[Aust-NZ] Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector Information and Data

[Rob Atkinson]

To separate out the issues, one might consider the only position that
is logically defensible to be:

1) There should be a general position regarding accountability, like
the intention (but not current practice!) of FOI laws, that taxpayer
funded activities should support free and open access for
non-commercial use to relevant information. This includes all spatial
information, with the well understood exceptions of personal private
details and national security. Specifically there should be a
presumption of public interest, with only commercial exploitation
restricted.

2) There should not be a technical cost associated in accessing data -
i.e. it should not be bound to a proprietary on in-house custom
technology.  FOSS has an obvious role in providing a baseline for what
is thus acceptable - there should be an onus on data access methods to
provide a FOSS reference implementation, and this should apply
automatically. Critically we mustnt contemplate building private data
distribution arrangements without a commensurate capability to make
the same data visible and accessible using open standards and
licenses.

3) given a move to service architectures and automated data delivery
anyway it is unreasonable to charge for access to data, beyond direct
costs of bandwidth, which should be charged on the same basis as any
other user. (if any user gets the data freely, then open public access
should too). Any costs incurred by decisions to restrict access
(setting up and managing request or registration systems etc) should
be borne by the organisation that imposes these decisions, not the
public interest.  Costs of enforcing licencing restrictions should be
borne by the commercialisation process.

4) "Well known" licence forms will be far more cost-effective for all
parties than creating custom licencing arrangements.

Of course, common sense will not easily prevail, and even if the
debate happens and reason prevails I expect to see any constructive
action successfully delayed behind YAMCS (yet another metadata
creation scheme).  Still, each time around there are more people on
the side of the angels..

Rob Atkinson




On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 11:59 AM,  <Bruce.Bannerman at dpi.vic.gov.au> wrote:
>
> IMO:
>
> Cameron,
>
>
> To be honest, this came as a surprise to me. No, I was not aware of it.
>
> Thank you Brianna for making the link available to the list.
>
>
> I'm in the process of wading through the documentation at the moment. From
> what I've seen so far it is looking very encouraging. They are not only
> looking at issues relating to open content but also to open source.
>
> I would encourage other list members who would like to open up access to
> spatial data in Victoria to do the same.
>
>
> I intend making a private submission to the enquiry, as this is a particular
> area that I've been interested in for over a decade.
>
>
> However, if there is sufficient interest from the list, I'll be happy to
> share what I start with and we can build it as a community.
>
> Given the Open Source and open access to spatial data aspects of the
> enquiry, it may be very relevant the make a submission as OSGeo-AustNZ.
>
>
> Are there any other thoughts on this?
>
>
>
> Bruce Bannerman
>
>
>
>
>
> Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
>
> 07/08/2008 08:36 AM
>
> To
> Bruce Bannerman <Bruce.Bannerman at dpi.vic.gov.au>
> cc
> Subject
> Re: [Aust-NZ] Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector
> Information and Data
>
>
>
>
> Bruce,
> Are you aware of this, and if so, are you able to provide any background
> with regards to Vic Gov involvement and suggest any actions that OSGeo
> should take?
>
> Brianna Laugher wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm Brianna, a long-time lurker, vaguely interested in cool geo-stuff,
>> briefly de-lurking to let y'all know about this:
>>
>>
>> <http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/edic/inquiries/access_to_PSI/default.htm>
>> A Victorian Parliamentary inquiry "to examine a range of issues
>> surrounding the application of open content and open source licensing
>> to improve access to Victorian government information and data."
>> Submissions close August 22.
>>
>> Wikimedia Australia ( http://www.wikimedia.org.au/ ), who I'm involved
>> with, will likely make a submission.
>>
>> cheers,
>> Brianna
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Cameron Shorter
> Geospatial Systems Architect
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
> Commercial Support for Geospatial Open Source Solutions
> http://www.lisasoft.com/LISAsoft/SupportedProducts.html
>
>
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