Euroalert participated at the Open Government Conference 'Committed to the future', and wishes you Merry Christmas

José Luis Marín, Euroalert's CEO, attended as speaker to the Conference on Open Government "Committed to the future", organized by the Club of Innovation in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Finance and Public Administration, and held on 18 December. During the event, we had the opportunity to show how important is for companies the 'Open Government', and especially, the opening of data by governments to carry out projects like Euroalert. Also, we presented our experience in this field and specifically focused in the use of open data in public procurement to generate products and services that provide an added value to SMEs and other organisations.

Euroalert, una compañía open data from euroalert

The Conference also was a networking event which brought together companies which re-use the information, associations and foundations working on transparency and open government, universities and governments. They all shared experiences and best practices, especially, among all types of public administrations (local and regional governments, including the Spanish Congress of Deputies) to implement in practice the 'Open Government'. Guzmán Garmendia, expert and responsible of the Open Government legislation from the Government of Navarra, stressed that "citizen participation can not be confused with social networks" and advised the governments "to believe on it first to build the Open Government from the bottom to up".

Rafa Rubio, professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, reminded to the governments that they may count on experts from the universities to launch Open Government projects. At the Conference, we could see examples of regional and local governments that have created portals to improve transparency. First we had the opportunity to listen to Marta Lopez Cuesta, who explained how the new Open Government portal of the Castilla y León Region was build and which consists of, and then, several representatives of the Basque Government presented Irekia, the Basque Government portal, which it is a model to follow for many of the other Spanish public administrations.

There was also time to listen to associations and foundations, including the Fundación CIVIO and Access Info Europe, who explained the importance of the 'Open Government' to improve transparency and citizen participation, and also the importance of open data for the "data journalism" for, as Mar Cabra explained at her presentation, “to convert the opened data into fundamental news to get better informed citizens".

We want to enjoy this occasion to wish all of you happy holidays and propose you to think about the importance of the 'Open Government' for citizens and companies during the Christmas period. Euroalert's team wishes you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Euroalert takes part at the UIMP Summer School as a company active in re-using public information

Over June 21st and 22nd we had the occasion to take part in one of the round tables of the Course on Open government and transparency in the knowledge society organized by Fundación Telefónica as part of the Summer School that the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo holds every year in Santander. This was with any doubt a unique venue to discuss about one of the issues we are really passionate about and to share all the challenges faced by Euroalert as an 'open data company' which uses public sector data in order to create value services for SMEs in all Europe.

After the opening conference which highlighted the decisive changes prompted by technology on the capacity citizens have nowadays to take active part in the activities carried out by public sector, the first panel of the course focused on a revision of the concepts of transparency and open government. Panellists reviewed the current situation of the proposal for a Spanish Law on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance, its virtues and weaknesses, and forecasted that this law should probably be approved by the beginning of year 2013. It was also underlined how transparency in public sector's activity is crucial to support the credibility and confidence required in order to boost economic growth, as well as the importance of citizens' involvement in generating such process of transparency.

The last session left the floor to the discussion about the potential wealth creation lying on the re-use of public sector data. This panel where Euroalert had the pleasure to take part, highlighted the role played by the analysis of data related to public sector activity as a tool to improve its own efficiency and policy assessment. As an open data company, Euroalert had the opportunity to present its own case as a company using data held by public administrations and bodies in order to create services such as alerts of government contracts published by public administrations in all the EU, lists of successful bidders in EU public procurement or market reports based of public procurement data which help companies of all types to access new business opportunities and make their businesses grow.

By closing the first day of the course, Euroalert acted as a link for a second day which was more focused on the technical aspects of Open Data. The need to open up as many sources of data as possible, the challenge to aggregate data in projects such as the one carried out by Euroalert to create the first pan-European public procurement platform, the importance of data contextualization and the difficulties lying in their management, storage and linkage, were some of the issues pointed out during this session which are all faced by Euroalert every day in order to bring you better and better services to help you in your activities and businesses.

The course ended up by setting a roadmap for open government and by highlighting the fact that, whilst the success of  this process for openness will strongly depend on the willingness of all those who are involved in it, it is with no doubt an opportunity for improvement and growth especially in difficult times.

You can download here the programme of the Course on open government and transparency in the knowledge society. We also share here the presentation we used in the Course (Spanish version only).

Aggregating public contracts data to generate information and value services for SMEs

See more Euroalert presentations

Euroalert presented as European Open Data initiative at the Digital Agenda Assembly

Last June 16th, we had the honour to make a presentation on Euroalert as leading Open Data company at European level in the Assembly of the Digital Agenda. As you know the European Digital Agenda 2020 is the EU strategy for the development of the digital economy in Europe, so the opportunity to make this presentation has been a great recognition of our work.
May and June, both months, have been very intense for Euroalert with regard to its participation in events in relation to Open Data. After participating in the Share-PSI seminar and the annual meeting of the Aporta project in Madrid, our participation to the Open Data workshop at the Digital Agenda Assembly has been a great culmination.
We are also excited to see how the Open Data community is keeping growing and it continues to arouse a great interest. The Open Data workshop was one of those who attracted more public and sparked more conversation on Twitter. The importance of the Open Data was also shown by the Open Data and Hack4Europe Challenge! competitions which awards were given at the Digital Agenda Assembly too by Neelie Kroes, Commission vice-president.
For those who could not attend or watch the event streamed, the Digital Agenda website put to your disposal all the presentations. We want to provide you here an extended version of the slides used to present Euroalert:Building a pan-European platform to aggregate public procurement data and deliver commercial services for SMEs powered by open data

We are very proud to have been part of this great event and we take this opportunity to thank you for your support. You are part of the Euroalert success in having the best information services with regard to the EU procurement services. From our side, we keep working hard for providing you the best service.

Euroalert will participate at the Aporta Project annual meeting on the Open Data initiatives in Spain: Challenges and Solutions

The meeting organized by the Aporta Project will take place on next Thursday 9 June in Madrid, just a year after of the last PSI Meeting 2010, which brought together European Open Data community with a great success. As occurred last year, Euroalert has been kindly invited to describe its business model which is based in the service that offers EU daily information adding value to the public sector information, such as calls for proposals to finance projects, the European legislation, daily European news and public tenders. Euroalert is glad to accept the invitation and it will attend to the event in order to support with its presence the advancement of Open Data culture in Spain.

The meeting will focus to the newest policies on PSI re-use, legal aspects of opening up public data, technical challenges on the way to open data, new business initiatives and new channels of participation and communication between authorities, entrepreneurs and citizens. Our director, Jose Luis Marin, will participate speaking on the Euroalert.net experience from 4 pm in the roundtable nº4, which focus on the "New business initiatives based on PSI reuse. What actions and measures can be promoted by governments to create the right conditions for innovation and new business based on PSI reuse? What economic value has the reuse of PSI?".

Of course, in the event's program there is detailed information on the topics to be discussed in the rest of the five interesting roundtables and the speakers who will take place in them. In addition, the event will be another opportunity to exchange views with the members of the Spanish Open Data community. Although registration is now closed, you can follow the event through Twitter, following the hashtag #SpainESdata and via streaming.

Euroalert wants to remind you that we will be from 8:30 am at the Auditorium of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade. C/ Capitan Haya, 41 - 28071 - Madrid. If you want to meet us in person, you can always contact us via Twitter or by mail. Moreover, it will be a great opportunity in order to prepare Euroalert's participation at the 1st Digital Agenda Assembly in Brussels next week. Keep posting to this blog for further information on this event.

Euroalert will present 10ders Information Services at the workshop "Share-PSI.eu" within the framework of the European Digital Agenda

The first workshop, “Share-PSI”, will be held in Brussels on the 10-11 of May and is organized in the framework of the “Big Idea” of the European Digital Agenda. This event brings together different actors who are related to the reuse of public sector information (PSI) and who will discuss and contribute with ideas on how to re-use "open data" of public administration. Among them, they are representatives of civil society, media, government organizations, representatives of academia and companies like Euroalert.

On behalf of Euroalert.net, our director will participate at the workshop in the round table on the presentation of case studies which demonstrates the potential of “Open Data”, i.e. the reuse of public information. As a case study, José Luis Marin, will presents the position paper: "Euroalert.net: Building a pan-European platform to aggregate public procurement data and deliver commercial services for SMEs powered by open data”.

As you already might know, Euroalert create value from these "open data" offering the best content daily information about the European Union, such as calls for projects, news and EU legislation. Although in this occasion, it is our project 10ders Information Services, which is aimed to build a pan-European platform that will aggregate the big data about public procurement information generated by hundreds of thousands of contracting authorities in the EU, which leads us to Brussels along with other relevant actors in the European Open Data Community. You can also take a look to some of our services based in 10ders IS in the Euroalert store online, as well as the alerts systems on Government contracts for SMEs or the 10ders Reports.

If you have time, we recommend you to attend to this event because there will be presented many interesting ideas. Euroalert will participate on May 10 and we will try to keep you informed of everything that happens through our Twitter. We would also like to remind you that you can take the opportunity to meet us and if you wish some more information about our services you can always send us an e-mail. Of course, you will find in our blog a complete summary of what happened in this event afterwards. Thus, keep reading Euroalert's blog.

Euroalert experience at the Open Data networking session at SICARM

SICARM 2011 event held in Murcia, closed last Friday with a session on Open Data: "The commercial reuse of public sector information: a new business opportunity for companies and funding opportunity for government against the crisis?”.

As we anticipated last week, Euroalert participated in this session, explaining its experience regarding reusing data administrations, both good and bad, and also showing some examples of the services Euroalert provide to companies and organizations throughout Europe.

We had a very interesting morning because we all learned many things about different aspects involved in the reuse of public sector information. Jose Manuel Alonso from CTIC Foundation, and professors Emilio Guichot Reina and Manuel Fernández Salmerón provided interesting information from the different angles of their respective areas of expertise. In order to know of what we are talking about, you can have a look to the Euroalert presentation paper, as well as CTIC Foundation presentation which explains the current state of play with regard to Open Data and the roundtable on the videos posted on the SICARM website.

Information Services Based on Reuse of Public Sector Information

Also, you can find more details regarding this event on the Jose L. Marín blog. We want to thank to everyone who came to the University of Murcia for its presence and to those who followed it through the Internet or Twitter.

Euroalert will participate in “SICARM 2011” event at Murcia Region

Euroalert.net keeps participating on events in which we can share experiences and learning to improve and to offer a better service. This week, we will travel to Murcia (Spain). There, it takes place the “XI Foro Anual Sociedad Información” «Information Society XI Annual Forum» and our director, José Luis Marín, will be one of the speakers in one of the panels in which he will describe how Euroalert uses opendata to offer more and better commercial intelligence services to companies from all over Europe adding an extra value to the information from the public sector.

«Information Society XI Annual Forum» has as its theme this year «The legal challenges of technological innovation in public administration». These workshops aim to "explore the legal implications of process innovation and openness that is demanded to the Public Administration by the society, so that satisfactorily meet the constitutional mandate to serve the general interest in accordance with the requirements and possibilities that technology offers to give effect to the principles of effectiveness, efficiency and participation because it has not yet been raised in an open debate about the enormous possibilities of modernization and, above all, innovation enabling tools available today".

There will also be in SICARM 2011, other great speakers, experts in the reuse of public sector information, as are many of the players in the Open Data community in Spain. These are some of the participants in this Forum, which we will have the honor to share the event:

• Fernando de Pablo, General Director for the Promotion of Electronic Administration of the Ministry of the Presidency. he called his speech: "Is it possible a new model of public administration based on innovation and technology?"
• Lorenzo Cotino Hueso, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Valencia and Coordinator for ICT Network Law. His presentation will focus on "Legal and institutional problems of the Open Government".
• José Manuel Alonso, from the CTIC Foundation who will speak on "The reuse of the public information in Spain: current status and future prospects" and that will be in our same workshop.

In addition, there will be many other speakers that may be of interest for your activities so we recommend you to review the complete program of SICARM 2011.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic and you are in Murcia between 13 and 15 April, you can still register using this form. Moreover, registration is free. In concrete, presentations and workshops will be held in the Auditorium and Congress Centre of Murcia, 13 and 14 April and 15 April at the University of Murcia, Campus La Merced. Euroalert will participate on April 15 so if you want to meet us in person or more details on any of Euroalert's services do not hesitate to send us a mail or send us a DM via Twitter. See you there!

Euroalert.net at the announcement of the opening of UK Government public spending database

As many of you may already know, on 19 November the British Government announced the publication of the database with detailed data of all public spending over £25,000 for the last six months. Well, we are once more really proud to say that Euroalert.net had the honour to assist to this event where the UK Government made such a relevant step towards transparency and open data, which also counted with the presence of some real VIP as renowned as Sir Tim Berners-Lee...

Euroalert.net was kindly invited by the Open Knowledge Foundation to take part in this event organized within the framework of the Open Government Data Camp 2010, and had the opportunity to be part of this very special moment when sentences such as “we want to be the most open government of the world” were pronounced. We really feel very proud for it.

Besides, the nature of the data which have been released has also quite an important meaning for us, as they are very relevant data for Euroalert.net products and services in public procurement information, such as 10ders product reports on public procurement. Knowing exactly the data of companies which have received payments from British public departments and Government will allow Euroalert.net to offer more and better commercial intelligence services regarding public procurement market in the United Kingdom.


One of the most special moments was, without any doubt, when the case of a company which requested the opening of certain data regarding public procurement was mentioned to the audience; a case which, it seems, triggered Government's formal commitment to put this as a priority to become true by the beginning of year 2011. Without knowing so, Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude, was probably talking about Euroalert.net..., as we were the ones who took the case for mediation before the OPSI. This case was something we had the opportunity to talk about in detail at the PSI Meeting 2010 as was later referred at the blog Count Culture which gave some more elements about. You can have a look at some more details and materials we have released related to this case in our project ShowMeTheTenders. We are really glad to have contributed in some way to open these data and make them accessible in the near future.

We leave here for you this photo album of an event where we made one more step towards Euroalert.net objective to build up a pan-European platform for information services on public procurement which will help us to offer you more useful services for SMEs all around Europe.



If you want to have a more personal vision of how was the OGDCamp, you can also read the post published by our CEO in his personal blog, and also have a look at the Twitter hashtags #ogdCamp and #openUK.

Euroalert.net mentioned by Expansión economic daily in an article about the industry created by open data

And the story goes on: In July it was the Spanish newspaper El País that mentioned Euroalert.net in an article about Open Data, and a couple of months later, in September, the economic daily newspaper Cinco Días cited Euroalert.net experience it its analysis about economic opportunities generated by the reuse of public sector information. Now, economic daily Expansión has also published on 18 October its contribution to clarify the real value of the business sector created by open data from public sector. Once again, Euroalert.net is highlighted as one of the pioneering companies in Spain when it comes to take advantage of these opportunities and create value added services for companies all around Europe.

The article entitled "Access to public data, a labyrinth close to solution" (access to PDF full Spanish version) from Mercedes Serraller, gathers the opinions from different parties involved in the Open Data movement in Spain, such as Rafael Rubio, Professor of Constitutional Law at the UCM (Madrid), Nagore de los Rios, director of the Basque Government portal Irekia, or Alvaro Furilo from Pro Bono Público Association.

As always, Euroalert.net is again really proud to be considered as a reference service in the industry and to be contributing as far as we can to spread the culture of reuse. Creating in Spain a culture for open data which will lead to the release of more sources of data and allow companies to create value and build new services, will with no doubt revitalise our economy by creating new opportunities for innovation. Euroalert.net will of course be there.

For Euroalert.net it is being really exciting to be part of this process which is also allowing our community to benefit from the best possible products and services. For that reason, Euroalert.net will keep on making contributions to all possible initiatives, either with our presence (as we did at the Governamental Linked Open Data session at the ICT 2010), by sharing our experiences (as it was the case at FICOD 09 or the PSI Meeting 2010), or by providing resources in initiatives such as ShowMeTheTenders or the release of our own data on public authorities.

We have an exciting challenge ahead and these mentions in so relevant media such as El País, Cinco Días or Expansión, are a good encouragement for Euroalert.net objective to gather business opportunities representing around 17% of EU's GDP in one single pan-European platform on public procurement to provide information services for companies all around the world.

Spanish newspaper Cinco Días reviews economic opportunities of information reuse and turns its eyes towards Euroalert.net

Reached this point of year 2010, there is one thing which is quite clear by now: open data movement is a top value and it is here to stay. Throughout the whole year a lot of announcements have been made by administrations, businesses and citizen movements, which have all added efforts in order to make public sector information reuse to gain momentum. Today, it has been the case for the Spanish economic daily Cinco Días, which has published an article in its SME supplement making an overview of business opportunities brought by public open data in machine readable formats suitable for automatic processing (here you have a pdf version of the article – sorry, it is only available in Spanish).

In July, it was the newspaper El País who mentioned Euroalert.net as an example in its article about public open data, and now it is Cinco Días' turn to include Euroalert.net among the reference services regarding the creation of value from public sector information. We are really proud to be mentioned with companies such as LegalSolo or projects of great benefit to Catalan citizens as Rodalia.info, a group of excellent entrepreneurs with whom we share values and concerns. It was a real pleasure having the opportunity to meet them in person at the PSI Meeting 2010 organized by Project Aporta and ePSIplatform.

It is quite good news to know that not only Obama, Gordon Brown or David Cameron listened to the call from the web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee to flood the web with public data in order to create new products and services. Although Spain has still a long way to walk to reach the point of pioneer countries, the fact that financial newspapers show interest for the potential of the sector as a source of business opportunities, will certainly help to make improvements and maybe to create new political bets. For the moment we stick to two good examples of public initiatives mentioned in the article which have been put forward by the Government of the Basque Country (Open Data Euskadi) and the Government from the Principality of Asturias, as main Spanish references regarding public open data.

Once again, we really must thank you, all members of Euroalert.net community, for your daily support which is helping us to grow and gain relevance in on-line information about the European Union for companies and institutions. But above all, this recognition gives us more support to keep on working with even more determination in order for Euroalert.net to create the first pan-European platform for information services in international public procurement.

Euroalert.net will be at the Governamental Linked Open Data networking session at the ICT 2010

During the last week of September Euroalert.net will be at the "ICT2010: Digitally Driven" event, just the week before our next visit to Brussels for the Open Days 2010. Further to covering for all of you the most important European event for ICT research and innovation, Euroalert.net will be very specially present at the Networking session on Governmental Linked Data taking place on 28 September.

This will be the occasion for us to meet some of the members of the Open Data community we only know “digitally” for the moment, through the intense communication and collaboration we have been sharing over the past months. Besides “devirtualising” some people like Jonathan Gray from the OKFN, we will also meet some old friends like Jose Manual Alonso from Fundación CTIC.

As all of you know well, Euroalert.net has been trying to do its bit in the development of open data and the reuse of public sector information by participating in some major events related to it such as FICOD 2009 or by taking part in the PSI Meeting 2010. Euroalert.net keeps close contact with the most relevant actors within the Open Data community in Europe and is devoting an important share of time and resources to encourage the release of data in our area of activity and expertise: public procurement. As a contribution to the community, we document and release these experiences through the project Showmethetenders.net, open to collaboration from any stakeholder and interested party.

We are sure that the networking session at the ICT 2010 will be a quite valuable opportunity to learn from other experiences which are being developed in almost every corner in Europe. It will also be the occasion to meet people whose vision will help us to develop services more and more useful for the whole Euroalert.net comunity.

As for the 10,000 squere meters of exhibition and the three days of conferences, keep an eye on Euroalert.net Twitter account and to our web, we will bring you the most interesting things we see during the three days of the ICT 2010. For those of you who can't make it to be in Brussels, the hash-tag for the event will be #ict2010eu. And don't forget you can still register for the event if you are able to come to Brussels. Will be great to meet you there!

"Different and curious" Public Contracts of Euroalert.net that are Mentioned on the Article of El País

As all of those who follow us are already aware of, Euroalert.net tries to be very active in the public sector information reuse community in Europe. This is something that has been shown several times on the forums Euroalert.net has attended to talk about its experience in creating value from European public contract information.

For this reason, now, when one of Spain's national newspapers of biggest daily circulation like El País, echoes this phenomenon of Public Administration releasing public data and mentions Euroalert.net among the private initiatives dedicated to give it added value, we really feel very proud because of the recognition. Naiara Galarraga's article talks about the situation of the movement that pursues open data as part of the Open Government initiatives and cites opinions of relevant Spanish people like Alberto Ortiz de Zárate form Basque Government, Jose Manuel Alonso from CTIC Foundation, Aitor García from Asociación Pro Bono Público or Sebastián Muriel General Manager at Red.es, among many others. We had the opportunity to share with them the PSI Meeting 2010 that got European Open Data Community together in Madrid, called by Proyecto Aporta and ePSIPlatform.

So, with the same spirit of free information and data access, and due to the wave of emails received asking us to told them which were the calls for tenders mentioned by the article of El País, here you have a "public contracts' appetizer", some funny and others curious:

• Curious, for instance, is the call for tenders for the supply of berets to the French Army (up to now we don't know who has wined it and which is the total amount, so you will have to pay attention to Euroalert.net ;-)...)
• What is the purpose of the Danish Maersk Oil company with the publication of a public tender about Christmas tree supply is something we really don't know... The question is that not any thing is a Christmas tree..., it seems that the cpv was not right this time, or maybe is that the well-heads are to "decorate" the tree...?
• The UK Government Department for International Development awarded four contracts of supply of condoms to support a cooperation and prevention HIV contagion Program.
• And the jewel of the crown, the contract with the highest value: the award of a contract with a value of 3,359,928,000 GBP by Highways Agency, for hiring of construction works of highways and roads in the UK.

As you all know, more interesting contracts, more business and more opportunities in public tenders market in the European Union, always on the Call for tenders section on Euroalert.net.

Euroalert participates in PSI Meeting 2010 with the European open data community

As those of you who follow our Twitter channel already know, and as we announced on this blog a while ago, on June 9th we participated in the PSI Meeting 2010. We were gently invited by the organizers, the Aporta project and ePSIPlatform of the European Commission. It was a very interesting event in which we could increase our knowledge and share our experience with reuse of public sector information.

The day was mostly a discussion meeting on PSI reuse from their different perspectives: on its future, its challenges and changes that society and governments should take for their proper development. Our director, Jose Luis Marín, participated as a speaker at the second of the four round tables, sharing Euroalert's experience together with other companies that have also managed to create business models by adding value to data released by the public sector.

We also took this opportunity to announce the launch of our project showmethetenders.net where we collect the successes and failures of Euroalert in several European Union countries while trying to unlock public data on EU tenders. As you know, we are making a considerable effort, to which we invite you to join us, to try to collect this information, primarily available in Official Journals and procurement platforms in reusable formats. By the moment, we have had considerable successes in countries like Ireland and Belgium, where we have had the responsiveness of those responsible: we really appreciate their support and commitment to the community for the reuse of public sector information.

But we have also had very much-talked-about failures like the one that Chris Taggart has nicely described, due to the situation that occurs in the UK about the outsourcing of the management of public data. In these cases, the release of data which are public but managed by private companies with their own economic interests gets complicated, and only strong political support can provide a solution to this issue.

We've also included some very shocking cases as the Spanish Government Procurement Platform or the European Commission itself through the EuropeAid Cooperation Office, which has denied the release of the datasets contracts for development aid!!! Their reasons for this refusal, furthermore, are not strong at all, and of course especially in the latter case it is not consistent at all that the European Commission itself does not bet on leading by being an example in the implementation of the Directive. Especially considering that it is not feasible for small businesses or start-ups to embark on legal proceedings to try to defend a more open position and in line with the Directive, which it seems that can only be obtained when there is a political commitment.

Over 19 addresses of relevant experts coming from public governments (including the European Commission) and platforms, companies that reuse information and trade associations representing their interests and civil society organizations, the main issues, perspectives and initiatives in the world of Open Data were reaped.

First names of the world of open data, such as Javier Hernández Ros, Head of Unit of Access to Information of the European Commission, Chris Taggart, a member of the working group of the Open Knowledge Foundation dedicated to the opening of public sector information in the United Kingdom, Alberto Ortiz de Zárate, director of the service of Citizen's Attention of the Basque Government, from Open Data Euskadi, or Daniel Dietrich, president of the German nonprofit organization Open Data Network, participated in the four round tables.

Thanks to all who attended, those who see the event by the streaming, those who interacted and followed through Twitter contributions... Thank you once again because we can demonstrate that by sharing information and knowledge we all get further.

Euroalert will participate in the PSI Meeting 2010, organized by Proyecto Aporta and ePSIplatform

Lately we have announced you that Euroalert has been participating in several events and conferences where we share our experience and learn from our collegues. And we love it.

Our next participation will be in June, when the director of Gateway SCS, José Luis Marín, will be one of the speakers at the PSI Meeting 2010 "Realising the value of Public Sector Information", a meeting aimed to evaluate the economic and social benefits of the policies for the reuse of public sector information.

Invited by the organizers of the event, ePSI Platform (European Public Sector Information Platform) and Proyecto Aporta, our director will participate in the second round table, entitled "Turning the reuse of public sector information into new business models and innovative services", where he will contribute with the Euroalert experience at creating a business model which daily offers you the best content about the European Union, adding value to public sector information: call for proposals for funding projects, daily news about EU and tenders in european countries.

You can already consult the draft agenda of "PSI Meeting 2010" and, though the names have not been made public yet, we can tell you that several high profile speakers representing very high-level institutions in the field of Open Data have confirmed their assistance. The other three round tables are entitled:

• Overview of Europe’s Information Society Strategies: Best practices in policies to release the economic potential of PSI re-use.
• Measuring the economic potential of PSI re-use
• Social Value of PSI

The Proyecto Aporta, under the framework of Plan Avanza, aims to contribute to place Spain in the European vanguard in terms of reuse of public sector information. To this end, from the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, Aporta promotes a culture of reuse of information in the field of public administration. For its part, the ePSIplatform, funded by the eContentPlus programme of the European Commission, aims to stimulate the action, to report and to monitor progress towards a stronger and more transparent environment for the growth of national and European reuse markets.

Recently we have been announcing events, initiatives and other activities where Euroalert.net has shared its experience and knowledge, as our participation in FICOD 2009, contributions to the community of open data, such as the publication of data on the British public bodies with notices in the OJEU, or as a case study in terms of business model, as happened with the book Web 2.0. The Business Model with the chapter "Doing business by selling free services", focusing on Euroalert.

The last time was a few months ago when Euroalert participated in the seminar "Smart construction: doing business in the Netherlands", organized by Enterprise Ireland, where we contributed with our experience in tendering and business opportunities with the public sector across the European Union.

You can already register to attend the event in Proyecto Aporta website. We remind you that the meeting will be at the headquarters of the Secretariat of State for Telecommunications and Information Society of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, at 41, Capitán Haya street, Madrid, on June 8 from 8.30 am . See you there!!

2009: a great year for Euroalert.net community

An important year for Euroalert.net reaches its end. In 2009, the Euroalert community has established itself throughout Europe and this year has also been full of achievements that we have wanted to share with you from this blog, because our success is also yours.

We began the year announcing you that Euroalert.net had become a case study in the book Web 2.0: The Business Model. . This book on business models in Web 2.0 by U.S. publisher Springer devoted the chapter "Doing business by selling free services" to Euroalert, to describe the innovative features of our business model that allow us to offer you daily and free of charge the best information contents about the European Union.

This has not been the only time that Euroalert.net has served as an example or case study: in autumn and we gave you the news that, invited by the spanish Ministry of Industry, we were participating in a round table on Open Government that took place in FICOD 09 , the International Forum of Digital Contents. "O-gov: creating value through the reuse of public sector information" was the title of the round table in which José Luis Marín talked about how in Euroalert.net we approach public information generated by the community institutions to the user in several countries in Europe , processing it and redistributing it through our innovative technology.

In June, we changed the appearance of Euroalert.net to accommodate it to a new service: the section on trade opportunities with European Multilateral Organizations, with which Euroalert.net continued growing in information contents. Since then, Euroalert.net also offers tenders and contracts published by EuropeAid , publishes business opportunities and contracts of the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the EBRD Tenders and Contracts.

In summer, we boosted our corporate social responsibility while announcing that we became sponsors of the football team of the Colegio La Salle de Valladolid, who wears sweaters with the logo of Euroalert.net. But this announcement came shortly before a trip that was very important for us: the one we did in October to attend the Open Days 2009 in Brussels, where we had the opportunity to cover numerous events and met a good number of community members of Euroalert.


The fact is that this year we have travelled a lot. We wanted Euroalert.net services to be known throughout Europe, and that is why we did not only go to Brussels to attend to the biggest event in European cities and regions, but we've been almost every month in the Belgian capital for various reasons, including our assistance to the Information Day Objective 1.2 ICT in FP7 of the European Union, with the aim of promoting the participation of Euroalert.net in some of the consortia that were being formed for Call 5 of the Seventh Framework Program.

The portuguese capital has been another of our stops. Shortly before leaving for the Open Days, we told you that we were going to Lisbon as well as to promote the services of Euroalert.net and visiting multiple subscribers, as part of the business delegation of Castile and Leon who accompanied Juan Vicente Herrera on his trip to our neighboring country and participated in business meetings organized by ADE International EXCAL, the Junta de Castilla y León agency for external promotion.

In fact, the result of this trip was another achievement of Euroalert.net this year: the agreement for the distribution of Euroalert.net services in Portugal through Infosistema Company.

On the other hand, if last year and created our Facebook page, this year we took the leap to Twitter, where you can follow updates from all contents of Euroalert, although so far only for the international version.

Our successes are your successes. Thanks for all you've got with us this year, and we sincerely hope that next year you will continue giving us many more successes. We have many surprises and new servives ready to make Euroalert even more useful for you all in 2010.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

The reuse of public sector information, in the spotlight in FICOD 2009

Despite starting late, Spain is now on the correct path to Open Government. And it is not the only one: all European countries still have a long way to go before reaching a real open government. That was the conclusion we could draw from the roundtable ""O-gov: creating value through the reuse of public sector information", which was held last November 19 in the International Forum of Digital Contents, FICOD 2009, and where, as we told you, Euroalert.net was one of the guests.

Juan Pelegrin, Chris Corbin, Carlos de la Fuente, Jaime Gómez Obregón, and Angel Maldonado Arce Valentín debated along with José Luis Marín, our director, and they extracted a number of interesting conclusions about the current outlook for open government in Europe and in Spain in particular.

Chris Corbin, financial analyst PSI Platform, stressed that Europe has still a long way to reach real open government. Reuse of content is pre-Internet use, but today, advances in telecommunications make redistribution of public sector information much easier than it used to be.

Corbin underlined that one of the things that most improves the quality of information is the actual use: the more people reuses it, the more likely is that useful and interesting to other people or institutions cases generate. In fact, according to British analyst, it is often the same public who just picking up the information that initially came out of it, so a continuous cycle of information with added value increasing appears.

Juan Pelegrin offered an European perspective of the phenomenon, saying that Spain is becoming an example for other countries in relation to the reuse of content from the public sector, thanks to initiatives such as the Aporta project. Anyway, despite the rapid progress that Europe has seen recently, the gap with the United States regarding Open Government is still important.

Reuse, according Pelegrin, is a tool for economic growth. The representative of the Unit of Access to Information of Directorate General Information Society, stated that the European Commission will ensure that the Directive on the reuse of public sector information is being properly implemented, because although it has already been transposed in all Member States, the laws are not correct in many cases.

The Commission takes it seriously, as demonstrated by the public consultation on reuse. It has launched infringement proceedings against Poland, Sweden and Italy, and it will enhance the study of indicators for better understanding of the evolution of their implementation and investigating the exclusivity agreements that limit citizens its right to access the information, which are illegal.

As for Euroalert.net, Jose Luis Marín described the way we approach the public information of the European Union to end users in several European countries, explaining how our technology brings added value to the contents generated by the Community institutions as well as information about tenders and public procurement contracts and project funding opportunities.

As regards to the statement of our director, Corbin wanted to emphasize that public data that we use are public, and therefore the information issuers entities should not try to control the way that those who reuse its information harness it, and this is a purely cultural fact.

Thanks to all who followed the round table in the room or through FICOD TV (where you can still see the video if you did not had the chance to do it), or live-commented on Twitter our activity! It was a great pride to represent all the community that makes possible Euroalert.net in such an important forum.

Euroalert.net, ready for the panel on open government in FICOD 2009

The International Forum of Digital Contents, FICOD 2009, the biggest event for the digital content industry, has already started at the Palacio de Congresos Juan Carlos I in Madrid. Euroalert.net participation in the roundtable on reuse of public sector information is closer!



"O-gov: creating value through the reuse of public sector information" is the title of the panel in which Euroalert.net will participate as a speaker, and it will analyze the importance of reuse public sector information, an activity that moves in Europe between 26 and 47 billion euros.

José Luis Marín, director of Euroalert.net, will participate in this round table along with several experts in the field of reuse from both public and private sector. The full list of speakers is already available, and it is composed by:

• Juan Pelegrin - Unit of Access to Information of Directorate General Information Society, European Commission
• Carlos de la Fuente - Area Director of Technology CTIC Foundation and representative on the W3C advisory Comitee
• D. Chris Corbin - - Financial Analyst PSI Platform
• Angel Maldonado Elvira - Founder Legalsolo.com
• Carlos Alonso - President of ASEDIE
• Jaime Gómez Obregón - Responsible for El Precio de la Gasolina

David Cierco Jimenez de Parga, Director General for Development of Information Society of the spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism Affairs, will chair the debate on the economic importance of Public Sector Information, where Euroalert.net will explain how it adds value to information about business opportunities and financing projects to create innovative services to all of you.

We wait for you on Thursday November 19 at 15:30 pm in Room 2. You are still in time to get registered in the web of FICOD for free!

Euroalert.net will participate in FICOD 2009 in one of the panels on open government

10,000 attendees, nearly 200 journalists and bloggers, 45 workshops, 28 roundtables, 9 plenary sessions, one Hollywood star ... and we are proud to announce that Euroalert.net will participate in the roundtable on re-use of public sector information (PSI).

The third edition of the International Forum of Digital Contents, FICOD 2009, is coming soon. The 17, 18 and 19 November, the Congress Hall Juan Carlos I in Madrid will be the focus of the present digital content industry in Spanish language, and will have U.S.A., world leader in the industry, as a invited country.

Many media have echoed that Kevin Spacey will present at the inaugural keynote The social network, his biopic about the three founders of the most popular social network of the moment, Facebook. However, for us, the news is that Euroalert will be in FICOD to share its experience adding value through the re-use of the EU public information that you know so well: tenders and public procurement contracts and project funding opportunities.

José Luis Marín, our CEO, will be among the speakers at the roundtable "O-gov: creating value through the reuse of public sector information" which will be held on November 19 at 15.30 in Room 1, and which will undoubtedly contribute to the work that Aporta project began last year. The interim panel includes in this same table Chris Corbin, from ePSI Platform and Javier Hernandez-Ros, European Commission, among others. And there, we will explain how Euroalert.net has adapted its business model, which was documented as a case study in the book "Web 2.0: The Business Model", with a great deal of technological innovation to exploit new opportunities of the Internet: to contribute value to public information for all our readers, customers and subscribers, and then it is reused again in their own websites automatically through our widgets.

With the boost of the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Information Society of the spanish Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, FICOD born in 2007 to promote the products and services from digital contents industry and as to enable the exchange of good practices and experiences among attendees. Red.es is responsible for organizing this great event, framed and funded within the Avanza2 Plan for the Development of Information Society and Knowledge.

Professionals coming from sectors as diverse as television, music, publishing, film, videogames, websites and online publications, online training and many other come together each year in FICOD, their meeting point. For that reason and because of you, the Euroalert community, that make Euroalert possible, we are honoured to be among the protagonists of this year.

We will keep on informing you about our participation in FICOD, but for now remember that you have an appointment with us on November 19! Registration is free and the provisional agenda is available from the website of FICOD.