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Italian Government fails to shut down one of its websites
Normattiva (“active norm/law”) is a new online portal from the Italian Government that “using innovative software technologies creates a reliable, free and complete information service about Italian laws”. Normattiva opened to the public in March 2010. I first heard about it on March 19th. Three days later, on March 22nd, 2010, I saw a post from Flavia Marzano that said: "(now that) Normattiva is online, normeinrete is offline".
Why I won't sign the "Internet For Democracy" Petition
The online petition of the week, at least in Europe, is called “Internet for Democracy - Shut Down the Europarliament. Now!". I will not sign it, and I recommend everybody to do the same. However, I do suggest that everybody reads it because it’s about very general issues that you should really, really think about.
Why every citizen should read the Open Government book
Open Government - Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice is a book (DISCLAIMER: I’m one of the authors, see below) that explains how governments and local Public Administrations can use digital technologies to work more efficiently, save lots of taxpayers money and let citizens control what public officers are actually doing. Why is something like this very important for all citizens? Because, as I already explained in the Online Loser Guide, digital technologies and the Internet can be either a huge help to make real democracy happen, or just a new, more powerful system for centralized control.
When and how can Free Software really save public money?
A few days ago, during an email conversation about efficient public services and waste of money in Public Administrations, I had to answer a couple of questions. Since those answers may interest many other people, here they are.