Joinup

Key takeaways

Joinup belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Joinup to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Joinup from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Joinup (name replaced in 2024 by "Interoperable Europe Portal") is a collaboration platform created by the European Commission. It is funded by the European Union via its Interoperability Solutions for Public Administrations Programme (ISA Programme). Joinup was launched on 9 December 2011. It replaced the Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR.eu) and the Semantic Interoperability Centre Europe (SEMIC.eu), themselves communities funded by the ISA Programme. These two became Joinup's initial communities. Article 8 of the EU Regulation Interoperable Europe Act of March 13, 2024 created the Interoperable Europe Portal, which is the new name for Joinup

Objectives The site aims to let public administrations promote their e-government systems. More specifically, it offers a meeting place and a collaborative working environment for the development of interoperability. Joinup hosts communities of practice, such as the community for the Common Assessment Method for Standards and Specifications (CAMSS) and the community for the National Interoperability Frameworks Observatory (NIFO). The platform also raises awareness on free and open source software and semantic interoperability in the public sector. Joinup offers a catalogue of open source software, interoperability assets and models such as the Interoperability Maturity Model (IMM). The target audience includes those using, developing and implementing e-government systems. The site focuses on the European public sector, but the projects are open to all others.

Platform, repository and federation The platform has three main functions:

Sharing of information, by publishing news, case studies and listing relevant events; Cataloguing re-usable interoperability software, taxonomies, vocabularies, code-lists, licences, organisational assets and guidelines; Allowing public administrations to collaborate with each other on development projects. Joinup provides access to a Federation catalogue hosted by public administrations in EU member states and standardisation bodies such as the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Joinup is also used by the European Commission's Directorate General for Informatics to make available all of its applications. Examples include Circabc, a document management system, Open e-Prior, a tool to help manage electronic procurement, and OnLine Collection Software for ECI, to help organisations gather signatures that support their request to the European Commission to propose legislation. In December 2014, the ISA Programme added the ePractice community to the Joinup platform. ePractice offers services for the professional community of eGovernment, eInclusion and eHealth practitioners. In January 2015, the OpenGovernment community was added by the EC's Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology A detailed list of all the potential services someone receives by registering at this platform can be found at JoinUp's website. A list of all the software contributions made by the community are at JoinUp's website. As said in introduction the new name of the website is now (after April 2024) "Interoperable Europe Portal". The Portal hosts recent tools like the European Commissions' Licensing Assistant, which makes possible the open licenses selection and comparison based on more than 40 subjects or categories, with access to their SPDX identifier and full text.

Open source technology behind Joinup The Joinup platform is powered by a tailored version of the Drupal content management framework (version 6) and can be downloaded from the Joinup web site. Its latest version is 1.7.2 (released on March 15, 2015). The source code of some past versions can be found at JoinUp's website. The development of the platform is done on hosts running Debian Linux. The Joinup platform runs on 10 hosts in the EC's datacentre in Luxembourg. It includes a load balancer, some network-attached storage and a reverse-proxy. The main part of the platform is on three Red Hat Linux hosts, running Apache webserver and Drupal. A fourth Linux host is running the Apache Tomcat Java server, the Apache Solr search engine and Apache Maven build automation tools. A fifth Linux host is running the Apache Subversion software versioning and revisioning system. There is a sixth Linux host running the MySQL relational database system and a seventh for GNU Mailman.

Similar services The platform's software is used to offer similar services involving public administrations in other regions and countries. In Australia and New Zealand, the Openray platform is being piloted since June 2012 by the Open Technology Foundation (OTF), a research organisation supporting the government sector in the research, evaluation, trialling and uptake of open technologies, standards and methods. By 21 November 2013, all semantic services were federated and show up in the Openray repository. Also on 21 November 2013, the government of South Australia announced that it would start piloting an internal version of the Joinup platform software and test the use of the EC's Open e-Prior. Its aim is to improve collaboration and procurement activities. Openroad is a similar collaboration platform, begun by Vietnam's Ministry of Science and Technology in January 2013.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Joinup

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Joinup claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Joinup before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Joinup ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Joinup

In research: Joinup appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Joinup in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Joinup is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computing platforms, European Commission, Information technology organizations based in Europe, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Joinup outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Joinup in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Joinup means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Joinup out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Joinup in simple terms?

Joinup (name replaced in 2024 by "Interoperable Europe Portal") is a collaboration platform created by the European Commission. It is funded by the European Union via its Interoperability Solutions for Public Administrations Programme (ISA Programme).

Why does Joinup matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Joinup?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Joinup.