Paris and Marseille: 1 July 2010

Fing - The Next Generation Internet Foundation – is hosting the LIFT France 2010 Conference taking place in Marseille, France, 5th to 7th July 2010.

The Lift Conference is an annual international event on the creative and transformative uses of technology, and the social implications of new technologies. Lift is more broadly also a series of events building on a community of pioneers who get together in Europe and Asia to explore social implications of new technologies. Each conference is a chance to turn innovation into opportunity by anticipating shifts and meeting the people who drive them. Lift works internationally with Global partners.

This year 'Lift France with Fing' will explore how the technologies and concepts of the web are changing the real world today and in the future.

• Conference Programme Online

The Conference is hosting sessions on:

• “Web Squared", Making Sense of the World through Shared Data
• “Fab Labs", Reinventing Industry
• “People Hacks", Distributing Control and Knowledge
• “Privacy Revisited”, Protect and Project

Full speakers roster and during the LIFT event, the audience manages half of the conference, check the open program.

The session on ‘Open Public Data: a New Resource for Innovation and Participation’ is described as follows.

Public-Service Information is a major source of new services, of value creation as well as knowledge production and citizen participation. Whole countries and cities are opening up access to their data. How can open public data become reality? What does it really change?

Speakers :

• Jarmo Eskelinen , CEO, Forum Virium Helsinki
• Michael Cross Free Our Data
• Hugues Aubin, Rennes Métropole

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In reporting on the Lift event, Le Monde.fr published a story on their interview chat session with Michael Cross, UK Guardian newspaper correspondent and one of the leading activists in the ‘Free Our Data’ campaign (Free Our Data) and event participant.

The interview covers key questions on the re-use of government data including ones about which government data can be made public without crossing privacy and confidentiality rights of citizens, comparisons across Europe and considerations about commercial re-use of government data.

One of the questions posed to Michael was: “Once you have access to the public government data, what can be done?” Michael’s response is in this interview excerpt:

“The short answer is "what you want" (subject, of course, to the presumption of innocence and to the laws on defamation)! We realised that when you give large amounts of data to creative people, they do creative things with it.

Here is a simple example: a map update in real time of the position of all trains on the network - known for punctuality - British Railways [the British railways frequently experience significant problems of delay]. It makes things happen and in very interesting ways when people begin to truly combine data from different sources, which even the government is still struggling to do.”

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La Fing

Fing was created in 2000 by a team of entrepreneurs and experts, with the aim of detecting, fostering and promoting innovation in digital services and uses. Working at the crossroads between technology, business, the arts and social change, Fing is a network, an idea accelerator, a think tank and a resource for innovators.

• Fing Brochure (English language)

Fing’s activities encompass work on ‘open data’ and the re-use of public sector information. Their website includes a dedicated page reflecting the exciting and innovative work being undertaken by Fing related to the re-use of public sector information (Réutilisation des données publiques) including videos, useful resources and very stimulating discussions. Fing is also an active participant in the GFII, the French Groupement Français de l’Industrie de l’Information, interagency working group focused on the re-use of public sector information.

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