[epsi-coord] PSI Alliance news item

[Marc de Vries]

Hi Ton,

 

This was still on my action list.

 

Can you publish it?

 

Reg. M.

 

++++++

 

PSI Alliance in the European Parliament!

 

Last week, on Tuesday 5 June, the PSI Alliance organized its yearly
conference and annual meeting. Neatly coinciding with the work Parliament is
doing on the draft new PSI Directive, it opened its doors for more than 40
stakeholders from re-users around Europe. Next to that the PSI Alliance had
managed to attract senior policy makers from the European Commission,
including Mr Richard Swetenham (Head of Unit DG INFSO, in charge of the
legislative process) and key Members of Parliament including Mr Ivailo
Kalfin MEP, Rapporteur on PSI Directive and Mr Salvador Sedó i Alabart MEP
(EPP), shadow rapporteur on PSI Directive. Interestingly, from the key note
speeches of both MEPs it became apparent that the Directive has certainly
been well received by Parliament, which raises hope and expectations of the
PSI community.

 

Next to that, interesting presentations were given by re-users, like Mr
George de Boer demonstrating the impressive data processing capab ilities of
TomTom, and Mr Joakim Skog (of Bisnode New Media), showing the cutting edge
technology applied to opening up PSI, new opportunities for the information
industry. The afternoon session featured a panel discussion of the fine
fleur of PSI re-use warriors, including Mr Michael Nicholson (Founder,
Intelligent Addressing), Mr Christian Lister (Chairman, IPSA) and Mr
Nikolaus Futter (Managing Director, Compass Verlag), sparking vivid
discussions on the needs of the re-use communities and the translation
thereof into the PSI Directive.

 

Finally, mr Rolf Nordqvist, Chairman of the PSI Alliance, also proudly gave
the ‘PSI Alliance 5 star awards’ to Mr Dirk van Barneveld and Mr Wim de
Haas, representing the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment and
Mr Adolfo Galvez Moraleda of the Spanish National Statistics Institute, for
their tremendous efforts in opening up their PSI resources for the benefit
of their citizens and companies around Europe. At the closing of the
meeting, Mr Nordqvist, who is passing on the chairmanship of the PSI
Alliance to Mr Nikolaus Futter, was loudly applauded and unanimously thanked
for his relentless efforts and work done for PSI re-users around Europe in
the last years.

 

See the program and participants list here: link

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