Government Posting Wealth of Data to Internet, By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, New York Times (January 22, 2010).

The Obama administration on Friday is posting to the Internet a wealth of government data from all Cabinet-level departments, on topics ranging from child car seats to Medicare services. ...Under a Dec. 8 White House directive, each department must post online at least three collections of "high-value" government data that never have been previously disclosed. ...All the new data collections will be added to the government's Web site, data.gov.

Continue Reading →

In this case, the Open Knowledge Foundation has gone a long way toward clarification… See specifically SEE: http://opendefinition.org/ From the the “Open Knowledge Definition” home page: “In the simplest form the definition can be summed up in the statement that ‘A piece of knowledge is open if you are free to use, reuse, and redistribute it’. “ In detail the definition suggests: [for sake of clarity, I have here deleted –- marked -- the “comments” appended to individual elements of the definition – please see the site for these…] “The term knowledge is taken to include: 1. Content such as music, films, books 2. Data be it scientific, historical, geographic or otherwise 3. Government and other administrative information “Software is excluded despite its obvious centrality because it is already adequately addressed by previous work. “The term ‘work’ will be used to denote the item of knowledge at issue. “The term ‘package’ may also be used to denote a collection of works. Of course such a package may be considered a work in itself. “The term ‘license’ refers to the legal license under which the work is made available. Where no license has been made this should be interpreted as referring to the resulting default legal conditions under which the work is available.” +++++++++++++++++++++++ The Definition “A work is ‘open’ if its manner of distribution satisfies the following conditions:

1. Access: The work shall be available as a whole and at no more than a reasonable reproduction cost, preferably downloading via the Internet without charge. The work must also be available in a convenient and modifiable form.
2. Redistribution: The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the work either on its own or as part of a package made from works from many different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale or distribution.
3. Reuse: The license must allow for modifications and derivative works and must allow them to be distributed under the terms of the original work. The license may impose some form of attribution and integrity requirements: see principle 5 (Attribution) and principle 6 (Integrity) below.
4. Absence of Technological Restriction: The work must be provided in such a form that there are no technological obstacles to the performance of the above activities. This can be achieved by the provision of the work in an open data format, i.e. one whose specification is publicly and freely available and which places no restrictions monetary or otherwise upon its use.
5. Attribution: The license may require as a condition for redistribution and re-use the attribution of the contributors and creators to the work. If this condition is imposed it must not be onerous. For example if attribution is required a list of those requiring attribution should accompany the work.
6. Integrity: The license may require as a condition for the work being distributed in modified form that the resulting work carry a different name or version number from the original work.
7. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups: The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
8. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor: The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the work in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the work from being used in a business, or from being used for military research.
9. Distribution of License: The rights attached to the work must apply to all to whom the work is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
10. License Must Not Be Specific to a Package: The rights attached to the work must not depend on the work being part of a particular package. If the work is extracted from that package and used or distributed within the terms of the work's license, all parties to whom the work is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original package.
11. License Must Not Restrict the Distribution of Other Works: The license must not place restrictions on other works that are distributed along with the licensed work. For example, the license must not insist that all other works distributed on the same medium are open.”

Continue Reading →