[euopendata] Dutch Interior Minister proposes FOIA amendments

Wed Jun 8 10:41:29 UTC 2011

Sorry! I should have explained. Bad news re: limiting FOIA. Good news
re: open data. The good news was:

> there is also in terms of
> open data a lot to be liked:
> no copyright or database right claims by any public service body
> maximum charge for getting material is incremental cost of distribution,
> with no charging at all being also fine. This holds for all PSBs, including
> the ones currently charging for their data.
> Data catalogue explicitly mentioned as instrument in stimulating publication
> and data re-use.
> PSBs encouraged to much more pro-actively publish their material

Its worth also noting the argument that proactive release of open data
mitigates the need for resources to deal with FOI requests for this
data. I.e. if you publish it proactively (preferably as open data!)
then you might not have as many requests to deal with. Anyone know
anything good that has been written about this? Any case studies?

But of course I think that this is tangential to debates about what
level of resource commitment is appropriate for dealing with FOI
requests properly. (Pointing out that there are cheaper ingredients is
different from saying anything about the appropriate cost of the whole
cake, how much of a commitment to the cake should be made, etc!)

J.

On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Paola Di Maio <paola.dimaio at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Fantastic news!
>>
>
> Johnny, where exactly is the fantastic news? please explain?
>
>
> PDM
>
>
>
>
>> Ton: I also have been meaning to ask - are there any Dutch civil
>> servants that we could ask to write a brief overview of open data in
>> the Netherlands for OKF blog, and to invite to the euopendata list,
>> future events, etc?
>>
>> J.
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 12:14 PM, Ton Zijlstra <ton.zijlstra at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>> The Dutch minister for the interior recently made a speech on the 'day for
>>> freedom of the press' in which he suggested to limit the FOIA as it was a
>>> lot of work for the civil servants involved. That was met with a lot of
>>> protest of course.
>>> Meanwhile the minister has send a letter to parliament stating the actual
>>> changes he wants to make to the FOIA.
>>> While those protest causing elements are indeed also in the letter (though
>>> in a less worrying way than one might have feared) there is also in terms of
>>> open data a lot to be liked:
>>> no copyright or database right claims by any public service body
>>> maximum charge for getting material is incremental cost of distribution,
>>> with no charging at all being also fine. This holds for all PSBs, including
>>> the ones currently charging for their data.
>>> Data catalogue explicitly mentioned as instrument in stimulating publication
>>> and data re-use.
>>> PSBs encouraged to much more pro-actively publish their material
>>> Level of knowledge on FOIA and re-use to be raised with all PSBs.
>>> more
>>> here http://www.epsiplatform.eu/news/news/dutch_letter_to_parliament_on_foia
>>> best,
>>> Ton
>>> -------------------------------------------
>>> Interdependent Thoughts
>>> Ton Zijlstra
>>>
>>> ton at tonzijlstra.eu
>>> +31-6-34489360
>>>
>>> http://zylstra.org/blog
>>> -------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> euopendata mailing list
>>> euopendata at lists.okfn.org
>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/euopendata
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jonathan Gray
>>
>> Community Coordinator
>> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>> http://blog.okfn.org
>>
>> http://twitter.com/jwyg
>> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> euopendata mailing list
>> euopendata at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/euopendata
>>
>

-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://blog.okfn.org

http://twitter.com/jwyg
http://identi.ca/jwyg