Fwd: [cc-affiliates] Open Government and CC

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Ivan Chew

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May 9, 2013, 11:25:17 AM5/9/13

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Carroll
Date: Thursday, 9 May 2013
Subject: [cc-affiliates] Open Government and CC
To: cc-aff...@lists.ibiblio.org, Board CC <cc-b...@lists.ibiblio.org>, cc-s...@lists.ibiblio.org

Dear CC Colleagues,

The Obama Administration has just issued an Executive Order requiring more robust sharing of U.S. Government data. According to the White House press release,

Today’s actions—including an Executive Order signed by the President and an Open Data Policy released by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy—declare that information is a valuable national asset whose value is multiplied when it is made easily accessible to the public. The Executive Order requires that, going forward, data generated by the government be made available in open, machine-readable formats, while appropriately safeguarding privacy, confidentiality, and security.

You might find interesting how the policy defines “open data”. (Notice the provision on reusability).

Open data: For the purposes of this Memorandum, the term "open data" refers to publicly available data structured in a way that enables the data to be fully discoverable and usable by end users. In general, open data will be consistent with the following principles:

• Public. Consistent with OMB's Open Government Directive, agencies must adopt a presumption in favor of openness to the extent permitted by law and subject to privacy, confidentiality, security, or other valid restrictions.

• Accessible. Open data are made available in convenient, modifiable, and open formats that can be retrieved, downloaded, indexed, and searched. Formats should be machine-readable (i.e., data are reasonably structured to allow automated processing). Open data structures do not discriminate against any person or group of persons and should be made available to the widest range of users for the widest range of purposes, often by providing the data in multiple formats for consumption. To the extent permitted by law, these formats should be non-proprietary, publicly available, and no restrictions should be placed upon their use.

• Described. Open data are described fully so that consumers of the data have sufficient information to understand their strengths, weaknesses, analytical limitations, security requirements, as well as how to process them. This involves the use of robust, granular metadata (i.e., fields or elements that describe data), thorough documentation of data elements, data dictionaries, and, if applicable, additional descriptions of the purpose of the collection, the population of interest, the characteristics of the sample, and the method of data collection.

• Reusable. Open data are made available under an open license that places no restrictions on their use.

• Complete. Open data are published in primary forms (i.e., as collected at the source), with the finest possible level of granularity that is practicable and permitted by law and other requirements. Derived or aggregate open data should also be published but must reference the primary data.

• Timely. Open data are made available as quickly as necessary to preserve the value of the data. Frequency of release should account for key audiences and downstream needs.

• Managed Post-Release. A point of contact must be designated to assist with data use and to respond to complaints about adherence to these open data requirements.

Cheers,

Mike

Michael W. Carroll

Professor of Law and Director,

Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property

American University, Washington College of Law

4801 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20016

(202) 274-4047 (voice)

(202) 730-4756 (fax)

vcard: http://www.wcl.american.edu/faculty/mcarroll/vcard.vcf

Research papers: http://works.bepress.com/michael_carroll/
http://ssrn.com/author=330326
blog: http://www.carrollogos.blogspot.com/