• PdF Meetup Everywhere - in Europe, Too!
  July 12th (tomorrow!) is Worldwide PdF Meetup Day!
  It's an experiment and an opportunity to come together with fellow PdFers in your community, people who are excited by how technology is changing politics, government and civic life. So far, we have 50 meetups all around the world and many of them are in Europe!
  Here's the list of the main ones:
  • Brussels
  • Rome
  • Frankfurt
  • Paris
  • Berlin
  • Copenaghen

  Here's the full list, find the nearest one and let us know what you think!

• A Call for Open Government Data Principles
  Jonathan Gray, Community Coordinator at the Open Knowledge Foundation, calls for a set of international open government data principles:

  We want to make sure we can easily tell data which is open from data which is not open. Why do we need to make sure that we agree on what ‘open data’ means? Because we want to minimise friction in the data ecosystem. We want an open data ecosystem without borders, barriers, restrictions, exceptions, checklists, registration forms, clickwrap agreements or micro-payments. 

  Gray compares open government principles from several countries, NGOs and organizations (including the Sunlight Foundation’s 10 Open Data Principles) and argues that if the open data community wants to scale it needs to rely on a set of simple principles that can be a guide and a framework for future initiatives:

  A set of international open government data principles would enshrine some of these ideas into a few clear and simple sentences saying what open data is – and have some mechanism for public bodies around the world to sign on. The key thing is that they would be drafted and adopted by leading open data initiatives around the world – who would also help to encourage others to adopt them.

• EU | Social Innovation in Europe: What's Going On?
  What's happening in Europe when it comes to social innovation?
  The Social Innovation Europe initiative is an effort funded by the European Commission’s DG Enterprise to create a streamline on social innovation in Europe and become a hub in this field:

  "[it] will work to connect policy makers, entrepreneurs, academics and third sector workers with other innovators from across Europe. It is our goal to become a hub—a meeting place in the network of European networks—where innovative thinkers from all 27 member states can come together to create a streamlined, vigorous social innovation field in Europe, to raise a shared voice, and to propel Europe to lead the practice of social innovation globally."

  The project is run by a consortium of partners including Euclid Network and the Danish Technological Institute and led by the Social Innovation eXchange (SIX), at the Young Foundation.
  SIE is building this streamline using three approaches:

  Firstly, we will research and publish a series of reports and recommendations for action which will define, analyze and support the best work in the field. [...] The final report, which will make recommendations for social innovation’s “Future Directions” in Europe, will be published in June of 2012. 

  Secondly, the initiative will host this online hub. This site aims to be an indispensible resource providing the latest information on European social innovation—a clearinghouse featuring interviews with prominent innovators, case studies of successful ventures, the latest research, and in-depth analysis from the leading thinkers in the field. [...] 

  Finally, we will host a series of events across Europe to bring social innovators together offline and build partnerships across countries and across sectors. At events in Belgium (March 2011), Poland (December 2011) and Denmark (September 2012), industry leaders will share strengths, challenges, and direction of the social innovation field.

  The SIE initiative started in January 2011 and will run over 2 years, until December 2012.
  [hat tip to Jon Worth]

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