Tag Archives: CASSANDRA

[UPDATE 4/2/13: We’ve had some questions about the meaning of “ALL.” Please read the comment thread for clarification. We don’t mean “records” (which fall under FOIA) and we don’t mean classified information. We mean public domain documents, publications, reports, data, statistics and the like. JRJ]

A convergence of several things — the White House’s new policy on Open Access to federally funded scientific information, the NAPA Report on the GPO, the CASSANDRA Letter to the Public Printer, and Sunshine Week among them — has led us to create a petition on the White House’s We the People petition site. If you believe in free permanent public access to authentic government information, we hope you’ll sign the petition and forward on to all your friends and social networks to help us reach our goal of 100,000 signatures by April 11, 2013! Thanks in advance!!

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:

Require free online permanent public access to ALL federal government information and publications.

1. Assure that GPO has the funds to continue to maintain and develop the Federal Digital System (FDsys).

2. Raise ALL Congressional, Executive & Judicial branch information, publications & data to the level of federally funded scientific information & publish ALL government information as “Open Access.”

3. Mandate the free permanent public access to other Federal information currently maintained in fee-based databases – including the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), the National Technical Reports Library (NTRL), & USA Trade Online.

4. Establish an interagency, govt-wide strategy to manage the entire lifecycle of digital government information w/ FDLP Libraries – publication, access, usability, bulk download, long-term preservation, standards & metadata.

Background:

The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) completed an operational review of the Government Printing Office (GPO) mandated under the 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act (Public Law 112-74). The NAPA report, “Rebooting the Government Printing Office: Keeping America Informed in the Digital Age,” acknowledged the obligation Congress has to establish an interagency government-wide strategy to manage the lifecycle of digital government information. The report also acknowledged the vital role GPO plays in providing free permanent public access to authentic government information in tangible formats through its Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and to authentic government information in electronic formats via GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDSys).

However, Recommendation 4 states: “GPO and Congress should explore alternative funding models for the Federal Digital System in order to ensure a stable and sufficient funding source.” Among the models recommended are “…reimbursement for services; fees for end users; dedicated appropriations; and/or an automatic charge to agencies, depending on size, to encourage agencies to take advantage of GPO’s existing infrastructure and cover the cost of the services being provided by GPO.”

Just as the Obama Administration supports the public’s right to “free access over the Internet to scientific journal articles arising from taxpayer-funded research,” the Administration must support the creation of “stable and sufficient funding” to ensure free permanent public access to authentic government information arising from the work of taxpayer-funded Executive, Congressional, and Judicial Branch agencies.

Notes:

1. NAPA report, “Rebooting the Government Printing Office: Keeping America Informed in the Digital Age.”
2. CASSANDRA Letter to US Public Printer in response to the NAPA Report.
3. Expanding Public Access to the Results of Federally Funded Research. John P. Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
4. White House response to “We The People” petition “Increasing Public Access to the Results of Scientific Research”
5. Government Accountability Office (GAO), Information Management: National Technical Information Service’s Dissemination of Technical Reports Needs Congressional Attention. GAO-13-99, November 19, 2012. Context on the GAO report from FGI.
6. GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys): http://fdsys.gov
7. PACER: http://www.pacer.gov
8. National Technical Reports Library (NTRL): http://ntrl.ntis.gov
9. USAtrade: https://www.usatradeonline.gov
10. Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). http://fdlp.gov