Appleseed is an organisation which aims to Educate, Enable and Enhance the use of Open, Transparent and Shareable solutions to problems.

Educate by informing – particularly charities and public bodies, but also commercial companies and others – of the availability of Open Data and Open Source solutions. In many cases choices of solutions are made only out of those widely promoted by commercial interests, but these are not necessarily best for the users.

Enable – by giving specific grants to UK charities to pilot use of open Protocols and software

Enhance – by funding targetted improvements to Open Source to improve interoperability and standards compliance

Small bites

Our wold of information is dominated by a small number of giant corporations. Their dominance is so complete that we tend to treat them as a given, in a way we would not if, say one Newspaper group controlled almost all the Newspapers.

Were these giant corporations not all based within the World’s Greatest Democracy, with whom the UK has a Special Relationship, there would be more cause for concern. The European Union, lacking such a Relationship is taking steps to protect its Digital Sovereignty, and the Open Rights Group believe the UK should also be concerned about Digital Sovereignty .

Appleseed aims to talk to people, rather than governments, thinking globally, but acting locally. Using small, actionable steps, people can make the world more open, more free, and more equal.