ReadWriteWeb

Prospective cloud customers - both consumers and enterprises - throughout Europe are wary of the possibility, however remote, that the contents of their cloud deployments may become open to inspection by government authorities. Not European governments, mind you, but American, by virtue of the Patriot Act. Passed into law before legislators ever pondered the prospects of virtual servers in the cloud, the U.S. law grants federal investigators authority, under court order, to ask service providers for information from and about their customers, for use in anti-terrorist surveillance.

Leading U.K.-based telecom analyst firm Informa has been measuring the extent to which European carriers have been withholding their investments in cloud technology, in U.S. dollars. This morning, Informa released its findings, which indicate an almost crippling setback for the continent as it struggles to stay competitive with North America and Asia/Pacific.

A new study from Forrester proves that the majority of Americans are a bunch of lazy re-tweeters. 93% of online consumers in the emerging markets of China, India, Mexico and Brazil use social media tools at least once-a-month. U.S. and European consumers are far more likely to view social media as a spectator sport, joining it and then just watching it fly by.

In the U.S., 68% of social media users are "joiners," which means they maintain a profile on a social networking site and visit social networks. 73% are "spectators," or users who mostly just read blogs, online forums, customer ratings/reviews and tweets, listen to podcasts and watch videos. This number is strikingly similar in Europe (EU-7 countries, to be specific), with 69% of users classified as spectators and 50% as joiners.

A few recent legal developments affecting U.S. online privacy have rightfully troubled privacy advocates and civil libertarians on American soil. In addition to the Patriot Act's relaxed regulation of law enforcement's access to private data, recent court rulings have made it clear that U.S. authorities can secretly request data from tech companies without the user ever knowing.

If this seems objectionable from the standpoint of U.S. citizens, imagine how it looks to outsiders who are storing their data there. Some European companies who do business with U.S. technology companies are concerned enough to start looking elsewhere for infrastructure.

The impression most people in the West have of the Arabic world, and the wider Muslim world, is sometimes crazy, sometimes reasonable, but always provisional. It's unavoidable that people only have time, and mental space, to understand so much about a culture not their own. But in this case, there is an aspect of Arab history that even many Arabs don't know. They invented agriculture.

To be more accurate, they moved farming from a folkway to a science; and they did it in Europe, or at least codified it there, in Al-Anadalus, Muslim Spain. Now, with the Filāḥa Texts Project, a group is using online collaboration to make these Andalucian writings on our common agricultural heritage accessible to everyone.

The European Union says its member states must do more to digitize Europe's cultural heritage and not simply leave that work to the private sector. To do otherwise, suggests a recently commissioned report, could steer Europe away from a digital Renaissance and "into a digital dark age."

The report by the "Comité des Sages" was delivered to the European Commission earlier this week and calls for continued development of Europeana, the portal to Europe's digital libraries, as well as for efforts to expand access to public domain material. EU member states must ensure that all material that's digitized with public funding is available online and that all public domain masterpieces are available via Europeana by 2016. Works that are still covered by copyright but are no longer distributed commercially need to be brought online as well, and if the rights holders do not do so, cultural institutions must have the opportunity to digitize the material and make it available to the public.

European startup incubator Seedcamp has launched a new online platform, Seedsummit.org, aimed at connecting startups with European seed investors. An attempt to create a European version of the incredibly successful AngelList, plans for the website grew out of the Seedsummit conference last year, along with the recognition that Europe needed a "stronger more cohesive network to support enrepreneurs."

Springboard has launched a new mentorship-led accelerator program for European startups. Springboard debuted in 2009 as an "accidental incubator" emerging from the company Red Gate Software.

Springboard aims to help early stage startups. The program offers seed capital, office space, and "most importantly - that magical ingredient of 'smart-community' with mentors and other entrepreneurs." It's a 13-week program, based at Cambridge University's ideaSpace. Participants will receive £5,000 per founder (to a maximum of three founders) for which Springboard will accept 6% of founder shares.

They don't call Europe the Old World for nothing. Sometimes old European ways of doing things are not at all consistent with the realities of the Internet. Take France for example: There's a union for people who sell antiques and vintage stuff at flea markets professionally. To prevent unfair competition against these pros, the law says individuals are only allowed to sell at flea markets twice a year. This union sued eBay because they had the nerve to let just anybody sell stuff to just anybody whenever they felt like it

That's just one example from only one sector, in only one old country among many, all of them trying to preserve their way of life and protect their people and cultures, while struggling to stay relevant (or become relevant, some might say) in the digital era.

German authorities have recently expressed skepticism about cloud computing and the potential it has for breaking data protection laws.

According to the Information Law Group, there is no imminent danger of a European crackdown, but legal experts are advising international companies to address these potential concerns in their planning and operations.

If you're capable of seeing past the old stones of Paris and the picturesque rural villages, you'll realize that France is every bit as technologically advanced as any other Western country - more so in some areas. Not only does the country have a higher percentage of homes with high-speed Internet than the U.S. (plus it's faster and costs half as much), it ranks first in the world for number of blogs per Internet user, and has a formidable market of Internet consumers who spent €5.5 billion online in the first quarter of this year.

When I came to Paris in 2006, I had a well-developed idea for a startup and nothing else. It's now been about three years since I joined the fray as an entrepreneur and tech blogger. In that time, I've discovered that the startup scene is infused with passion, energy and a strong spirit of collaboration.