[OKFN-AU] Welcome to Open Knowledge Foundation Australia

[Natasha Dwyer]

Welcome and thanks for joining this new list for the discussion of Open Knowledge in Australia. We look forward to sharing news regarding open knowledge in Australia as well as notable developments overseas and we welcome your contributions.

Some key developments in Australia in recent weeks include

·         The Australian Government has recommended that public sector information be released free of charge under a Creative Commons Attribution licence by default under the Australian Government Intellectual Property Manual<http://www.ag.gov.au/Intellectualproperty/Pages/IntellectualPropertyManual.aspx>.

·         The National Archives of Australia has developed a Digital Continuity Plan<http://www.naa.gov.au/records-management/agency/digital/digital-continuity/plan/index.aspx>, which will be a key element of a Federal Government policy that aims to see all government agencies transition to a comprehensive digital information management scheme. Digital continuity ensures that information is complete, available, and useable by those who wish to use it. Benefits of this approach include increased transparency, more efficient business processes, increased useability of information, and a saving of up to $200 million a year in paper storage costs.

·         The Brisbane City Council is running a hack::Brisbane competition<http://data.brisbane.qld.gov.au/index.php/about-hack-brisbane/>, which allows anyone to use the Council’s datasets<http://data.brisbane.qld.gov.au/index.php/datasets/> to create useful, new applications, websites, or tools. There is a $10 000 prize for the overall best app or website and for the app or website that best contributes to making Brisbane’s facilities and services more inclusive and accessible. The closing date is coming up on 18 May 2012 and current submissions can be seen in the gallery<http://data.brisbane.qld.gov.au/index.php/hack-brisbane-entries/>.

·         The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has released several pieces of footage from key events in Australian history under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licence and that material is now available on Wikimedia Commons<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Files_from_the_Australian_Broadcasting_Corporation>. The clips include moments from the Tampa affair, the release of Lindy Chamberlain from jail, and an interview with Arthur C. Clarke in which he predicts the use of the Internet in all aspects of our lives decades before that became reality. The rest of the ABC’s open archive footage uses CC licences that restrict commercial use so the use of a CC-BY-SA licence is an important step. It is hoped that the ABC’s move in the right direction will encourage other broadcasters to consider releasing some of their works under open content licences.

The website for Open Knowledge Foundation Australia is now online at http://au.okfn.org/  and we will be adding content over the next few weeks, including further recent developments in open knowledge both in Australia and overseas.  Please let us know if you would like to contribute a blog post or relevant pictures to the website or if there are relevant events, activities, or initiatives you feel should be discussed.

The administrator of this list is Professor Anne Fitzgerald of QUT’s Law Faculty. Anne has worked on open knowledge/open access issues for several years, on projects including OAK Law (Open Access to Knowledge - Law<http://www.oaklaw.qut.edu.au/>), Legal Framework for e-research<http://www.e-research.law.qut.edu.au/>, and the Government Information Licensing Framework. Current activities include managing Creative Commons Australia<http://creativecommons.org.au/> (particularly the Government and Education sector outreach) and the Access to and Use of Public Sector Information Project<http://www.aupsi.org/>. Assisting Anne is intern Natasha Dwyer, a final year Bachelor of Creative Industries/Bachelor of Laws student at QUT.

Thanks for your interest in Open Knowledge Foundation Australia.  We look forward to working with you and hearing about new developments and issues.
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