[open-government] Call for Comments on Draft National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy | Deadline: May 25, 2011

[Jonathan Gray]

This looks interesting. While there is mention of 'open data policy'
and this probably means something to most of us on this list -
unfortunately I think in official policy documents and recommendations
this probably still requires a bit of clarification to be meaningful.

I.e. 'open data policy' is not just 'generally making stuff available
online and having policies that promote openness and transparency and
participation'. It should probably have at least two of the following
;-)

  (i) making information available for reuse without restriction (as
in opendefinition.org) - at least 'by default' or 'a presumption in
favour of, with limited exceptions'
  (ii) something about removing technical barriers to reuse (whether
this is framed in terms of machine-readability, 'raw' data, bulk
access, or whatever else)

See, e.g. the US Open Government Directive, the UK Public Data
Principles, the NZGOAL licensing framework, and so on.

(Should the OpenDataManual.org have a section on drafting open data
principles or creating open data policies - in addition to the stuff
on licensing / legal tools?)

J.

2011/5/20 Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org>:
> Dear all,
> This might be of interest to those in this group.
>
> Regards,
> Pranesh
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Call for Comments on Draft National Data Sharing and Accessibility
> Policy | Deadline: May 25, 2011
> Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 13:26:15 +0530
> From: Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org>
> Organization: Centre for Internet and Society
>
> Dear all,
> The draft itself (which could be much better, imho): http://goo.gl/ierxf
>
> Comments should be sent by 25th May 2011 to Maj. Gen. (Dr.) R. Siva Kumar
> <siva_k at nic.in> or Mr. Bhoop Singh <bhoopsingh at nic.in>.
>
> May I request that you pass on a copy of your comments to me as well (and
> tell others you know who're sending in comments to do so as well)?  We would
> like to compile civil society feedback to the draft policy.
>
> From the NSDI NDSAP website:
> The background paper: http://goo.gl/h3Rub (1 page, PDF)
>
> And from a "Points to be considered for NDSAP" document:
>>
>> * With the advent of new technologies we need to have better access to
>> information. In addition to operating the traditional request-based system
>> where a member of the public asks for a government document and receives a
>> hard copy (or an electronic one), through RTI, there is a need to
>> proactively provide data where members of the public can search for material
>> themselves. This should lead to “open government,” whereby citizens are able
>> not only to obtain electronic access to government documents and services,
>> but also to interact with them and give feedback on matters ranging from
>> individual service problems to statistics and policy.
>> * Data available globally should become accessible to citizens and civil
>> society. If we need weather data we should get it from our own agencies and
>> not from NASA/NOAA.
>> * Open data policy will also increase credibility and accuracy of our own
>> data sets and instill confidence. The disparate non performing data assets
>> collected over centuries could be leveraged for the benefit of civil
>> society.
>> * To start with we have to generate metadata (data about) to enable data
>> discovery and its exploration for the developmental activities. This will
>> avoid duplication/multiplication of data generation activities and also
>> increase the reliability of data sets being used.
>> * The negative lists should automatically exclude the information that
>> does not come under the purview of the RTI act.
>> * It requires the integration of new-generation digital media technologies
>> into government structure and operations.
>> * Data generated using public funds should be accessible and available
>> avoiding duplication of efforts
>> * We also need to strike a balance between the security and development,
>> IPR, Privacy etc.
>> * The legacy data should be converted into digital form in a realistic
>> time frame
>> * Besides the technical issues of interoperability and standards, legal,
>> institutional and privacy issues also need to be addressed.
>
> Regards,
> Pranesh
>
> --
> Pranesh Prakash
> Programme Manager
> Centre for Internet and Society
> W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283
>
>
>
>
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>
>



-- 
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
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