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Weekly News Digest
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September 13, 2012 — In addition to this week's NewsBreak(s), the editors have compiled the Weekly News Digest, featuring stories from the week just past that you should know about. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view all of this week's Weekly News Digest items.
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Europeana’s Huge Cultural Dataset Opens for Free Re-Use
The digital portal Europeana opened up its dataset of more than 20 million cultural objects for free re-use. The massive dataset is the descriptive information about Europe’s digitized treasures. For the first time, the metadata is released under the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication, meaning that anyone can use the data for any purpose—creative, educational, commercial—with no restrictions.This release, which is by far the largest one-time dedication of cultural data to the public domain using CC0, offers a new boost to the digital economy, providing electronic entrepreneurs with opportunities to create innovative apps and games for tablets and smartphones and to create new web services and portals. Europeana’s move to CC0 is a step change in open data access. Releasing data from across the memory organizations of every EU country sets an important new international precedent, a decisive move away from the world of closed and controlled data. Importantly, the change represents a valuable contribution to the European Commission’s agenda to drive growth through digital innovation. Online open data is a core resource that can fuel enterprise and create opportunities for millions of Europeans working in Europe's cultural and creative industries. The sector represents 3.3% of EU GDP and is worth more than €150 billion in exports. Source: Europeana
Send correspondence concerning the Weekly News Digest to NewsBreaks editor
Paula J. Hane
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