The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) last month awarded the Slovak Commission for Standardization, part of the Ministry of Finance, for its commitment to open standards. The Ministry can fine public administrations that do not comply with its rules on IT standards.
Such fines can vary from 2000 up to 35,000 euro.
The FSFE says in a statement that it wants to give international recognition to the commission. The free software advocacy organisation praised both the high quality of the standards set by the body as well as its sanction mechanism.
The committee currently has eighteen members, most representing government organisations. Two members are representatives of organisations of IT professionals. One of the members represents the Society for Open Information Technologies. The commission proposes standards that public administration should use when communicating with citizens, for online publications and for exchanging documents with other authorities.
"The regulation significantly improves the interoperability of various information systems of different public administration organizations in Slovakia", the FSFE says in a statement. "Open standards guarantee the public, including handicapped people, that they have a proper access to all provided and published information."
The prize is one of five that were awarded this year by the FSFE in Europe on Document Freedom Day, which took place on 28 March. Two of these were given to public authorities; the Austrian city of Vienna and the Italian city of Arezzo. Vienna got its award for using open standards in all their publications. This award was given by the Grüne parliamentary group in Berlin. The Tuscan city of Arezzo was awarded "for its use of open standards within the administration services and communications with the citizens".
Handcuffing
The FSFE this year also sent documentation explaining open standards to a hundred important persons, along with handcuffs that symbolise proprietary standards.
One of the recipients of such handcuffs was Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission and responsible for the Digital Agenda. She showed them during her talk at the World Wide Web conference in Lyon on 19 April. Newspaper the Guardian quoted her, saying: "Let me show you, these handcuffs are not closed, not locked. I can open them if and when I want. That's what I mean by being open online, what it means to me to get rid of 'digital handcuffs'."
More information:
FSFE report
Guardian news item