[okfn-discuss] Fwd: Important Opportunity for Feedback into the US White House

Thu Dec 10 15:26:41 UTC 2009

Thought this might be of interest...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Novak, Kevin <KevinNovak at aia.org>
Date: Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Subject: Important Opportunity for Feedback into the US White House
To: eGovIG IG <public-egov-ig at w3.org>
Cc: Vera.Newhouse at edelman.com, karen at w3.org

All,

I received the below information from the White House last evening and
felt it important to share with the group.

Please as always when commenting: if you are promoting a consensus
position of the group, please identify yourself as a group member and
commenting on behalf of the group, if you are taking a personal
position, please identify as such.

Kevin

Dear Open Gov Community:

Three quick updates:

First, Norm Eisen and Beth Noveck have posted “Why Open Government
Matters” (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/09/why-open-government-matters).
In it they discuss some of the 20 new open government initiatives
launched this week (http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/commitments).
Without waiting for the Directive, every cabinet department has
stepped up to launch a new project in support of the Administration’s
goal of creating more accountable and effective government.

Second, tomorrow we are launching a public consultation on Public
Access Policy.  The Administration is seeking public input on access
to publicly-funded research results, such as those that appear in
academic and scholarly journal articles. Currently, the National
Institutes of Health require that research funded by its grants be
made available to the public online at no charge within 12 months of
publication. The Administration is seeking views as to whether this
policy should be extended to other science agencies and, if so, how it
should be implemented.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of
the President and the White House Open Government Initiative is
launching a “Public Access Policy Forum” to invite public
participation in thinking through what the Federal government’s policy
should be with regard to public access to published federally-funded
research results. To that end, OSTP will conduct an interactive,
online discussion beginning Thursday, December 10. We will focus on
three major areas of interest:

Implementation (Dec. 10 to 20): Which Federal agencies are good
candidates to adopt Public Access policies? What variables (field of
science, proportion of research funded by public or private entities,
etc.) should affect how public access is implemented at various
agencies, including the maximum length of time between publication and
public release?
Features and Technology (Dec. 21 to Dec 31): In what format should the
data be submitted in order to make it easy to search and retrieve
information, and to make it easy for others to link to it? Are there
existing digital standards for archiving and interoperability to
maximize public benefit? How are these anticipated to change?
Management (Jan. 1 to Jan. 7): What are the best mechanisms to ensure
compliance? What would be the best metrics of success? What are the
best examples of usability in the private sector (both domestic and
international)? Should those who access papers be given the
opportunity to comment or provide feedback?

Each of these topics will form the basis of a blog posting that will
appear at www.whitehouse.gov/open and will be open for comment on the
OSTP blog at blog.ostp.gov.

Third, voting ends tomorrow for the SAVE award so please make sure to
visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/save-award to cast your vote.

Thank you.

Kevin Novak

Vice President, Integrated Web Strategy and Technology

The American Institute of Architects

1735 New York Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20006

Email:  Kevinnovak at aia.org

Voice: 202-626-7303

Cell:     202-731-0037

-- 
Jonathan Gray

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