On June 1st, 2010, Karin Spaink gave an excellent speech during an expert meet on e-books. She is urging the publishing industry to learn from all the mistakes the music industry made. E-books need to be protected against technical measures to control users, such as DRM, and should be much cheaper than printed books.

Read her speech on De Nieuwe Reporter, in Dutch.

Software Engineering (SE) is a fast changing subject that often poses a moving target both for learners and educators. In order to tackle this problem, an open approach to SE education can provide continuous feedback between educational institutions and "the real world", where these skills will be finally applied in most cases.

Republication of a Press Release from La Quadrature du Net:

Strasbourg, May 19, 2010 - Today, with the release of Neelie Kroes' Digital Agenda, the European Commission is unveiling major policy orientations regarding Internet-related policies. Several leaked drafts of the document revealed heavy pressures from various special interest groups. While the general outcome of the final document is encouraging, the crucial question of interoperability and open standards was eventually arbitrated in favour of US software vendors' positions. On IPR enforcement and cybercrime, the worst has been avoided but some very ambiguous wording remains.

The article SELF Platform: A Teacher - Centric Collaborative Authoring System written by Meena Kharatmal, Nagarjuna G. from the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, co-founders of the SELF Project, has been published in the Journal of Applied Collaborative Systems.

1. New course books available!

The Free Technology Academy is proud to announce the online publication of a new set of course books that correspond to the upcoming modules of the FTA programme starting in April: "Web applications development", "Economic aspects of Free Software" and "Software development".

The Parliament of Iceland discusses a proposal to turn the country into a model for freedom of expression on the Internet. Far away from the conservative vision displayed by many confused governments who try to control freedom of communication on the Net through "three strikes", Internet blocking or the ACTA, this would be a historic event. The Free Knowledge Institute sees freedom of expression as one of the cornerstones of a free society and has endorsed this project. If repressive and authoritarian schemes were to prevail in our societies, Iceland would represent the ultimate refuge for the free circulation of information.

The Free Knowledge Institute was one of many active participants that gathered from all over the world in Barcelona for the Free Culture Forum. Its first edition was celebrated from October 30th till November 1st 2009. In this article we draw upon the main topics discussed during the Forum and the main output that what was collectively produced: a Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge. A Free Knowledge version can be found at the Free Knowledge wiki. Find below the ten points for change, or prerequisites for a free knowledge society.