Australia's Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has issued a consultation paper asking for public input on, among other topics, OA to public sector information. Background and how to comment:
Industry and other stakeholders are invited to provide input to and comments on the specific topics raised below. Please forward your responses to DEFutureDirections@dbcde.gov.au by Wednesday 11 February 2009, clearly indicating any material that is commercial-in-confidence. The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy will collate and edit input for the Digital Economy Future Directions paper before publishing it in the first half of 2009.
From the introduction to the issue, see especially:
... There is considerable interest in increasing access to publicly-funded cultural,
educational and scientific collections. In some instances, publicly-funded institutions
have already made their material available on open access terms. For example, in
2008, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney became the first museum in the world to
release publicly-held historical photographs on the photo-sharing platform Flickr
under a ‘no known copyright’ identifier. Geotags are added to create an interactive
map documenting the position of the photographic content. The Museum is also
releasing its ‘Photo of the Day’ online under a Creative Commons license. Similarly,
in January 2008, the NSW State Library released 100 images of historical Australian
‘firsts’ on Flickr, also under a ‘no known copyright’ identifier. In the educational
space, the University of Southern Queensland’s OpenCourseWare program provides
access to free and open educational resources across several disciplines for students
and teachers worldwide. ...
The questions:
What categories of Public Sector Information (PSI) are most useful to industry and other stakeholders to enable innovation and promote the digital economy?
What are priority issues that will facilitate the use of PSI?
If PSI is made open access, what are the best formats to enable and promote use and reuse?
If PSI is made open access, what licensing terms would best facilitate and promote its use and reuse?
Should licensing terms distinguish between commercial uses and non-commercial uses and reuses?
Are there other examples of innovative, online uses of PSI?
Is there any additional economic modelling or other evidence to show the benefit to Australia from open access of PSI?
Comment. The paper's overview of OA to PSI is worth reading and generally favorable. It's especially promising to include "publicly-funded cultural,
educational and scientific collections" in the discussion alongside government data. Australians shouldn't miss this opportunity to weigh in.
See also our previous post about the government's blog on the issue.
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 1/26/2009 12:15:00 AM.
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.
