Companies House is one of the umpires of British capitalism. The agency, based in Cardiff, runs the official register of UK businesses and their shareholders. Its database is the first port of call for anyone checking corporate bona fides.
Unlike most umpires, however, Companies House also competes in the game it supervises. As it adopts new technology, the agency is moving up the value chain in a growing market for electronic business information. Other firms fear that the state monopoly's entrepreneurial zeal, driven largely by government policy, could put them out of business.
The case of Companies House illustrates some of the conflicts faced by government trading funds required to fund essential services by selling information-based services. Guardian Technology's Free our Data campaign argues the two roles should be separated in the interests of nurturing a knowledge economy....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/18/2006 12:05:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
