Working group 1

[This page collects practical details and it's addressed to COMMUNIA Members: please, ignore it if you're not affiliated to a COMMUNIA Member Institution.]

Accessing, Using, Reusing Public Sector Content and Data

The 5th COMMUNIA workshop, co-organised on 26-27 March by the Open Knowledge Foundation and London School of Economics, focused on how we can unlock the huge potential of public sector material. It also examined the current obstacles to doing this -- legal, technological and social -- as well as how they can be overcome. In particular, much of the value of public sector material can only be realized if it is reused and interlinked -- both activities that are currently difficult for a variety of legal and technological reasons.

Across the world there is a growing recognition of the social and commercial value of public sector content and data: be that the text of laws, the holdings of public museums, or the geospatial and environmental information collected by government agencies. Moreover, it is likely that better access to and use of such information is central to improving governance and increasing democratic participation. Therefore, the event focused around the claim that, wherever possible: Public sector content and data should be made available, both legally and technically, for public re-use.

A range of presentations and policy recommendations from researchers, policy-makers, stakeholders and representatives from Europe, the United States and Australia is available from the download section and by clicking on the presentations titles in the agenda below. Policy recommendations and abstracts are also available as two separated downloadable documents and a full report can be accessed here.
[13apr09]

The first international Open Access Day will be held on 14 October 2008. The founding partners are SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), Students for FreeCulture, and the Public Library of Science.

The aim of the celebration is to broaden awareness and understanding of Open Access, including recent mandates and emerging policies, within the international higher education community and the general public. Open Access Day will invite researchers, educators, librarians, students, and the public to participate in live, worldwide broadcasts of events.

There is a webpage dedicated to that event with all the information.

If you plan to organize any event at your institution you can use that site to spread information about it.
[09/24/08]