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UNESCO Promotes Governmental Public Domain Information
UNESCO's final guidelines to Member States on policies for the development and promotion of public domain information increases the emphasis on the responsibilities of governments to make public sector information available to citizens. Policy Guidelines for the Development and Promotion of Governmental Public Domain Information by Paul F. Uhlir. Paris, 2004. [Available as a Microsoft Word document in English, French, and Spanish] Series/Report ID CI-2004/WS/05 Continue reading
NOAA Weather Data Move Is Controversial
New NOAA information policy stirs debate By Joab Jackson Government Computer News, 12/13/04; Vol. 23 No. 34.
Recently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that it would make weather data in an open, non-proprietary format (XML).
To what extent should agencies make their data available to the public, and how much should they rely on the private sector to do the job for them?
Commercial providers of weather information worry that NOAA will duplicate industry services and compete with them at taxpayer expense. Advocacy groups fret that NOAA’s material might be given exclusively to media companies, which could resell the information to the public or make it available through advertisement-supported conduits.
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Weather Data: Open, not proprietary!
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is switching from proprietary data formats to open Internet standards. NOAA opens data by Aliya Sternstein, Federal Computer Week, Dec. 6, 2004.
For years, information from the National Weather Service has been distributed by private data companies such as AccuWeather. Critics of the system say taxpayers, in effect, paid twice for the data: once with their tax dollars, and again through fees to the commercial provider.
more:
- NOAA Polilcy
- NOAA ISSUES NEW PARTNERSHIP POLICY NOAA Magazine Dec. 1, 2004
- Who Owns the Weather? by Ari Schwartz, Center for Democracy and Technology Associate Director, July 28, 2004 Continue reading
Florida government office may not copyright maps
Official loses copyright case By MIKE HOYEM, The News-Press Bonita Springs Florida, December 8, 2004.
A court has ruled Collier County Property Appraiser Abe Skinner cannot copyright maps created by his office and demand royalties from those who use them to make a profit. Wednesday's decision by the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland was hailed as a victory for public records access by the First Amendment Foundation, an open-government advocacy group in Tallahassee.Continue reading
Historians’ access to government documents increasingly difficult
A report by the Organization of American Historians OAH Committee on Academic Freedom notes that "the last two presidential administrations have made historians" access to government documents increasingly difficult." It also notes "direct efforts by the federal administration and by foundations and web sites that support it to shape the content of teaching and research in directions favorable to its policies." See OAH Committee on Academic Freedom by David Montgomery, OAH Newsletter, 32 (November 2004). Continue reading
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