The Europe Roundup: Twitter to Hire a Team in Germany

• Germany | Twitter to Hire a Team in Germany

  Yesterday, at the DLD conference in Munich, Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey announced that the company is about to add another European staff in Germany.
  The team will be the third one for Twitter in Europe, after ones in London and Dublin.

  There are many strategic reasons for the choice of the country, writes Martin Bryant at The Next Web:

  A focus on Germany is interesting as it was mentioned on-stage by Schmidt that usage levels in the country [is] as high as in some other parts of Europe.
  Still, Twitter has a strong connection with the country – some of its earliest code was written there by original team member Florian Weber. Weber, who is now CTO and co-founder of hot Berlin startup Amen, worked on Twitter code in Germany for three months before he returned to the US.

  Berlin is also considered the place to be for European startups right now, because of its relatively cheap rents and the peculiar position between Western and Eastern Europe that help foster cultural and technology exchange.

  But Germany is also known for the strict positions of its government on privacy and citizens' data protection, sensitive topics that Twitter will have to keep in mind when developing its strategy.
  Other companies are already doing this: back in September, Richard Allan, director of policy in Europe at Facebook, and German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich announced that Facebook will sign a voluntary code of conduct in Germany to protect users' data.

• France | The State of Open Data

  French NGO LiberTIC recently published a map showing the state of open data in France.
  This is the fourth map of this kind, the first one being published in August 2010.

  Flickr Epsi platform

  The map has been created by LiberTIC with the contribute of people pointing out interesting local initiatives, which now appear present at all levels of government.
  In early December the French government also unveiled a national data portal.

  The organization also shares concerns about the lack of shared procedures for these initiatives:

  [...] the shape of this map also reveals its limitations, namely its inability to demonstrate the quality of procedures for the provision of data, that varies greatly from one initiative to another. The Open Data project in the village of Brocas (we welcome the interest in the subject) reflects such a problematic use of the term for an Open Data initiative that does not take into account the criteria of the movement. 

  To resolve this problem, we will publish in the coming days a classification of open communities based on quality initiatives. In the meantime, you can already visit the open data interactive map developed by contributors during the Open Data Hackathon of Nantes. The interactive map is not yet presented to date but she already identifies some criteria for the differentiation initiatives. 

• UK | A Local Wikipedia in Wales

  A town in Wales is about to have its own Wikipedia: Monmouth, a town with about 9,000 inhabitants, is the source of a local online sub-project called Monmouthpedia.
  The local county council is sponsoring the project, and some expenses will be covered by Wikimedia UK.

  The town has a great historical value — BBC News notes that it is named in the Domesday Book of 1086. Wikipedia and the project's leader, John Cummings, hope that local people will contribute to the wiki with articles and historical photographs.
  Headstar.com reports more on the initiative:

  Online resources will be linked to real places using “QRpedia codes”, a type of QR or Quick Response square barcode read using a smartphone camera with an enhanced ability to detect the language used by the phone and offer information in that language, if available. Codes will be presented in a range of formats from ceramic or metal plaques to stickers inside buildings or biodegradable plastic labels for objects such as trees. Articles will also feature map co-ordinates or “geotags” to allow browsing by digital mapping and systems and “augmented reality” software.

  Monmouthpedia will be made available in several languages, including Welsh, and will let people take a virtual tour of the town.
  Monmouthpedia authors claim this is the first Wikipedia project to cover a whole town. Similar initiatives can be found in France, though related to bigger areas: examples can be found in the west of France, in Manche and in the Brest area (Pays de Brest).

Plus

• The Monmoutshire County Council is also accepting Freedom of Information requests made via Twitter.
• The French Internet agency La Netscouade lists the top 20 French institutions on Twitter. The first is @francediplo, the account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with more than 121,000 followers. @Elysee, the account of the French presidency comes only second with 70,000 followers.