Update from OWS.EU partner projects: Part 1

In November 2023 OWS.EU successfully onboarded six new partner projects looking into technical, legal and economic research topics in support of the European Open Web Index that is currently in the making. The projects were selected in 2023 following an open call. Currently projects from the second and third calls are being reviewed with updates following soon.

Market potential assessment by Mücke Roth & Company

One of the endeavours from call #1 was the MRC project, dealing with economical questions related to an Open Web Index. The project was initiated by Mücke Roth & Company (MRC) with the goal to assess the market potential of OWS.EU.

The analysis is already fully executed, with a comprehensive study on the market potential of OWS.EU being the major result of the project. The study that has revealed substantial economic and societal benefits of OWS.EU will be presented to the public in autumn 2024.

Key achievements of the MRC work include a cost-benefit analysis, the identification of key customer segments and market dynamics through competitor benchmarking and a quantification of the European search engine market potential.

Figure 1: Share of Benefits & Costs on Net Benefit over time (Market Potential Assessment for OWS.EU by Mücke Roth & Company)

Last but not least, the assessment incorporates additional customer feedback and further interviews validating the findings of the MRC project. Strategic recommendations were provided to OWS.EU by the MRC team based on the results of their work.

Currently implications of the EU AI Act are monitored in order to adapt the strategy in case new regulations may arise.

More about the MRC project

Legal, Intellectual Property & Cyber Security Aspects of Open Web Search

The OWS.EU-Project raises a multitude of highly complex legal questions. LISA (Legal, Intellectual Property and Cyber-Security Aspects) is one of the legal projects that has taken the challenge to determine legal questions, identify relevant legal risks and adequately address them. The goal is to define a legal framework for the development and operation of an Open Web Search Index.

In the first half of the project, the team around Prof. Dr. Matthias Wendland from the University of Oldenburg defined what constitutes illegal content and established the legal duties for operators of an Open Web Index. Legal requirements for takedown requests, including those for criminal content, IP infringements, and data protection were set out. Additionally, the ownership of digital content and of the Open Web Index was clarified and the legal framework necessary for sharing the index was created. Furthermore, the team drafted an End User License Agreement (EULA).

Figure 2: Data Centers & Legal Territoriality in OWS.EU (from the LISA framework)

In the remaining time of the LISA project, the team plans to focus on the design of a comprehensive legal framework for the Open Web Index, including governance structures and guidelines as well as best practices for its operation. Additionally, the End User License Agreement (EULA) to facilitate the sharing and usage of the index will be finalized and European legislative acts that came into force recently, will be monitored closely and incorporated to project’s plans and policies when necessary.

More about the LISA project

 

Second year around: #FreeWebSearch Day – a day for free access to digital information is happening again

Freedom of information and democracy within the digital sphere requires open access to online resources. The #FreeWebSearch Day on 29 September brings this topic to the agenda.

In 2023 the Open Search Foundation (OSF) – one of our 14 consortium partners, brought to life the International #FreeWebSearchDay, which on 29 September each year stands for free and transparent internet search: Via the #FWSD website people are invited to participate and advocate for free, transparent and open web search.

Intransparent information: A core problem

#FreeWebSearch Day on 29 September is all about raising awareness for the current lack of transparency within internet search.

“Many internet users still think that search results at the top of their results list are good, correct and trustworthy, even though they cannot know the criteria of the rankings,” states Christine Plote.

However, freedom of information is the most important foundation of a functioning democracy. There is still a huge lack of knowledge on how search results come about and are ranked or how a search engine will know, what is in a picture.

“Surprisingly, we seem to accept a high degree of digital illiteracy in this respect. Yet, it is high time that search and the evaluation of search results become part of the curricula of schools or universities, training and further education”, the co-founder of the OSF claims.

In addition, schools and companies should give higher priority to hot topics, such as the impacts on online search by artificial intelligence, the new text generators or Large Language Models (LLMs).

Call for Ideas : Actions, lectures, hackathons wanted

For #FreeWebSearch Day 2024 on 29 September contributions from many different fields of expertise are welcome: Companies, schools, universities & educational institutions, museums or associations are invited to contribute with (online) lectures, discussions, participatory activities or projects. IT specialists or programmers can contribute with technical know-how and organise hackathons and the like.
Additionally everyone can help spread awareness by downloading and reposting the #FWSD social media graphics to help spread the word.

Information and events on #FreeWebSearch Day on and around 29 September will be continuously updated at: www.FreeWebsearch.org

 

 

Nine projects selected to work with OWS.EU

Nine new projects will support our quest for a better European Web Search from July 2024 onwards. The projects are the winners of the last OWS.EU third-party calls #2 and #3, which opened in February 2024 and closed in April 2024.

The nine winners were selected from 49 submissions by a jury of experts from the OWS.EU project. Researchers, innovators and computing centres submitted their ideas for:

Call #2: Applications of the Open Web Index

or

Call #3: Data Centre on-boarding

The projects will receive funding ranging from 50.000 Euro to 150.000 Euro for a funding period of up to 12 months. Stay tuned for more information on the winner projects and read more about selected projects from call #1.