The European Union funded FLOSSCom research project is investigating Free / Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) communities as learning environments. The project aims to identify principles of FLOSS communities that could be transferred to educational settings, e.g. how the community model could help to improve education.

Supporters of the open access movement (OA), the open-source-inspired community that promotes free access to academic research, are disappointed but not discouraged by the defeat of a bill that would have required research published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States to be available to the public.

Free/Open Source software is great for Public Administrations, but Free/Open data are even more important. Making public sector information really accessible, that is publishing online raw data in open formats and under open licenses, can both improve transparency in government and foster local economical and cultural activities.

"Hi friends, Finally and as mentioned at the last meetings at 24C3 in berlin and Fosdem in Brussels, were are now ready to call to the trans-european action day in September 2008. The plan is to call to demonstrations, street parties, art actions, sit-ins, happenings, blockades in every european capital at the same day.

The third version of the GNU General Public License (GPL) won't be released until the end of June. Yet, already, it is proving one of the most controversial developments ever in the free and open source software (FOSS) communities.

"I received an email recently from a young man in Brazil who wanted me to come to his university and talk to the students and faculty about using Free Software. I am normally happy to advise universities to use Free Software, but usually this is done in conjunction with some large conference held at the university or some other venue. I just do not have the time to visit each and every school.

Dimdim calls itself the world's first free Web meeting service based on an open source platform. Users can share their desktops and files while chatting and videoconferencing with meeting participants.

"The last 7th of May I was at the III University Free Software Contest’s final fase. That event is a really interesting and (IMHO) very important for the free software community world in Spain. The event takes place at several universities in Spain and have this final fase in Seville.

"Well, after a painfully bureaucratic process, Boston University Free Culture is officially formed and now has a spiffy new blog and wiki, provided most generously by Asheesh Laroia from the FreeCulture.org mothership. Our first meeting will be..."