Sen No Sen

Computer Business Review reports on a talk by Jesus Villasante, head of the software development unit at the European Commission’s Information Society and Media Directorate General :

The idea that Europe should be behind the rest of the world in open source development is a curious one, given that Linux creator Linux Torvalds and Linux distributor SUSE Linux are originally from Europe, and many of the leading open source projects are based there.
(…)
“First we need to reduce the uncertainty that people have in business and governments about the use of open source. Second thing, European industry has to incorporate open source more actively to their product lines. And third we have to strengthen the open source communities in Europe,”

Well, well. Given the vision set by Europe’s heads of state in Lisbon, 2000:

“to make Europe the world’s most competitive and dynamic economy, characterised by sustainable growth, more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, by 2010″. (…) by putting in place coherent and targeted actions on Information society policies and research, the audiovisual sector and Media.

… and the goal stated by Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media:

“… to combine the economic dynamism of the rapidly expanding communication sector with the potential to create new jobs, and to improve the quality of life of citizens. At the same time, I want to give a new impetus to creativity, cultural diversity and a flourishing media content sector. All this should always be done with the needs of our citizens in mind”.

… the level of progress made so far (more like utter failure) would seem to reinforce the validity of the general skepticism among so many citizens of Europe these days.

A great pity indeed.

(via Slashdot)