[okfn-discuss] autonomo.us discuss

Fri Oct 17 00:12:20 BST 2008

Just a quick note to say that there is a new list for discussion of 
free/open network services at autonomo.us:

   http://autonomo.us/2008/10/autonomous-discuss/
   http://lists.autonomo.us/mailman/listinfo/discuss

I'll try and copy material directly relevant to OSSD here!

J.

-------- Original Message --------
Nice analogy Aaron!

Thought it might be worth quoting OSSD v.1.1 which was modified a little
while back to to incorporate privacy concerns into stipulation of open
data.

<quote>
An open software service is one:

  1. Whose data is open as defined by the open knowledge definition
(http://opendefinition.org/1.0/) with the exception that where the data
is personal in nature the data need only be made available to the user
(i.e. the owner of that account).
  2. Whose source code is:
    i. Free/Open Source Software (that is available under a license in
the OSI or FSF approved list -- see note 3).
    ii. Made available to the users of the service.
</quote>

(From: http://opendefinition.org/ossd)

I like Luis' example as to how 'personal' data is not clear cut. I
wonder if there is any literature we can look to to clarify this?

Any suggestions for mods to the OSSD would, of course, be warmly
welcomed! :-)

J.

Luis Villa wrote:
 > On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 4:18 PM, Aaron Swartz <me at aaronsw.com> wrote:
 >> The US Federal Government has two regulations, the Freedom of
 >> Information Act and the Privacy Act. The Freedom of Information Act
 >> says that the government has to give you any data they have, unless it
 >> violates national security or the privacy of a living person. The
 >> Privacy Act says the government has to give you all the information
 >> they have about you.
 >>
 >> I think we should expect the same sort of thing from Open Network
 >> Services. They should give the public all the data that doesn't
 >> violate anyone's privacy and provide export features so that all users
 >> can get out their own data.
 >
 > Interesting and useful analogy.
 >
 > Note that there is an in-between case: data that is 'personal' (only
 > visible to the author and recipient, or to their social group) (e.g.,
 > facebook wall postings) but with personal implications for more than
 > one person. If you post on my wall, is that 'my' data? 'your' data?
 > both of our data?
 >
 > Tangent: by analogy to the GPL, I'd generally avoid saying 'give X to
 > /the public/' and instead say 'give X to the people to whom the
 > proprietary version has been distributed' or something along those
 > lines. Simplifies the social networking case a bit, among other
 > things.
 >
 > Luis
 > _______________________________________________
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 > Discuss at lists.autonomo.us
 > http://lists.autonomo.us/mailman/listinfo/discuss