Karel de Vriendt

Abstract:"Open Source activities within the context of the IDABC programme"

Within the context of the IDABC programme (ec.europa.eu/idabc), the Commission has worked with the European Union Member States and other participants in the programme to distribute information about the use of open source software by public administrations in Europe and to promote the idea of sharing software, especially developed for and paid by public administrations via the use of open source licenses. The most visible results of that work are the recommendations on open specifications and open source in the European Interoperability Framework, the open source observatory and repository (OSOR) and the European Union Public License (EUPL). Outside the strict context of the IDABC programme, the Commission is an important user of open source software itself and leads by example, making a number of IT solutions developed for the Commission available to others, via OSOR, under the EUPL.

Biography

Karel De Vriendt is a Dutch speaking Belgian who holds a nuclear engineering degree and post-graduate degrees in IT and Public Management. After having worked for seven years as a software engineer and project manager in a large multinational telecommunications company, he started to work for the Commission in what is now the Information Society and Media directorate-general, following-up research projects related to software engineering. Thereafter, he worked for fifteen years in the Commission‘s internal IT service, managing projects and teams working on electronic mail, networking and telecommunications, user support and application development. Since mid 2005, he is responsible, in the Enterprise and Industry DG, for the pan-European eGovernment services unit. This unit is responsible for the IDABC programme that has as its objective to „identify, support and promote the development and establishment of pan-European eGovernment services and the underlying infrastructure supporting the Member States and the Community in the implementation, within their respective areas of competence, of Community policies and activities, achieving substantial benefits for public administrations, businesses and citizens.“