Public bodies hold a range of information and content ranging from demographic, economic and meteorological data to art works, historical documents and books. Given the availability of information and communication technologies (ICTs) public sector information can play an important role in producing innovative value-added services and goods. Furthermore, these technologies also provide a wider population better access to educational and cultural knowledge. Both commercial opportunities and the wider spread of information have positive economic and social benefits....In some OECD countries access regimes allow commercial re-users have cheap and readily available access to PSI. They then add value to the public data and re-sell it to firms and consumers. Some studies argue that such open access regimes improve competitive market conditions for PSI re-use, stimulate economic growth and create jobs. However there are also arguments that commercial re-users may have low-cost access to data which was costly to create for the government, and that taxpayers may pay twice for the PSI content (once for creation of government content, and the second time when purchasing the content from a commercial re-user, although provided re-use is non-exclusive, users can also go to the original source for the original information, presumably at lower cost, but without value-added services). On the other hand, in other OECD countries, there are access regimes where the public sector holds public sector information for its own use or employs cost-recovery strategies that allow only limited and potentially expensive access. In this scenario there are arguments that potential consumers of this data may have only restricted access to it, and that this approach is more costly to the consumer and for the taxpayer. Moreover, the potential economic gains from development of new commercial activities based on PSI reuse may be foregone. The economic and equity arguments surrounding commercial re-use of public sector information and content are complex and deserve considerably more analysis and policy attention....Scientific information and research data is not included in this analysis as it has been a separate digital broadband content study [PS: September 2005]....
In the United States, public information policy allows open and unrestricted access to public information. A circular by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB, 1996) states: "...government information is a valuable national resource, and...the economic benefits to society are maximized when government information is available in a timely and equitable manner to all." The OMB establishes as guiding principle for federal agencies that i) all public information be actively disseminated without imposing restrictions or conditions, ii) access should involve costs only to the extent that those cover expenses of dissemination and iii) it establishes that advantage should be taken of the various dissemination channels (e.g. private and academic) as well as of available technologies (including Internet, satellite downcast, etc.; Weiss, 2002). In the US the commercial re-use of the data is left primarily to the private sector. In Europe PSI is often seen as an asset to be exploited by the public sector. Access conditions diverge but many European public bodies and governments see the commercial exploitation of PSI as a welcome revenue stream.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/04/2006 12:03:00 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.
