and by those companies interested in taking part in bidding processes for public contracts. The new thresholds will enter into force on 1 January 2012 and be applicable for two years.

Therefore, these new thresholds for the publication of public procurement announcements will change from 125,000 to 130,000 Euro in the case of services and supply contracts issued by central government bodies and from 193,000 to 200,000 Euro in the case of other contracting authorities. For services and supply contracts in the case of utilities and defence threshold will now pass for 387,000 to 400,000 Euro. In the case of work contracts and work concessions these figures will pass from 4,845,000 to 5,000,000 Euro.

On our side we will of course be prepared for any change which should be introduced regarding the tools and services on commercial intelligence based on public procurement that Euroalert.net provides for companies in Europe. We will make sure that you can keep on receiving tender alerts, requesting the lists of tender winners or authorities that you need, or receiving your product reports on public procurement, without being affected by these changes.

We would also like to take this occasion to remind you that if you want to keep track on new legislation published in the OJEU, Euroalert.net Customized Newsletters on EU information can certainly help you. They will allow you to keep up to date, not only about new legal developments, but also about news related to the European Union and funding opportunities for your projects. If you have any questions, you can send us an e-mail us to info@euroalert.net or contact us by any of the means described in our web.

The Representation of the European Commission in Spain launches a mobile application with the help of Euroalert.net

We are very proud to inform you on our participation in a very special project. Euroalert developed for the Representation of the European Commission in Spain an app for iPhone and Android in order to see its contents on mobile devices. Now, the app has been launched!

The European Commission's news, the European events held in Spain as well as the press calls for journalists interested in covering European issues, are available now on the phone via the free application that launched the Representation of the Commission European in Spain. The new mobile application which can be downloaded from Android phones and iPhone presents the European information in a simple and accessible way. On the same project, it is also presented an iGoogle gadget with the same features thereby allowing the contents from the Representation to this format.

As stated in the official press release, Francisco Fonseca, Head of Representation agrees to this way of presenting the activities of the European Commission in Spain because "it is a basic and necessary step to communicate with citizens and for European information comes to them rather than having to search actively. It aims to facilitate access to the European issues content according to the new and current technological ways of communication. He added that the applications are free so citizens will have even easier access to information on the European Union.

Euroalert.net, which developed the app and the gadget considers that with this step "the European Commission Representation is at the forefront of public institutions in their model of relationship with citizens through the new mobile channel." In addition, we are very pleased to have been able to assist the Commission in Spain to take this step and we're very pleased with the number of downloads so far because this means that the app is useful to citizens in their day to day.

Applications can be downloaded for free from the App Store and Android Market, from the Representation of European Commission in Spain website and from the online store of Euroalert.net. Your comments, tweets, and scores on it, can contribute to improve the application, making it more useful for you all.

Euroalert experience at the Open Days 2011

Once again, Euroalert has taken part at the Open Days 2011, the European week of Regions and Cities, and our experience, once again, has been very positive. The 9th edition of the Open Days has been a great success that has served to bring together experts and participants from across Europe. The 100 workshops organised with around 6000 participants were aimed at discussing many topics with a single goal, discussing how regions and cities can achieve sustainable growth and thus, help the EU out of the current crisis that we face. At the workshops, we heard ideas to achieve such goal, for example the creation of clusters with public-private funding (PPP) such as the one conducted by Castilla y León (Spain) to make real the “e-vehicle”. With this initiative, Castilla y León proposes a measure to improve the economy without forgetting the respect for the environment. In addition, many wondered at seminars how it would be possible getting out the European regions and cities of the crisis in compliance with this objective, i.e., how to create a truly sustainable economy and not just from an environmental point of view. Another idea heard at the Open Days was the creation of Euroregions, such as the Baltic Sea Euroregion or Pyrenees Mediterranean Euroregion. They consist in associations between border regions to get assistance to citizens more effectively. The associations are determined by the rule of the 150 km adopted by the European Commission, which means that partnerships can be formed only within an area of ​​150 km. Regional and local authorities do not agreed with this limit and asked the Commission representative during the workshop to remove such rule.

The shadow of the economic crisis has been very present throughout the week. Euroalert had the opportunity to ask the President of the Committee of the Regions herself, Mercedes Bresso, how the European Commission can help in the next budgetary period to the regions and cities at getting out of the current crisis. Ms Bresso recognized that the proposal of the Commission for the budget period 2014-2020 is quite good and defended the temporary creation of the intermediate regions concept. With the creation of this new category, she does not mean that more European funds will be granted to the regions; only an efficient way to distribute them. We thank to the president her kindness for making possible this interview.

In addition to attending a few seminars, Euroalert also had time to tweet the Open Days through the official event hashtag #euopendays, and thus, help you to watch live this great celebration of the regions and cities. Unfortunately there were not many "tweeters" telling what was happening at the Open Days, especially to find out what was being said within the workshops that we could not attend because an overlapping of the schedules. In any case, as in previous years, we thank you for your follow-up and also for the conversations we had in live via Twitter.

We hope you enjoyed our information through our news and tweets, and please, keep reading us in the coming days because Euroalert will tell you more about the topics discussed during the Open Days, such as the workshop on the future of micro-credit, the workshop on how to communicate regional policy today and after 2013 or the workshop how to perform better evaluations of structural funds expenditure by the regions.

Once again, Euroalert.net is going to be at the Open Days 2011, the most important annual event for European regions

Next week, from 10 to 13 October, it is going to take place in Brussels the most important annual event for European regions and municipalities, the Open Days 2011. Of course, Euroalert is going to be there to attend as many workshops and activities as we can during those days. As we published in Euroalert last July, the week of the regions is dedicated on this occasion to 'Investing in Europe's future: Regions and cities delivering smart, sustainable and inclusive growth'. The Committee of the Regions and the European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional Policy, in partnership with regions and cities from all over Europe, are organizing this important event in which more than 6,000 professionals will share experiences, information and best practices through about 100 workshops launched for the occasion.

And of course, Euroalert is going to have an active presence in the Open Days 2011. Euroalert team is covering the event on 'live' via Twitter and also with the regular publication of news. Among the workshops to be covered, Euroalert is going to attend one in which the Committee of the Regions' initiative 'Entrepreneurial Region of Europe' and the 'Small Business Act' are going to be explained. Also Euroalert is attending to the 'Financial Instruments enhancing access to RDI for companies to achieve Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative' workshop, in order to keep informed our readers on this topic. As you know, Euroalert provides information on the latest EU call for proposals opened and EU funding instruments is a very relevant topic to the Euroalert community.

These workshops and many others will be followed on live by Euroalert team. In addition to our Twitter and news coverage, we will tell you our experience on the Open Days 2011 through this blog, as we did in October 2010 and also in October 2009.  If you are taking part at the Open Days 2011 in Brussels and you want to contact us so we can attend your event or you'd like to talk about Euroalert products and services, you can always send us a direct message via Twitter or drop us an e-mail. In all the cases, we hope to provide as much information on what's happening during the Open Days 2011 as we can. And live! See you at the biggest event for regions!

10ders Alerts provides tender data in a reusable format

A couple of months ago we announced you the launch of the promotional free trial period for our alerting service on public tenders: 10ders Alerts. Since then, frequent improvements have been made not only in the  10ders Alerts interface, but also in the sources of information which are aggregated in order to provide a more comprehensive database of European public contracts. We have also added new data from tender announcement such as those provided by Open Data Euskadi, and improved the criteria that can be used to describe any company's products and services in a profile that will allow them to get the most relevant information on public tenders for their activity.

Since the launch of 10ders Alerts in January 2011, hundreds of companies from almost all European Union countries and even from outside the EU, have used the free trial period to evaluate the quality of service. Thanks to their suggestions, 10ders Alerts has improved its functionality. One of the most popular requests coming from users, which is referred to 10ders Alerts, was that the data provided by the alert system should be delivered in reusable formats - an essential characteristic of our service, given the intense activity of Euroalert within the Open Data movement.

Following that request, a new feature has been released this week: the possibility for companies to obtain relevant data from public tenders in a reusable format according to their product profile. This can be done by any subscriber simply by changing the delivery options in the 10ders Alerts dashboard:

Let's remember that Euroalert services for corporate clients already provide contents in different reusable formats which allow, e.g., the publication on other websites. However, subscribers to the alerting service in public tenders  are typically end users and, therefore, their approach should be different. Besides, as this service is mainly used by people whose usual working tools are the most common office packages, we chose Microsoft Excel as the format for providing tender alerts' contents by email.

If you are interested in testing this service for free, you only need to apply for it by sending us an email to TenderAlerts@euroalert.net, and we will provide you with the necessary assistance to opt-in.

The price of this new service is 45 euros/month (432 euros/year) although all new subscriptions as well as current customers will benefit until the end of the year of a reduced price of 20 euros/month (192 euros/year). We hope this new service which complements Euroalert intelligence products on public markets, will help all companies in the Euroalert community to improve their performance in public markets.