[open-archaeology] Open Data Licences and the Heritage Lottery Fund (great guidance but recommend the NC clause) - lobbying activity

Fri Feb 8 08:07:22 UTC 2013

Thanks Ant (and Lorna)

There's been a lot of interesting development (good and bad) in this area
recently and I've been very keen to respond but simply out of time to do it
properly. However, the big shift appears to have been that 'NC-ND is the
new Closed', i.e. pretty much everyone says they support Open Access but,
for the reasons you suggest, many organisations are urging NC-ND clauses
for reasons which are not necessarily well thought out (that's a
generalisation of course - there are time when such a clause might be
appropriate). See for example the announcement from the Royal Historical
Society, section i):
http://www.royalhistoricalsociety.org/RHSPresidentE-letterJanuary2013.pdf

As such I'd be very keen if possible to generalise such a workshop a little
bit to produce a document that can be used beyond the HLF. Ideally it
should make clear the likely consequences of such clauses, so that any
given organisation can make its own decision as to how far they align with
its goals. Can I also propose that we consult someone with strong legal
expertise in this area (possibly from OKFN, ODI or CC?) so that we have a
rock-solid foundation for any claims we make? There is also a question of
whether we have time to wait until the HLF get back to us - are there other
venues that might be available in order to make this happen quickly. This
shift has happened very recently and it is important to respond quickly
before NC-ND becomes established orthodoxy.

Lastly, I'd prefer it if the document were signed personally, only insofar
as OKFN is an open forum and there is no established mechanism in place to
gauge either how many people are in fact being consulted, or what ratio of
them are actually in support. A claim of 'tacit' agreement by known
contributors would be both unfair on them and weaken the status of the
document. Naturally I would personally be happy to sign any such document
however (in addition to a petition to the HLF) and would encourage others
to do so as well.

One last thing - I tried to add my name to the doc but it appears to be
view-only?

Cheers

L.

On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 9:25 PM, Ant Beck <ant.beck at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> TL/DR: We would like to influence the Heritage Lottery Fund to change
> their data licence from CC-BY-NC to CC-BY to stop data fragmentation. Do
> you support this?
>
> I've been in communication with Lorna Richardson over the past few months
> about the Heritage Lottery Fund guidance entitled “Using digital
> technologies in heritage projects”. This is a truly wonderful and
> forwarding looking piece of work which IMHO opinion has a substantial flaw;
> they mandate that any content they fund must be made available under a
> CC-BY-NC licence. I'm loving it until the Non-Commercial clause.
>
> I believe they have done this with the best of intentions but do not quite
> see the potential negative implications the NC clause this may have over
> the medium to long term.
> I have spoken to one of their managers and they are somewhat perplexed as
> to why NC might be a problem. I said I would get in touch with a number of
> organisations, get a concensus and then get back to them (although likely
> to be informally through Bob Bewley in the first instance). This is the
> first step in this process.
>
> Together with Lorna we have created a document which outlines the impact
> of NC as we see it and have set forward some recommendations to try to
> influence HLF to change this clause (at least for the data elements - I do
> have sympathy with their arguments that the data creators should be in the
> best position to financially exploit the resources they generate
> particularly if this is images, video or books (but not data (I don't
> consider raw photos to be data per-se))). The recommendation is to organise
> a workshop (under the auspices of OKF or ADS??) with key stakeholders in
> place. The outputs can be used to catalyse an immediate re-draft or inform
> a future re-draft (depending on how they take the recommendations!).
>
> You can find the document here: https://docs.google.com/**
> document/d/1nw8kwSYdcLgf_**QFo5sugRgrwtDtYZomeJ4Sh9T-**
> T46Y/edit?usp=sharing<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nw8kwSYdcLgf_QFo5sugRgrwtDtYZomeJ4Sh9T-T46Y/edit?usp=sharing>
>
> It is open to edits and comments: please feel free.
>
> Please be aware this is primarily of UK interest. However, the
> implications are global.
>
> I would like to find out if:
> this document reflects the views of the members of this forum (i.e. can I
> sign it off as representative of this forum).
> how we can get OKF to provide support for this activity (someone with
> decent debating skills at the workshop with a rounded legal knowledge of
> the CC licences and their impact on the data landscape)
> which other forums/stakeholders to canvas (Antiquist/ADS, etc.)
> Views on stakeholders to invite
> Views on funding (HLF may not fund this activity)
> and obviously critique of the document itself.
>
> I've pasted the executive summary below.
>
> Thanks for reading this far :-)
>
> Best
>
> Ant
>
> Executive Summary
>
> The HLF have produced a guidance document entitled 'Using digital
> technologies in heritage projects'. This document establishes a 21st
> century agenda for funding agencies by recognising the long-term role that
> project content play in science and social agendas. The Open Data in
> Archaeology working group strongly endorses this document and believes that
> improving long-term access to project content will have immense impact
> across domains and have particular benefits for engagement.
>
> However, the Open Data in Archaeology working group has some concerns
> about the use of the Creative Commons by attribution non-commercial
> (CC-BY-NC) licence for all project content. Whilst we see the benefit for
> many project resources we would question the benefit of this licence for
> resources described as 'preservation technologies'. We feel that whilst
> CC-BY-NC may provide some short-term benefits it has the potential to
> produce license incompatibilities which may introduce profound problems in
> the medium to long term. It has the potential to fragment the data
> landscape creating pockets of knowledge which are rarely used in mainstream
> analysis, research or policy making. This will be further exacerbated when
> automated data aggregation and analysis systems become the norm. We believe
> that such fragmentation goes against the intent of the HLF document which
> is clearly focused on accessibility, engagement and enjoyment by all.
>
> We would like to engage in further discussion with the HLF on these issues
> and propose that a workshop is established to bring together the major
> re-use stakeholders under the umbrella of the Open Knowledge Foundation
> (who will provide legal, technical and practical advice on licence issues).
>
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