Aaron Swartz Open Access Hero or Thief?

[Marcus Johansen]

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-reddit-hacker-debate

Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz: hero or thief?

Open access movement 'highly naive', lawyer says

Article is a interesting read. Thoughts?

On 2013-01-15, at 10:27 AM, [hidden email] wrote:

Send CivicAccess-discuss mailing list submissions to
   [hidden email]

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
   http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
   [hidden email]

You can reach the person managing the list at
   [hidden email]

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of CivicAccess-discuss digest..."


Today's Topics:

  1. FW: [open-government] Projects on Open Gov,    Transparency and
     RTI (michael gurstein)
  2. Re: CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66,    Issue 10
     (Michael Lenczner)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:29:21 -0800
From: "michael gurstein" <[hidden email]>
To: "civicaccess discuss" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] FW: [open-government] Projects on Open
   Gov,    Transparency and RTI
Message-ID: <[hidden email]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"





From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Tanja Aitamurto
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 9:20 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [open-government] Projects on Open Gov, Transparency and RTI



Call for Papers and Projects
THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION AND TRANSPARENCY IN THE DIGITAL AGE: POLICY, TOOLS AND PRACTICES?Workshop organized by Liberation Technology Program at Stanford University, United States, 11.-12. March, 2013

Access to information has become one of the most promising tools to combat corruption, increase people?s participation in (self) governance and thus, to strengthen democracy. Since the 1960s there has been a steady progress in the number of countries that have legislated access to information laws, and over eighty countries have such laws today. There have also been several social developments and innovations which embrace access to information, such as open constitution reform process in Iceland, open innovation challenges by the United States government, participatory budgeting processes in Germany, Finland and Canada and social audits in India, just to mention few.
As a parallel development, the open data movement is evolving in several countries, pushed forward by both civil society and governments, and incentivized by the global Open Government Partnership network. These practices are supported by open innovation and open design strategies, which the public sector is increasingly adopting.?These open and participatory practices give tools for citizens to monitor governments, to hold them accountable, and to practice agency in the public sphere. The right to information and transparency movements can be considerably strengthened by creative use of information technologies ? but realizing this potential requires us to revisit the design of RTI policies, tools and practices to update them to serve citizens in the digital age. In re-evaluating the tools for accountability, we should be mindful that increased use of accountability technologies suggests re-articulations of the power structures in modern societies, including new forms of soc
ial control, new spaces for public deliberation and new conceptualizations of participation in democracy.

The workshop will convene both practitioners and academics to discuss their work in the area and to examine the theoretical and practical implications of these phenomena. We seek to bring together people engaged in law, policy, social movements, administration, technology, design and the use of technology for accessing information. We propose to go well beyond the issue of accessing information by looking at the use of technology to record, store, process and disseminate public information, and to create interactive spaces in the public sphere so that the full potential of ICT for transparency can be realized.?We welcome submissions focusing on intersection of technology, the right to information and participatory practices, which enhance transparency, including, but are not limited to, the following areas:

?1. Technology for transparency
?- What are the design improvements and practices to improve digital tools that are used to record, store, process and disseminate information to empower right to information activists? How can, for instance, open design practices enhance transparency, access to information and participatory practices??
- How do social movements use technology, and can technology be empowering for the poor and the marginalized or will/is it be a tool for the privileged??
- What are the emerging power structures in digital democracy, and what is the role of technology in mediating and distributing power??
2. Open data, open knowledge and open access
?- What is the role of open data ecosystem in the right to information movement? What are the tools, practices and policies to encourage the use of open data??- How do open knowledge, open access and open science practices serve transparency in society?
?3. Open innovation and transparency
?- How does open innovation support transparency in governance, and strengthen right to information??
4. Legal and policy considerations in the use of technology for right to information:
?- What are the current limitations of right to information laws established based in the pre-digital age, and what kinds of legal changes are desirable in the digital age??
- What are the legal challenges to accessing information in digital format?
?- What are the laws that prepare the context in which the right to information is exercised, and how ishould they change in the digital age? For example, how should public records laws and the system of recording and managing public information adapt to play a supportive role, and what are the best practices in public record management systems that will enable the effective use of technology by RTI activists?
?- What are the challenges involved in using technology to make corporations, civil society organizations and other non-government organizations transparent??
5. Role of media and journalism in transparency?
- How do journalists use data to monitor governments? What are the challenges in using data for monitoring and reporting as it stands today??
- What kinds of tools, data formats or practices could enrich data driven journalism.
?6. Digital tools for transparency?- How can maps help citizens hold their governments accountable? How should information be designed such that government activities can be mapped??- How could public agencies use videos and photographs to record their activities, and how can the citizen use such information effectively??
- How do citizens use modern surveillance and other monitoring practices for transparency?
?- How can satellites be used to monitor governments??
- How can mobile phones be used to record and access information
?- Can better visualization of data make a difference for the right to information movement?
?- What is the role of crowdsourcing and co-creation in combatting corruption??
Take action!
Submit a paper?The deadline for submissions is 18th of January, 2013. Accepted presenters will be informed by February 1st, 2013.?The form of submission is either full paper (maximum 25 pages) or extended abstract (6 pages). The submissions should be sent to the following email address: [hidden email] <mailto:vivekdse%[hidden email]> .
Participate in the online community
You can share your knowledge about RTI related matters in our online community here. <http://rtitechnology.ideascale.com/>
Sign up for the conference
You can sign up for the conference and upload your submission here. <http://www.stanford.edu/group/libtech/cgi-bin/rtitech/>  You can also participate as an observer, without submitting a project or a paper.
Logistics
?The workshop will be organized at Stanford University in March 11-12, 2013. The workshop is being organized by the Program on Liberation Technology at Stanford University, an interdisciplinary program at the intersection of political science, computer science and design engineering.?There is no fee for participating in the conference, and participants are expected to make their own travel and lodging arrangements.
More information?
For more information, please contact Tanja Aitamurto at [hidden email] or Vivek Srinivasan at [hidden email].


--

www.tanjaaitamurto.com



Studying the Open X at Stanford: crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, open innovation, open data.



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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:26:51 -0500
From: Michael Lenczner <[hidden email]>
To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66,
   Issue 10
Message-ID:
   <[hidden email]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I think a panel on funding / business models would be great.

On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 10:59 PM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]> wrote:

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to this discussion so far.

I have learned a lot, and will be reading up on the orgs and projects that

were mentioned. I think this conversation deserves a wider audience.

For the ODX event, what do you think of a panel on Opportunity

in Open data: how to get project funding; open data entrepreneurship;

the main categories of products/services to sell as a vendor; profiles of

regional and domain markets. 45 minutes total, plus 10 minutes q&a.

Michael Roberts & Michael Lenczner, would you consider being panelists

for this? For the 3rd person I would look for the buyer's perspective.

(The event wil have about 80 people, and all panels would be posted to

youtube.)

Cheers

Ted

On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 4:34 PM, Michael Lenczner <[hidden email]> wrote:

Just wanted to say thanks for writing this reponse, James. It's great

to have a sense of the funding for this work in the UK.

Michael Lenczner

CEO, Ajah

http://www.ajah.ca

514-708-5112

http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellenczner

On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 6:10 PM, James McKinney <[hidden email]>

wrote:

On 2013-01-13, at 3:08 PM, Michael Lenczner wrote:

On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>

wrote:

Gerry Tychon:

What would you say are the factors affecting the delays

in getting the data you've asked for: is it bureaucracy, an

unwillingness

to publish more sensitive datasets, or something else?

Are there any other lessons you've learned along this process,

vis-a-vis

success/failures of the Open data movement?

Michael Roberts & Michael Lenczner:

Would be very useful to know if there are certain types of projects

that

receive more funding in the UK,

Uh, all the projects. :) Democracy projects, international aid

projects, open corporates, etc. I attended open data conferences in

2004 in London. We're kind of just ... behind.

or whether certain business models have

worked there that haven't worked here in Canada.

I don't know any of those cases, but I'm not aware of the UK Open data

projects that are self-funded (I have no doubt that there are some).

UK foundation and government funding for civic projects like mySociety's

has all but dried up. Around the time mySociety launched in 2003-2004, the

UK government was putting a lot of money towards online innovation in the

civic sector. That hasn't been the case for a few years. NESTA continues to

invest in social innovation, but with less emphasis on online projects.

mySociety now gets its biggest grants from Open Society and Omidyar

Network for its international work - not for its work in the UK. In terms of

self-funding, mySociety also has a for-profit that sells products and

services to local governments, like its petition websites and customized

FixMyStreet.com. Grants are still its primary source of funding.

I don't know of OpenCorporates receiving any funding. It's a for-profit

corporation, which eliminates most sources of funding. OpenCorporates

founder Chris Taggart also runs OpenlyLocal.com, which AFAIK has only

received a small grant from NESTA to integrate and relaunch

PlanningAlerts.com.

The Open Knowledge Foundation won a Knight News Challenge, and gets

significant funding from the Omidyar Network, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,

and Open Society. In terms of self-funding, it sells CKAN, its open data

catalogue. I don't know that any of its work is UK-specific (a good strategy

for getting significant funding!).

The only country that I know of with a strong philanthropic community

for open government projects is the US. The UK still invests a lot in

structuring open data initiatives, e.g. its ?10M gift to the Open Data

Institute, but I haven't seen any big gifts to specific open data projects

(e.g. to create an open data standard for a specific use case) or to other

open government projects in recent years.

The UK is ahead in terms of culture and knowledge with respect to open

data and open government, but I would no longer say that it's ahead in terms

of funding every kind of open data/govt project.

If government transparency isn't always the most effective argument,

is ROI from Open data projects (e.g. reducing wasted efforts) an

argument

that has traction with funders?

Depends. We used that argument a lot when we were doing lobbying at

the municipal level, although it didn't end up being the arguments

that they used to explain their actions.

On a separate note, if you plan on participating on this list instead

observing, you should probably switch from digest mode to regular

mode. Both for the convenience of other users and for posteriety

(mailing list archives).

Re social media & evolution of search, a great question (for ODX) is

how will web, mobile, and social applications evolve as Open data

becomes more developer friendly (API access to data sources,

smart privacy controls, complete metadata, RDF annotation.)

We are arguably still in a widget & app paradigm, where each project

focusses on a specific problem, integrations are limited.

What will be possible when all of the back-end data tech. is

automatic?

Here's a couple web searches we can't do today but should be able to

in 5

years:

"I want to do some community work in exchange for lunch today in my

neighborhood, preferably with someone in my personal network."

"If I get a degree in botany, what will my job prospects be like in 5

years

in North America."

Ted Strauss

cheers,

Mike

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 2:54 PM,

<[hidden email]> wrote:

Send CivicAccess-discuss mailing list submissions to

      [hidden email]

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit

      http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to

      [hidden email]

You can reach the person managing the list at

      [hidden email]

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific

than "Re: Contents of CivicAccess-discuss digest..."

Today's Topics:

 1. Re: Open Data Exchange 2013 in Montreal (Gerry Tychon)

 2. Canada: Crown Copyright,  Legal Access and Teranet Surveys -

    T. Scassa (Tracey P. Lauriault)

 3. Legal Issues in Cartography: Information Maps, Freedom of

    Expression and Privacy - T. Scassa (Tracey P. Lauriault)

 4. Re: Open Data Exchange 2013 in Montreal (Michael Roberts)

 5. Re: CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66,   Issue 9 (Ted Strauss)

 6. Invitation to Join Discussion re: Open    Government Partnership

    (OGP) process in Canada (michael gurstein)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:11:33 -0700

From: Gerry Tychon <[hidden email]>

To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>

Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] Open Data Exchange 2013 in

Montreal

Message-ID: <[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I think I would like to say that the "disconnect" is not between the

"data published" and the people but rather it is a disconnect between

the "data publishers" and the data consumers. Not only am I waiting

for

data I asked for but I am still waiting for an acknowledgment that I

even asked for the data.

On 11/01/2013 9:48 AM, Michael Lenczner wrote:

My two "favorite" problems would be:

1) the disconnect between the data published and the data that

people

want (I'm still waiting for open 311 data, police blotter data, and

municipal voting, contracts and real estate / zoning)

and

2) the lack of use of the open data that has been published (which

is

connected to problem 3) lack of funding for open data projects that

don't have viable business models.

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 8:34 AM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>

wrote:

The Open Data Exchange 2013 (odx13.com) is a mini-conference

bringing

together Open Data experts and enthusiasts to discuss achievements

and

challenges of using data for citizen engagement, international aid,

scientific research, and more. It is happening April 6 in Montreal,

at

Jeanne Sauv? House. Registration is free. ODX is being organized by

Ted

Strauss (me) and Naomi Kincler, who are the co-founders of the

startup

Trudat, launching later this year.

I'm writing to civicaction today to kickstart some of the

discussions

that

will take place at ODX. This is especially relevant since a few

people

on

this list have been invited as panelists for the event.

One of the first topics we will address are the achievements and

challenges

of the Open Data movement since it began roughly five years ago.

Leaving aside that 'Open data' will mean different things to

different

people, I'll suggest a few trends I consider notable. Please jump

in

and

suggest your own. Be as specific/general/controversial/technical as

you

like.

#1. Infographics in newspapers, online news, social media, and apps

have

raised the basic understanding by mainstream media consumers of

data-oriented displays. When used well, infographics help people

understand

the world better so they can make better decisions. This also has

tangible

benefits for justice, public health, resource efficiency, etc. The

challenge

is that infographics can be -and often are- poorly executed, overly

simplistic, or intentionally misleading. Like any other media.

#2. Hundreds of cities, regions, and countries have launched open

data

portals with permissive licensing, allowing people to do great

things

with

their data. The challenges with some of these portals however is

that

there

are still technical and economic barriers to accessing many of

these

datasets, as well as a lack of tools to access and use them in

meaningful

ways.

#3. Scientific consortiums have launched repositories and tools for

sharing

data, code, and publications. This accelerates scientific discovery

and

knowledge dissemination. The challenge however is that exponential

growth of

scientific data is not being met by solutions that overcome the

challenges

of usability, interoperability, and open dissemination.

Ted Strauss

Trudat

_______________________________________________

CivicAccess-discuss mailing list

[hidden email]

http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

_______________________________________________

CivicAccess-discuss mailing list

[hidden email]

http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

------------------------------

Message: 2

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:28:10 -0500

From: "Tracey P. Lauriault" <[hidden email]>

To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>,

      [hidden email], [hidden email]

Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Canada: Crown Copyright, Legal Access

      and Teranet Surveys - T. Scassa

Message-ID:

<[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Copyright in Public Documents

http://www.teresascassa.ca/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=114:copyright-in-public-documents&Itemid=81

--

Tracey P. Lauriault

Post Doctoral Fellow

Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre

https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault

http://datalibre.ca/

613-234-2805

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Message: 3

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:30:19 -0500

From: "Tracey P. Lauriault" <[hidden email]>

To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>,

CAGLIST

      <[hidden email]>,        CCA List

<[hidden email]>,

      [hidden email]

Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Legal Issues in Cartography:

      Information Maps, Freedom of Expression and Privacy - T.

Scassa

Message-ID:

<[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Information Maps, Freedom of Expression and Privacy

http://www.teresascassa.ca/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=116:information-maps-freedom-of-expression-and-privacy&Itemid=81

--

Tracey P. Lauriault

Post Doctoral Fellow

Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre

https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault

http://datalibre.ca/

613-234-2805

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Message: 4

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:03:43 -0500

From: Michael Roberts <[hidden email]>

To: [hidden email], civicaccess discuss

      <[hidden email]>

Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] Open Data Exchange 2013 in

Montreal

Message-ID: <[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hi Gerry, all,

I think in Canada what Michael Lenczer says may be true re: 3).  In

the

UK, I see an incredible amount of both interest and funding for open

data

initiatives.  Why isn't that the case in Canada?     What's positive

about

what you say is that you are demanding this data at all.  It wasn't

always

that way.

I think there are two other issues;  data engagement and finding data

easily.   To publish data as a public good is important.   Second,

how can

tools like social media play a role in the engagement of this data,

and

third, how can search change to help us find and use this data.

Cheers,

Michael

On 2013-01-11, at 12:11 PM, Gerry Tychon <[hidden email]> wrote:

I think I would like to say that the "disconnect" is not between the

"data

published" and the people but rather it is a disconnect between the

"data

publishers" and the data consumers. Not only am I waiting for data I

asked

for but I am still waiting for an acknowledgment that I even asked

for the

data.

On 11/01/2013 9:48 AM, Michael Lenczner wrote:

My two "favorite" problems would be:

1) the disconnect between the data published and the data that

people

want (I'm still waiting for open 311 data, police blotter data, and

municipal voting, contracts and real estate / zoning)

and

2) the lack of use of the open data that has been published (which

is

connected to problem 3) lack of funding for open data projects that

don't have viable business models.

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 8:34 AM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>

wrote:

The Open Data Exchange 2013 (odx13.com) is a mini-conference

bringing

together Open Data experts and enthusiasts to discuss achievements

and

challenges of using data for citizen engagement, international aid,

scientific research, and more. It is happening April 6 in Montreal,

at

Jeanne Sauv? House. Registration is free. ODX is being organized by

Ted

Strauss (me) and Naomi Kincler, who are the co-founders of the

startup

Trudat, launching later this year.

I'm writing to civicaction today to kickstart some of the

discussions

that

will take place at ODX. This is especially relevant since a few

people

on

this list have been invited as panelists for the event.

One of the first topics we will address are the achievements and

challenges

of the Open Data movement since it began roughly five years ago.

Leaving aside that 'Open data' will mean different things to

different

people, I'll suggest a few trends I consider notable. Please jump

in

and

suggest your own. Be as specific/general/controversial/technical as

you

like.

#1. Infographics in newspapers, online news, social media, and apps

have

raised the basic understanding by mainstream media consumers of

data-oriented displays. When used well, infographics help people

understand

the world better so they can make better decisions. This also has

tangible

benefits for justice, public health, resource efficiency, etc. The

challenge

is that infographics can be -and often are- poorly executed, overly

simplistic, or intentionally misleading. Like any other media.

#2. Hundreds of cities, regions, and countries have launched open

data

portals with permissive licensing, allowing people to do great

things

with

their data. The challenges with some of these portals however is

that

there

are still technical and economic barriers to accessing many of

these

datasets, as well as a lack of tools to access and use them in

meaningful

ways.

#3. Scientific consortiums have launched repositories and tools for

sharing

data, code, and publications. This accelerates scientific discovery

and

knowledge dissemination. The challenge however is that exponential

growth of

scientific data is not being met by solutions that overcome the

challenges

of usability, interoperability, and open dissemination.

Ted Strauss

Trudat

_______________________________________________

CivicAccess-discuss mailing list

[hidden email]

http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

_______________________________________________

CivicAccess-discuss mailing list

[hidden email]

http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

_______________________________________________

CivicAccess-discuss mailing list

[hidden email]

http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Roberts -- Acclar Open Aid Data

web: www.acclar.org

email: [hidden email]

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/acclar.open

twitter: @acclar

skype: mroberts_112

------------------------------

Message: 5

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:09:27 -0500

From: Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>

To: [hidden email]

Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol

66,

      Issue 9

Message-ID:

<[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

My two "favorite" problems would be:

1) the disconnect between the data published and the data that

people

want (I'm still waiting for open 311 data, police blotter data, and

municipal voting, contracts and real estate / zoning)

Figuring out what people want is a great challenge, since it's

complicated

to know what data exists, why it should be open, and what problems

can

be solved with it. How can we take some of the mystery out of that

process,

so more people can contribute their ideas, and imagine

2) the lack of use of the open data that has been published (which

is

connected to problem 3) lack of funding for open data projects that

don't have viable business models.

I think Tim Berners-Lee's 5 stars <http://5stardata.info/>of open

data

would go a long way to address

your #2, interoperability being the big barrier.

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Message: 6

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:52:12 -0800

From: "michael gurstein" <[hidden email]>

To: <[hidden email]>, <[hidden email]>,

      "civicaccess discuss" <[hidden email]>

Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Invitation to Join Discussion re: Open

      Government Partnership (OGP) process in Canada

Message-ID: <[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Dear colleagues,

We are Canadians who have been actively involved with the Open

Government

Partnership (OGP) process, including by participating in the OGP

meeting

in

Brasilia in April 2012. The OGP is a joint government - civil society

initiative to promote greater openness, participation and

accountability

in

countries which have already attained a minimum standard of openness.

Canada

joined the OGP in September 2011.

Participation by interested stakeholders is a key feature of the

design of

the OGP. There is equal representation of civil society and

government

representatives on the lead body of the OGP, the Steering Committee.

More

importantly, a key mechanism of the OGP is for countries to develop

and

then

implement Action Plans setting out their commitments for moving

forward in

terms of openness, participation and accountability. Governments are

formally required to consult extensively with civil society and other

interested stakeholders in developing and delivering on their Action

Plans.

Civil society will also play a key role in reporting on progress in

implementing Action Plans, including through its participation in a

parallel

Independent Reporting Mechanism, which will present its findings on

progress

alongside those of the government.

In several countries, civil society groups and other stakeholders

have

formed networks or coalitions to work together to help ensure

effective

external input into the development, implementation and evaluation of

Action

Plans. We are proposing to set up such a network in Canada and we are

proposing, as a first step, to establish a discussion list involving

external (i.e. non-government) groups and individuals who have a

demonstrated commitment to open government and who are interested in

getting

engaged in this important work. We envisage this as a loose and open

network, through which anyone could propose discussions, ideas or

action

points relating to OGP. The network would have no voice or right of

action

of its own, and so participation in the network or the discussion

list

would

not involve any obligations or engagements.

As an example of how the network might work, we note that, to date,

Canada

has not complied with its OGP obligations in the area of

consultations.

There was very limited civil society or other stakeholder

participation in

the development of the Action Plan, which Canada presented in

Brasilia in

April, and there has been little consultation since then on

implementation

of the Plan. The network might through the e-list discuss this issue

and

come up with actions which interested groups and/or individuals could

participate in (always on a voluntary basis).

Please let us know if you are interested in joining such an

initiative. To

join, visit:

http://ogp.opengovcanada.ca/mailman/listinfo/discussion_opengovcanada.ca

and

follow the subscription instructions. If you have any questions,

please

send

these to [hidden email].

Thanks for your attention and interest in these key issues.

David Eaves,

Open Government Advocate and OpenNorth Board Member

Vancouver, BC

Michael Gurstein Ph.D.

Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training

Vancouver, BC

Toby Mendel

Executive Director, Centre for Law and Democracy

Halifax, NS

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End of CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66, Issue 10

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End of CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66, Issue 20
***************************************************

[michael gurstein]

The issue is in part an empirical one i.e. how much does it actually cost to create the JSTOR database.

 

Heidi McGregor, a spokeswoman for JSTOR, said people don't understand the costs involved in running a database. "It's incredibly difficult and expensive work," she said. "You have to source the publications. It also means going out and licensing and tracking down the copyright holders for all these things, and getting them to agree to give you the rights to bring the stuff online and who you can make it accessible to and doing that in a way they find conducive with their own objectives."

 

For example, the folks who run commercial academic journals evidently make huge profits (30-40% is the figures I've seen) make the same arguments but since I run an academic (peer reviewed) journal I know how much it costs to actually do one--it isn't anything like what the publishers charge, but it isn't $0 either if one actually costs production/editing related labour which in our case is for the most part currently provided for free…

 

M

 

In case anyone is wondering the actual URL is

 

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-reddit-hacker-debate.html

 

M

 

 

From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Mark Johnston
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 10:42 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Aaron Swartz Open Access Hero or Thief?

 

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-reddit-hacker-debate

Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz: hero or thief?

Open access movement 'highly naive', lawyer says

 

Article is a interesting read. Thoughts?

On 2013-01-15, at 10:27 AM, [hidden email] wrote:

Send CivicAccess-discuss mailing list submissions to
   [hidden email]

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
   http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
   [hidden email]

You can reach the person managing the list at
   [hidden email]

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of CivicAccess-discuss digest..."


Today's Topics:

  1. FW: [open-government] Projects on Open Gov,    Transparency and
     RTI (michael gurstein)
  2. Re: CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66,    Issue 10
     (Michael Lenczner)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:29:21 -0800
From: "michael gurstein" <[hidden email]>
To: "civicaccess discuss" <[hidden email]>
Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] FW: [open-government] Projects on Open
   Gov,    Transparency and RTI
Message-ID: <[hidden email]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"





From: [hidden email] [[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Tanja Aitamurto
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 9:20 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [open-government] Projects on Open Gov, Transparency and RTI



Call for Papers and Projects
THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION AND TRANSPARENCY IN THE DIGITAL AGE: POLICY, TOOLS AND PRACTICES?Workshop organized by Liberation Technology Program at Stanford University, United States, 11.-12. March, 2013

Access to information has become one of the most promising tools to combat corruption, increase people?s participation in (self) governance and thus, to strengthen democracy. Since the 1960s there has been a steady progress in the number of countries that have legislated access to information laws, and over eighty countries have such laws today. There have also been several social developments and innovations which embrace access to information, such as open constitution reform process in Iceland, open innovation challenges by the United States government, participatory budgeting processes in Germany, Finland and Canada and social audits in India, just to mention few.
As a parallel development, the open data movement is evolving in several countries, pushed forward by both civil society and governments, and incentivized by the global Open Government Partnership network. These practices are supported by open innovation and open design strategies, which the public sector is increasingly adopting.?These open and participatory practices give tools for citizens to monitor governments, to hold them accountable, and to practice agency in the public sphere. The right to information and transparency movements can be considerably strengthened by creative use of information technologies ? but realizing this potential requires us to revisit the design of RTI policies, tools and practices to update them to serve citizens in the digital age. In re-evaluating the tools for accountability, we should be mindful that increased use of accountability technologies suggests re-articulations of the power structures in modern societies, including new forms of soc
ial control, new spaces for public deliberation and new conceptualizations of participation in democracy.

The workshop will convene both practitioners and academics to discuss their work in the area and to examine the theoretical and practical implications of these phenomena. We seek to bring together people engaged in law, policy, social movements, administration, technology, design and the use of technology for accessing information. We propose to go well beyond the issue of accessing information by looking at the use of technology to record, store, process and disseminate public information, and to create interactive spaces in the public sphere so that the full potential of ICT for transparency can be realized.?We welcome submissions focusing on intersection of technology, the right to information and participatory practices, which enhance transparency, including, but are not limited to, the following areas:

?1. Technology for transparency
?- What are the design improvements and practices to improve digital tools that are used to record, store, process and disseminate information to empower right to information activists? How can, for instance, open design practices enhance transparency, access to information and participatory practices??
- How do social movements use technology, and can technology be empowering for the poor and the marginalized or will/is it be a tool for the privileged??
- What are the emerging power structures in digital democracy, and what is the role of technology in mediating and distributing power??
2. Open data, open knowledge and open access
?- What is the role of open data ecosystem in the right to information movement? What are the tools, practices and policies to encourage the use of open data??- How do open knowledge, open access and open science practices serve transparency in society?
?3. Open innovation and transparency
?- How does open innovation support transparency in governance, and strengthen right to information??
4. Legal and policy considerations in the use of technology for right to information:
?- What are the current limitations of right to information laws established based in the pre-digital age, and what kinds of legal changes are desirable in the digital age??
- What are the legal challenges to accessing information in digital format?
?- What are the laws that prepare the context in which the right to information is exercised, and how ishould they change in the digital age? For example, how should public records laws and the system of recording and managing public information adapt to play a supportive role, and what are the best practices in public record management systems that will enable the effective use of technology by RTI activists?
?- What are the challenges involved in using technology to make corporations, civil society organizations and other non-government organizations transparent??
5. Role of media and journalism in transparency?
- How do journalists use data to monitor governments? What are the challenges in using data for monitoring and reporting as it stands today??
- What kinds of tools, data formats or practices could enrich data driven journalism.
?6. Digital tools for transparency?- How can maps help citizens hold their governments accountable? How should information be designed such that government activities can be mapped??- How could public agencies use videos and photographs to record their activities, and how can the citizen use such information effectively??
- How do citizens use modern surveillance and other monitoring practices for transparency?
?- How can satellites be used to monitor governments??
- How can mobile phones be used to record and access information
?- Can better visualization of data make a difference for the right to information movement?
?- What is the role of crowdsourcing and co-creation in combatting corruption??
Take action!
Submit a paper?The deadline for submissions is 18th of January, 2013. Accepted presenters will be informed by February 1st, 2013.?The form of submission is either full paper (maximum 25 pages) or extended abstract (6 pages). The submissions should be sent to the following email address: [hidden email] <[hidden email]> .
Participate in the online community
You can share your knowledge about RTI related matters in our online community here. <http://rtitechnology.ideascale.com/>
Sign up for the conference
You can sign up for the conference and upload your submission here. <http://www.stanford.edu/group/libtech/cgi-bin/rtitech/>  You can also participate as an observer, without submitting a project or a paper.
Logistics
?The workshop will be organized at Stanford University in March 11-12, 2013. The workshop is being organized by the Program on Liberation Technology at Stanford University, an interdisciplinary program at the intersection of political science, computer science and design engineering.?There is no fee for participating in the conference, and participants are expected to make their own travel and lodging arrangements.
More information?
For more information, please contact Tanja Aitamurto at [hidden email] or Vivek Srinivasan at [hidden email].


--

www.tanjaaitamurto.com



Studying the Open X at Stanford: crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, open innovation, open data.



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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:26:51 -0500
From: Michael Lenczner <[hidden email]>
To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66,
   Issue 10
Message-ID:
   <[hidden email]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I think a panel on funding / business models would be great.

On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 10:59 PM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]> wrote:

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to this discussion so far.

I have learned a lot, and will be reading up on the orgs and projects that

were mentioned. I think this conversation deserves a wider audience.

For the ODX event, what do you think of a panel on Opportunity

in Open data: how to get project funding; open data entrepreneurship;

the main categories of products/services to sell as a vendor; profiles of

regional and domain markets. 45 minutes total, plus 10 minutes q&a.

 

Michael Roberts & Michael Lenczner, would you consider being panelists

for this? For the 3rd person I would look for the buyer's perspective.

(The event wil have about 80 people, and all panels would be posted to

youtube.)

 

Cheers

Ted

 

 

 

On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 4:34 PM, Michael Lenczner <[hidden email]> wrote:

 

Just wanted to say thanks for writing this reponse, James. It's great

to have a sense of the funding for this work in the UK.

 

 

Michael Lenczner

CEO, Ajah

http://www.ajah.ca

514-708-5112

http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellenczner

 

 

On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 6:10 PM, James McKinney <[hidden email]>

wrote:

 

On 2013-01-13, at 3:08 PM, Michael Lenczner wrote:

 

On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>

wrote:

Gerry Tychon:

What would you say are the factors affecting the delays

in getting the data you've asked for: is it bureaucracy, an

unwillingness

to publish more sensitive datasets, or something else?

Are there any other lessons you've learned along this process,

vis-a-vis

success/failures of the Open data movement?

 

Michael Roberts & Michael Lenczner:

Would be very useful to know if there are certain types of projects

that

receive more funding in the UK,

 

Uh, all the projects. :) Democracy projects, international aid

projects, open corporates, etc. I attended open data conferences in

2004 in London. We're kind of just ... behind.

 

or whether certain business models have

worked there that haven't worked here in Canada.

 

I don't know any of those cases, but I'm not aware of the UK Open data

projects that are self-funded (I have no doubt that there are some).

 

UK foundation and government funding for civic projects like mySociety's

has all but dried up. Around the time mySociety launched in 2003-2004, the

UK government was putting a lot of money towards online innovation in the

civic sector. That hasn't been the case for a few years. NESTA continues to

invest in social innovation, but with less emphasis on online projects.

 

mySociety now gets its biggest grants from Open Society and Omidyar

Network for its international work - not for its work in the UK. In terms of

self-funding, mySociety also has a for-profit that sells products and

services to local governments, like its petition websites and customized

FixMyStreet.com. Grants are still its primary source of funding.

 

I don't know of OpenCorporates receiving any funding. It's a for-profit

corporation, which eliminates most sources of funding. OpenCorporates

founder Chris Taggart also runs OpenlyLocal.com, which AFAIK has only

received a small grant from NESTA to integrate and relaunch

PlanningAlerts.com.

 

The Open Knowledge Foundation won a Knight News Challenge, and gets

significant funding from the Omidyar Network, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,

and Open Society. In terms of self-funding, it sells CKAN, its open data

catalogue. I don't know that any of its work is UK-specific (a good strategy

for getting significant funding!).

 

The only country that I know of with a strong philanthropic community

for open government projects is the US. The UK still invests a lot in

structuring open data initiatives, e.g. its ?10M gift to the Open Data

Institute, but I haven't seen any big gifts to specific open data projects

(e.g. to create an open data standard for a specific use case) or to other

open government projects in recent years.

 

The UK is ahead in terms of culture and knowledge with respect to open

data and open government, but I would no longer say that it's ahead in terms

of funding every kind of open data/govt project.

 

 

 

 

If government transparency isn't always the most effective argument,

is ROI from Open data projects (e.g. reducing wasted efforts) an

argument

that has traction with funders?

 

Depends. We used that argument a lot when we were doing lobbying at

the municipal level, although it didn't end up being the arguments

that they used to explain their actions.

 

On a separate note, if you plan on participating on this list instead

observing, you should probably switch from digest mode to regular

mode. Both for the convenience of other users and for posteriety

(mailing list archives).

 

 

Re social media & evolution of search, a great question (for ODX) is

how will web, mobile, and social applications evolve as Open data

becomes more developer friendly (API access to data sources,

smart privacy controls, complete metadata, RDF annotation.)

We are arguably still in a widget & app paradigm, where each project

focusses on a specific problem, integrations are limited.

What will be possible when all of the back-end data tech. is

automatic?

 

Here's a couple web searches we can't do today but should be able to

in 5

years:

"I want to do some community work in exchange for lunch today in my

neighborhood, preferably with someone in my personal network."

"If I get a degree in botany, what will my job prospects be like in 5

years

in North America."

 

Ted Strauss

 

 

cheers,

 

Mike

 

 

 

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 2:54 PM,

<[hidden email]> wrote:

 

Send CivicAccess-discuss mailing list submissions to

      [hidden email]

 

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit

      http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to

      [hidden email]

 

You can reach the person managing the list at

      [hidden email]

 

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific

than "Re: Contents of CivicAccess-discuss digest..."

 

 

Today's Topics:

 

 1. Re: Open Data Exchange 2013 in Montreal (Gerry Tychon)

 2. Canada: Crown Copyright,  Legal Access and Teranet Surveys -

    T. Scassa (Tracey P. Lauriault)

 3. Legal Issues in Cartography: Information Maps, Freedom of

    Expression and Privacy - T. Scassa (Tracey P. Lauriault)

 4. Re: Open Data Exchange 2013 in Montreal (Michael Roberts)

 5. Re: CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66,   Issue 9 (Ted Strauss)

 6. Invitation to Join Discussion re: Open    Government Partnership

    (OGP) process in Canada (michael gurstein)

 

 

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Message: 1

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:11:33 -0700

From: Gerry Tychon <[hidden email]>

To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>

Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] Open Data Exchange 2013 in

Montreal

Message-ID: <[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

 

I think I would like to say that the "disconnect" is not between the

"data published" and the people but rather it is a disconnect between

the "data publishers" and the data consumers. Not only am I waiting

for

data I asked for but I am still waiting for an acknowledgment that I

even asked for the data.

 

On 11/01/2013 9:48 AM, Michael Lenczner wrote:

My two "favorite" problems would be:

 

1) the disconnect between the data published and the data that

people

want (I'm still waiting for open 311 data, police blotter data, and

municipal voting, contracts and real estate / zoning)

 

and

 

2) the lack of use of the open data that has been published (which

is

connected to problem 3) lack of funding for open data projects that

don't have viable business models.

 

 

 

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 8:34 AM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>

wrote:

The Open Data Exchange 2013 (odx13.com) is a mini-conference

bringing

together Open Data experts and enthusiasts to discuss achievements

and

challenges of using data for citizen engagement, international aid,

scientific research, and more. It is happening April 6 in Montreal,

at

Jeanne Sauv? House. Registration is free. ODX is being organized by

Ted

Strauss (me) and Naomi Kincler, who are the co-founders of the

startup

Trudat, launching later this year.

 

I'm writing to civicaction today to kickstart some of the

discussions

that

will take place at ODX. This is especially relevant since a few

people

on

this list have been invited as panelists for the event.

 

One of the first topics we will address are the achievements and

challenges

of the Open Data movement since it began roughly five years ago.

 

Leaving aside that 'Open data' will mean different things to

different

people, I'll suggest a few trends I consider notable. Please jump

in

and

suggest your own. Be as specific/general/controversial/technical as

you

like.

 

#1. Infographics in newspapers, online news, social media, and apps

have

raised the basic understanding by mainstream media consumers of

data-oriented displays. When used well, infographics help people

understand

the world better so they can make better decisions. This also has

tangible

benefits for justice, public health, resource efficiency, etc. The

challenge

is that infographics can be -and often are- poorly executed, overly

simplistic, or intentionally misleading. Like any other media.

 

#2. Hundreds of cities, regions, and countries have launched open

data

portals with permissive licensing, allowing people to do great

things

with

their data. The challenges with some of these portals however is

that

there

are still technical and economic barriers to accessing many of

these

datasets, as well as a lack of tools to access and use them in

meaningful

ways.

 

#3. Scientific consortiums have launched repositories and tools for

sharing

data, code, and publications. This accelerates scientific discovery

and

knowledge dissemination. The challenge however is that exponential

growth of

scientific data is not being met by solutions that overcome the

challenges

of usability, interoperability, and open dissemination.

 

Ted Strauss

Trudat

 

 

_______________________________________________

CivicAccess-discuss mailing list

[hidden email]

http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

_______________________________________________

CivicAccess-discuss mailing list

[hidden email]

http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

 

 

 

 

------------------------------

 

Message: 2

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:28:10 -0500

From: "Tracey P. Lauriault" <[hidden email]>

To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>,

      [hidden email], [hidden email]

Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Canada: Crown Copyright, Legal Access

      and Teranet Surveys - T. Scassa

Message-ID:

 

<[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

 

Copyright in Public Documents

 

 

http://www.teresascassa.ca/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=114:copyright-in-public-documents&Itemid=81

 

 

--

Tracey P. Lauriault

Post Doctoral Fellow

Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre

https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault

http://datalibre.ca/

613-234-2805

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Message: 3

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:30:19 -0500

From: "Tracey P. Lauriault" <[hidden email]>

To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>,

CAGLIST

      <[hidden email]>,        CCA List

<[hidden email]>,

      [hidden email]

Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Legal Issues in Cartography:

      Information Maps, Freedom of Expression and Privacy - T.

Scassa

Message-ID:

 

<[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

 

Information Maps, Freedom of Expression and Privacy

 

 

http://www.teresascassa.ca/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=116:information-maps-freedom-of-expression-and-privacy&Itemid=81

 

--

Tracey P. Lauriault

Post Doctoral Fellow

Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre

https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault

http://datalibre.ca/

613-234-2805

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Message: 4

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:03:43 -0500

From: Michael Roberts <[hidden email]>

To: [hidden email], civicaccess discuss

      <[hidden email]>

Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] Open Data Exchange 2013 in

Montreal

Message-ID: <[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

 

Hi Gerry, all,

 

I think in Canada what Michael Lenczer says may be true re: 3).  In

the

UK, I see an incredible amount of both interest and funding for open

data

initiatives.  Why isn't that the case in Canada?     What's positive

about

what you say is that you are demanding this data at all.  It wasn't

always

that way.

 

I think there are two other issues;  data engagement and finding data

easily.   To publish data as a public good is important.   Second,

how can

tools like social media play a role in the engagement of this data,

and

third, how can search change to help us find and use this data.

 

Cheers,

Michael

 

On 2013-01-11, at 12:11 PM, Gerry Tychon <[hidden email]> wrote:

 

I think I would like to say that the "disconnect" is not between the

"data

published" and the people but rather it is a disconnect between the

"data

publishers" and the data consumers. Not only am I waiting for data I

asked

for but I am still waiting for an acknowledgment that I even asked

for the

data.

 

On 11/01/2013 9:48 AM, Michael Lenczner wrote:

My two "favorite" problems would be:

 

1) the disconnect between the data published and the data that

people

want (I'm still waiting for open 311 data, police blotter data, and

municipal voting, contracts and real estate / zoning)

 

and

 

2) the lack of use of the open data that has been published (which

is

connected to problem 3) lack of funding for open data projects that

don't have viable business models.

 

 

 

On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 8:34 AM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>

wrote:

The Open Data Exchange 2013 (odx13.com) is a mini-conference

bringing

together Open Data experts and enthusiasts to discuss achievements

and

challenges of using data for citizen engagement, international aid,

scientific research, and more. It is happening April 6 in Montreal,

at

Jeanne Sauv? House. Registration is free. ODX is being organized by

Ted

Strauss (me) and Naomi Kincler, who are the co-founders of the

startup

Trudat, launching later this year.

 

I'm writing to civicaction today to kickstart some of the

discussions

that

will take place at ODX. This is especially relevant since a few

people

on

this list have been invited as panelists for the event.

 

One of the first topics we will address are the achievements and

challenges

of the Open Data movement since it began roughly five years ago.

 

Leaving aside that 'Open data' will mean different things to

different

people, I'll suggest a few trends I consider notable. Please jump

in

and

suggest your own. Be as specific/general/controversial/technical as

you

like.

 

#1. Infographics in newspapers, online news, social media, and apps

have

raised the basic understanding by mainstream media consumers of

data-oriented displays. When used well, infographics help people

understand

the world better so they can make better decisions. This also has

tangible

benefits for justice, public health, resource efficiency, etc. The

challenge

is that infographics can be -and often are- poorly executed, overly

simplistic, or intentionally misleading. Like any other media.

 

#2. Hundreds of cities, regions, and countries have launched open

data

portals with permissive licensing, allowing people to do great

things

with

their data. The challenges with some of these portals however is

that

there

are still technical and economic barriers to accessing many of

these

datasets, as well as a lack of tools to access and use them in

meaningful

ways.

 

#3. Scientific consortiums have launched repositories and tools for

sharing

data, code, and publications. This accelerates scientific discovery

and

knowledge dissemination. The challenge however is that exponential

growth of

scientific data is not being met by solutions that overcome the

challenges

of usability, interoperability, and open dissemination.

 

Ted Strauss

Trudat

 

 

_______________________________________________

CivicAccess-discuss mailing list

[hidden email]

http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

_______________________________________________

CivicAccess-discuss mailing list

[hidden email]

http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss

 

 

_______________________________________________

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Michael Roberts -- Acclar Open Aid Data

web: www.acclar.org

email: [hidden email]

 

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/acclar.open

twitter: @acclar

skype: mroberts_112

 

 

 

 

 

 

------------------------------

 

Message: 5

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:09:27 -0500

From: Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>

To: [hidden email]

Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol

66,

      Issue 9

Message-ID:

 

<[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

 

 

My two "favorite" problems would be:

 

1) the disconnect between the data published and the data that

people

want (I'm still waiting for open 311 data, police blotter data, and

municipal voting, contracts and real estate / zoning)

 

 

 

Figuring out what people want is a great challenge, since it's

complicated

to know what data exists, why it should be open, and what problems

can

be solved with it. How can we take some of the mystery out of that

process,

so more people can contribute their ideas, and imagine

 

 

 

2) the lack of use of the open data that has been published (which

is

connected to problem 3) lack of funding for open data projects that

don't have viable business models.

 

 

I think Tim Berners-Lee's 5 stars <http://5stardata.info/>of open

data

would go a long way to address

your #2, interoperability being the big barrier.

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Message: 6

Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:52:12 -0800

From: "michael gurstein" <[hidden email]>

To: <[hidden email]>, <[hidden email]>,

      "civicaccess discuss" <[hidden email]>

Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Invitation to Join Discussion re: Open

      Government Partnership (OGP) process in Canada

Message-ID: <[hidden email]>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 

Dear colleagues,

 

 

 

We are Canadians who have been actively involved with the Open

Government

Partnership (OGP) process, including by participating in the OGP

meeting

in

Brasilia in April 2012. The OGP is a joint government - civil society

initiative to promote greater openness, participation and

accountability

in

countries which have already attained a minimum standard of openness.

Canada

joined the OGP in September 2011.

 

 

 

Participation by interested stakeholders is a key feature of the

design of

the OGP. There is equal representation of civil society and

government

representatives on the lead body of the OGP, the Steering Committee.

More

importantly, a key mechanism of the OGP is for countries to develop

and

then

implement Action Plans setting out their commitments for moving

forward in

terms of openness, participation and accountability. Governments are

formally required to consult extensively with civil society and other

interested stakeholders in developing and delivering on their Action

Plans.

Civil society will also play a key role in reporting on progress in

implementing Action Plans, including through its participation in a

parallel

Independent Reporting Mechanism, which will present its findings on

progress

alongside those of the government.

 

 

 

In several countries, civil society groups and other stakeholders

have

formed networks or coalitions to work together to help ensure

effective

external input into the development, implementation and evaluation of

Action

Plans. We are proposing to set up such a network in Canada and we are

proposing, as a first step, to establish a discussion list involving

external (i.e. non-government) groups and individuals who have a

demonstrated commitment to open government and who are interested in

getting

engaged in this important work. We envisage this as a loose and open

network, through which anyone could propose discussions, ideas or

action

points relating to OGP. The network would have no voice or right of

action

of its own, and so participation in the network or the discussion

list

would

not involve any obligations or engagements.

 

 

 

As an example of how the network might work, we note that, to date,

Canada

has not complied with its OGP obligations in the area of

consultations.

There was very limited civil society or other stakeholder

participation in

the development of the Action Plan, which Canada presented in

Brasilia in

April, and there has been little consultation since then on

implementation

of the Plan. The network might through the e-list discuss this issue

and

come up with actions which interested groups and/or individuals could

participate in (always on a voluntary basis).

 

 

 

Please let us know if you are interested in joining such an

initiative. To

join, visit:

 

http://ogp.opengovcanada.ca/mailman/listinfo/discussion_opengovcanada.ca

and

follow the subscription instructions. If you have any questions,

please

send

these to [hidden email].

 

 

 

Thanks for your attention and interest in these key issues.

 

 

 

David Eaves,

 

Open Government Advocate and OpenNorth Board Member

 

Vancouver, BC

 

 

 

Michael Gurstein Ph.D.

 

Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training

 

Vancouver, BC

 

 

 

Toby Mendel

 

Executive Director, Centre for Law and Democracy

 

Halifax, NS

 

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End of CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66, Issue 20
***************************************************

[Heather Morrison-2]

JSTOR's own statement says: "JSTOR settled any civil claims we might have had against him in June 2011". From the JSTOR web page:
http://about.jstor.org/statement-swartz

This isn't about JSTOR at all.

Some of the content Aaron Swartz downloaded is in the public domain. Since the download, JSTOR has released their Early Journal Content - works before 1923 in the US and 1870 elsewhere. Even now, they make it a lot harder to find this content than it should be. It's not easy at all to find this from the JSTOR main page.  

Contrast this with a similar initiative, Highwire Press, working with very similar, traditional society publishers. Hundreds of their journals make their whole journals available for free, typically within one year of publication:
http://highwire.stanford.edu/lists/freeart.dtl

There is no reason for JSTOR's stance on intellectual property. If you know anyone involved with journals participating in JSTOR, I recommend contact them and asking them to consider a full move to open access, or, if they believe this is not feasible for financial reasons, to move to another service like Highwire, or see if their local library offers journal hosting services. Many do.

best,

Heather Morrison, PhD
Freedom for scholarship in the internet age
https://theses.lib.sfu.ca/thesis/etd7530

On 2013-01-16, at 11:17 AM, michael gurstein wrote:

> The issue is in part an empirical one i.e. how much does it actually cost to create the JSTOR database.
>  
> Heidi McGregor, a spokeswoman for JSTOR, said people don't understand the costs involved in running a database. "It's incredibly difficult and expensive work," she said. "You have to source the publications. It also means going out and licensing and tracking down the copyright holders for all these things, and getting them to agree to give you the rights to bring the stuff online and who you can make it accessible to and doing that in a way they find conducive with their own objectives."
>  
> For example, the folks who run commercial academic journals evidently make huge profits (30-40% is the figures I've seen) make the same arguments but since I run an academic (peer reviewed) journal I know how much it costs to actually do one--it isn't anything like what the publishers charge, but it isn't $0 either if one actually costs production/editing related labour which in our case is for the most part currently provided for free…
>  
> M
>  
> In case anyone is wondering the actual URL is
>  
> http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-reddit-hacker-debate.html
>  
> M
>  
>  
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Mark Johnston
> Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 10:42 AM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Aaron Swartz Open Access Hero or Thief?
>  
>
> http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-reddit-hacker-debate
> Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz: hero or thief?
>
> Open access movement 'highly naive', lawyer says
>
>  
> Article is a interesting read. Thoughts?
>
> On 2013-01-15, at 10:27 AM, [hidden email] wrote:
>
> Send CivicAccess-discuss mailing list submissions to
>    [hidden email]
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>    http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>    [hidden email]
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
>    [hidden email]
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of CivicAccess-discuss digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. FW: [open-government] Projects on Open Gov,    Transparency and
>      RTI (michael gurstein)
>   2. Re: CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66,    Issue 10
>      (Michael Lenczner)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:29:21 -0800
> From: "michael gurstein" <[hidden email]>
> To: "civicaccess discuss" <[hidden email]>
> Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] FW: [open-government] Projects on Open
>    Gov,    Transparency and RTI
> Message-ID: <02f301cdf345$e07920a0$a16b61e0$@gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
>
>
>
>
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Tanja Aitamurto
> Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 9:20 AM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: [open-government] Projects on Open Gov, Transparency and RTI
>
>
>
> Call for Papers and Projects
> THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION AND TRANSPARENCY IN THE DIGITAL AGE: POLICY, TOOLS AND PRACTICES?Workshop organized by Liberation Technology Program at Stanford University, United States, 11.-12. March, 2013
>
> Access to information has become one of the most promising tools to combat corruption, increase people?s participation in (self) governance and thus, to strengthen democracy. Since the 1960s there has been a steady progress in the number of countries that have legislated access to information laws, and over eighty countries have such laws today. There have also been several social developments and innovations which embrace access to information, such as open constitution reform process in Iceland, open innovation challenges by the United States government, participatory budgeting processes in Germany, Finland and Canada and social audits in India, just to mention few.
> As a parallel development, the open data movement is evolving in several countries, pushed forward by both civil society and governments, and incentivized by the global Open Government Partnership network. These practices are supported by open innovation and open design strategies, which the public sector is increasingly adopting.?These open and participatory practices give tools for citizens to monitor governments, to hold them accountable, and to practice agency in the public sphere. The right to information and transparency movements can be considerably strengthened by creative use of information technologies ? but realizing this potential requires us to revisit the design of RTI policies, tools and practices to update them to serve citizens in the digital age. In re-evaluating the tools for accountability, we should be mindful that increased use of accountability technologies suggests re-articulations of the power structures in modern societies, including new forms of soc
> ial control, new spaces for public deliberation and new conceptualizations of participation in democracy.
>
> The workshop will convene both practitioners and academics to discuss their work in the area and to examine the theoretical and practical implications of these phenomena. We seek to bring together people engaged in law, policy, social movements, administration, technology, design and the use of technology for accessing information. We propose to go well beyond the issue of accessing information by looking at the use of technology to record, store, process and disseminate public information, and to create interactive spaces in the public sphere so that the full potential of ICT for transparency can be realized.?We welcome submissions focusing on intersection of technology, the right to information and participatory practices, which enhance transparency, including, but are not limited to, the following areas:
>
> ?1. Technology for transparency
> ?- What are the design improvements and practices to improve digital tools that are used to record, store, process and disseminate information to empower right to information activists? How can, for instance, open design practices enhance transparency, access to information and participatory practices??
> - How do social movements use technology, and can technology be empowering for the poor and the marginalized or will/is it be a tool for the privileged??
> - What are the emerging power structures in digital democracy, and what is the role of technology in mediating and distributing power??
> 2. Open data, open knowledge and open access
> ?- What is the role of open data ecosystem in the right to information movement? What are the tools, practices and policies to encourage the use of open data??- How do open knowledge, open access and open science practices serve transparency in society?
> ?3. Open innovation and transparency
> ?- How does open innovation support transparency in governance, and strengthen right to information??
> 4. Legal and policy considerations in the use of technology for right to information:
> ?- What are the current limitations of right to information laws established based in the pre-digital age, and what kinds of legal changes are desirable in the digital age??
> - What are the legal challenges to accessing information in digital format?
> ?- What are the laws that prepare the context in which the right to information is exercised, and how ishould they change in the digital age? For example, how should public records laws and the system of recording and managing public information adapt to play a supportive role, and what are the best practices in public record management systems that will enable the effective use of technology by RTI activists?
> ?- What are the challenges involved in using technology to make corporations, civil society organizations and other non-government organizations transparent??
> 5. Role of media and journalism in transparency?
> - How do journalists use data to monitor governments? What are the challenges in using data for monitoring and reporting as it stands today??
> - What kinds of tools, data formats or practices could enrich data driven journalism.
> ?6. Digital tools for transparency?- How can maps help citizens hold their governments accountable? How should information be designed such that government activities can be mapped??- How could public agencies use videos and photographs to record their activities, and how can the citizen use such information effectively??
> - How do citizens use modern surveillance and other monitoring practices for transparency?
> ?- How can satellites be used to monitor governments??
> - How can mobile phones be used to record and access information
> ?- Can better visualization of data make a difference for the right to information movement?
> ?- What is the role of crowdsourcing and co-creation in combatting corruption??
> Take action!
> Submit a paper?The deadline for submissions is 18th of January, 2013. Accepted presenters will be informed by February 1st, 2013.?The form of submission is either full paper (maximum 25 pages) or extended abstract (6 pages). The submissions should be sent to the following email address: [hidden email] <mailto:vivekdse%[hidden email]> .
> Participate in the online community
> You can share your knowledge about RTI related matters in our online community here. <http://rtitechnology.ideascale.com/>
> Sign up for the conference
> You can sign up for the conference and upload your submission here. <http://www.stanford.edu/group/libtech/cgi-bin/rtitech/>  You can also participate as an observer, without submitting a project or a paper.
> Logistics
> ?The workshop will be organized at Stanford University in March 11-12, 2013. The workshop is being organized by the Program on Liberation Technology at Stanford University, an interdisciplinary program at the intersection of political science, computer science and design engineering.?There is no fee for participating in the conference, and participants are expected to make their own travel and lodging arrangements.
> More information?
> For more information, please contact Tanja Aitamurto at [hidden email] or Vivek Srinivasan at [hidden email].
>
>
> --
>
> www.tanjaaitamurto.com
>
>
>
> Studying the Open X at Stanford: crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, open innovation, open data.
>
>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:26:51 -0500
> From: Michael Lenczner <[hidden email]>
> To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>
> Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66,
>    Issue 10
> Message-ID:
>    <CAKq=[hidden email]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> I think a panel on funding / business models would be great.
>
> On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 10:59 PM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to this discussion so far.
> I have learned a lot, and will be reading up on the orgs and projects that
> were mentioned. I think this conversation deserves a wider audience.
> For the ODX event, what do you think of a panel on Opportunity
> in Open data: how to get project funding; open data entrepreneurship;
> the main categories of products/services to sell as a vendor; profiles of
> regional and domain markets. 45 minutes total, plus 10 minutes q&a.
>  
> Michael Roberts & Michael Lenczner, would you consider being panelists
> for this? For the 3rd person I would look for the buyer's perspective.
> (The event wil have about 80 people, and all panels would be posted to
> youtube.)
>  
> Cheers
> Ted
>  
>  
>  
> On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 4:34 PM, Michael Lenczner <[hidden email]> wrote:
>  
> Just wanted to say thanks for writing this reponse, James. It's great
> to have a sense of the funding for this work in the UK.
>  
>  
> Michael Lenczner
> CEO, Ajah
> http://www.ajah.ca
> 514-708-5112
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellenczner
>  
>  
> On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 6:10 PM, James McKinney <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
>  
> On 2013-01-13, at 3:08 PM, Michael Lenczner wrote:
>  
> On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
> Gerry Tychon:
> What would you say are the factors affecting the delays
> in getting the data you've asked for: is it bureaucracy, an
> unwillingness
> to publish more sensitive datasets, or something else?
> Are there any other lessons you've learned along this process,
> vis-a-vis
> success/failures of the Open data movement?
>  
> Michael Roberts & Michael Lenczner:
> Would be very useful to know if there are certain types of projects
> that
> receive more funding in the UK,
>  
> Uh, all the projects. :) Democracy projects, international aid
> projects, open corporates, etc. I attended open data conferences in
> 2004 in London. We're kind of just ... behind.
>  
> or whether certain business models have
> worked there that haven't worked here in Canada.
>  
> I don't know any of those cases, but I'm not aware of the UK Open data
> projects that are self-funded (I have no doubt that there are some).
>  
> UK foundation and government funding for civic projects like mySociety's
> has all but dried up. Around the time mySociety launched in 2003-2004, the
> UK government was putting a lot of money towards online innovation in the
> civic sector. That hasn't been the case for a few years. NESTA continues to
> invest in social innovation, but with less emphasis on online projects.
>  
> mySociety now gets its biggest grants from Open Society and Omidyar
> Network for its international work - not for its work in the UK. In terms of
> self-funding, mySociety also has a for-profit that sells products and
> services to local governments, like its petition websites and customized
> FixMyStreet.com. Grants are still its primary source of funding.
>  
> I don't know of OpenCorporates receiving any funding. It's a for-profit
> corporation, which eliminates most sources of funding. OpenCorporates
> founder Chris Taggart also runs OpenlyLocal.com, which AFAIK has only
> received a small grant from NESTA to integrate and relaunch
> PlanningAlerts.com.
>  
> The Open Knowledge Foundation won a Knight News Challenge, and gets
> significant funding from the Omidyar Network, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation,
> and Open Society. In terms of self-funding, it sells CKAN, its open data
> catalogue. I don't know that any of its work is UK-specific (a good strategy
> for getting significant funding!).
>  
> The only country that I know of with a strong philanthropic community
> for open government projects is the US. The UK still invests a lot in
> structuring open data initiatives, e.g. its ?10M gift to the Open Data
> Institute, but I haven't seen any big gifts to specific open data projects
> (e.g. to create an open data standard for a specific use case) or to other
> open government projects in recent years.
>  
> The UK is ahead in terms of culture and knowledge with respect to open
> data and open government, but I would no longer say that it's ahead in terms
> of funding every kind of open data/govt project.
>  
>  
>  
>  
> If government transparency isn't always the most effective argument,
> is ROI from Open data projects (e.g. reducing wasted efforts) an
> argument
> that has traction with funders?
>  
> Depends. We used that argument a lot when we were doing lobbying at
> the municipal level, although it didn't end up being the arguments
> that they used to explain their actions.
>  
> On a separate note, if you plan on participating on this list instead
> observing, you should probably switch from digest mode to regular
> mode. Both for the convenience of other users and for posteriety
> (mailing list archives).
>  
>  
> Re social media & evolution of search, a great question (for ODX) is
> how will web, mobile, and social applications evolve as Open data
> becomes more developer friendly (API access to data sources,
> smart privacy controls, complete metadata, RDF annotation.)
> We are arguably still in a widget & app paradigm, where each project
> focusses on a specific problem, integrations are limited.
> What will be possible when all of the back-end data tech. is
> automatic?
>  
> Here's a couple web searches we can't do today but should be able to
> in 5
> years:
> "I want to do some community work in exchange for lunch today in my
> neighborhood, preferably with someone in my personal network."
> "If I get a degree in botany, what will my job prospects be like in 5
> years
> in North America."
>  
> Ted Strauss
>  
>  
> cheers,
>  
> Mike
>  
>  
>  
> On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 2:54 PM,
> <[hidden email]> wrote:
>  
> Send CivicAccess-discuss mailing list submissions to
>       [hidden email]
>  
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>       http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>       [hidden email]
>  
> You can reach the person managing the list at
>       [hidden email]
>  
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of CivicAccess-discuss digest..."
>  
>  
> Today's Topics:
>  
>  1. Re: Open Data Exchange 2013 in Montreal (Gerry Tychon)
>  2. Canada: Crown Copyright,  Legal Access and Teranet Surveys -
>     T. Scassa (Tracey P. Lauriault)
>  3. Legal Issues in Cartography: Information Maps, Freedom of
>     Expression and Privacy - T. Scassa (Tracey P. Lauriault)
>  4. Re: Open Data Exchange 2013 in Montreal (Michael Roberts)
>  5. Re: CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66,   Issue 9 (Ted Strauss)
>  6. Invitation to Join Discussion re: Open    Government Partnership
>     (OGP) process in Canada (michael gurstein)
>  
>  
>  
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>  
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:11:33 -0700
> From: Gerry Tychon <[hidden email]>
> To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>
> Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] Open Data Exchange 2013 in
> Montreal
> Message-ID: <[hidden email]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>  
> I think I would like to say that the "disconnect" is not between the
> "data published" and the people but rather it is a disconnect between
> the "data publishers" and the data consumers. Not only am I waiting
> for
> data I asked for but I am still waiting for an acknowledgment that I
> even asked for the data.
>  
> On 11/01/2013 9:48 AM, Michael Lenczner wrote:
> My two "favorite" problems would be:
>  
> 1) the disconnect between the data published and the data that
> people
> want (I'm still waiting for open 311 data, police blotter data, and
> municipal voting, contracts and real estate / zoning)
>  
> and
>  
> 2) the lack of use of the open data that has been published (which
> is
> connected to problem 3) lack of funding for open data projects that
> don't have viable business models.
>  
>  
>  
> On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 8:34 AM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
> The Open Data Exchange 2013 (odx13.com) is a mini-conference
> bringing
> together Open Data experts and enthusiasts to discuss achievements
> and
> challenges of using data for citizen engagement, international aid,
> scientific research, and more. It is happening April 6 in Montreal,
> at
> Jeanne Sauv? House. Registration is free. ODX is being organized by
> Ted
> Strauss (me) and Naomi Kincler, who are the co-founders of the
> startup
> Trudat, launching later this year.
>  
> I'm writing to civicaction today to kickstart some of the
> discussions
> that
> will take place at ODX. This is especially relevant since a few
> people
> on
> this list have been invited as panelists for the event.
>  
> One of the first topics we will address are the achievements and
> challenges
> of the Open Data movement since it began roughly five years ago.
>  
> Leaving aside that 'Open data' will mean different things to
> different
> people, I'll suggest a few trends I consider notable. Please jump
> in
> and
> suggest your own. Be as specific/general/controversial/technical as
> you
> like.
>  
> #1. Infographics in newspapers, online news, social media, and apps
> have
> raised the basic understanding by mainstream media consumers of
> data-oriented displays. When used well, infographics help people
> understand
> the world better so they can make better decisions. This also has
> tangible
> benefits for justice, public health, resource efficiency, etc. The
> challenge
> is that infographics can be -and often are- poorly executed, overly
> simplistic, or intentionally misleading. Like any other media.
>  
> #2. Hundreds of cities, regions, and countries have launched open
> data
> portals with permissive licensing, allowing people to do great
> things
> with
> their data. The challenges with some of these portals however is
> that
> there
> are still technical and economic barriers to accessing many of
> these
> datasets, as well as a lack of tools to access and use them in
> meaningful
> ways.
>  
> #3. Scientific consortiums have launched repositories and tools for
> sharing
> data, code, and publications. This accelerates scientific discovery
> and
> knowledge dissemination. The challenge however is that exponential
> growth of
> scientific data is not being met by solutions that overcome the
> challenges
> of usability, interoperability, and open dissemination.
>  
> Ted Strauss
> Trudat
>  
>  
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>  
>  
>  
>  
> ------------------------------
>  
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:28:10 -0500
> From: "Tracey P. Lauriault" <[hidden email]>
> To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>,
>       [hidden email], [hidden email]
> Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Canada: Crown Copyright, Legal Access
>       and Teranet Surveys - T. Scassa
> Message-ID:
>  
> <[hidden email]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>  
> Copyright in Public Documents
>  
>  
> http://www.teresascassa.ca/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=114:copyright-in-public-documents&Itemid=81
>  
>  
> --
> Tracey P. Lauriault
> Post Doctoral Fellow
> Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre
> https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault
> http://datalibre.ca/
> 613-234-2805
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>  
> ------------------------------
>  
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 12:30:19 -0500
> From: "Tracey P. Lauriault" <[hidden email]>
> To: civicaccess discuss <[hidden email]>,
> CAGLIST
>       <[hidden email]>,        CCA List
> <[hidden email]>,
>       [hidden email]
> Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Legal Issues in Cartography:
>       Information Maps, Freedom of Expression and Privacy - T.
> Scassa
> Message-ID:
>  
> <CAPT_w+=[hidden email]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>  
> Information Maps, Freedom of Expression and Privacy
>  
>  
> http://www.teresascassa.ca/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=116:information-maps-freedom-of-expression-and-privacy&Itemid=81
>  
> --
> Tracey P. Lauriault
> Post Doctoral Fellow
> Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre
> https://gcrc.carleton.ca/confluence/display/GCRCWEB/Lauriault
> http://datalibre.ca/
> 613-234-2805
> -------------- next part --------------
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>  
> ------------------------------
>  
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:03:43 -0500
> From: Michael Roberts <[hidden email]>
> To: [hidden email], civicaccess discuss
>       <[hidden email]>
> Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] Open Data Exchange 2013 in
> Montreal
> Message-ID: <[hidden email]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>  
> Hi Gerry, all,
>  
> I think in Canada what Michael Lenczer says may be true re: 3).  In
> the
> UK, I see an incredible amount of both interest and funding for open
> data
> initiatives.  Why isn't that the case in Canada?     What's positive
> about
> what you say is that you are demanding this data at all.  It wasn't
> always
> that way.
>  
> I think there are two other issues;  data engagement and finding data
> easily.   To publish data as a public good is important.   Second,
> how can
> tools like social media play a role in the engagement of this data,
> and
> third, how can search change to help us find and use this data.
>  
> Cheers,
> Michael
>  
> On 2013-01-11, at 12:11 PM, Gerry Tychon <[hidden email]> wrote:
>  
> I think I would like to say that the "disconnect" is not between the
> "data
> published" and the people but rather it is a disconnect between the
> "data
> publishers" and the data consumers. Not only am I waiting for data I
> asked
> for but I am still waiting for an acknowledgment that I even asked
> for the
> data.
>  
> On 11/01/2013 9:48 AM, Michael Lenczner wrote:
> My two "favorite" problems would be:
>  
> 1) the disconnect between the data published and the data that
> people
> want (I'm still waiting for open 311 data, police blotter data, and
> municipal voting, contracts and real estate / zoning)
>  
> and
>  
> 2) the lack of use of the open data that has been published (which
> is
> connected to problem 3) lack of funding for open data projects that
> don't have viable business models.
>  
>  
>  
> On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 8:34 AM, Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
> The Open Data Exchange 2013 (odx13.com) is a mini-conference
> bringing
> together Open Data experts and enthusiasts to discuss achievements
> and
> challenges of using data for citizen engagement, international aid,
> scientific research, and more. It is happening April 6 in Montreal,
> at
> Jeanne Sauv? House. Registration is free. ODX is being organized by
> Ted
> Strauss (me) and Naomi Kincler, who are the co-founders of the
> startup
> Trudat, launching later this year.
>  
> I'm writing to civicaction today to kickstart some of the
> discussions
> that
> will take place at ODX. This is especially relevant since a few
> people
> on
> this list have been invited as panelists for the event.
>  
> One of the first topics we will address are the achievements and
> challenges
> of the Open Data movement since it began roughly five years ago.
>  
> Leaving aside that 'Open data' will mean different things to
> different
> people, I'll suggest a few trends I consider notable. Please jump
> in
> and
> suggest your own. Be as specific/general/controversial/technical as
> you
> like.
>  
> #1. Infographics in newspapers, online news, social media, and apps
> have
> raised the basic understanding by mainstream media consumers of
> data-oriented displays. When used well, infographics help people
> understand
> the world better so they can make better decisions. This also has
> tangible
> benefits for justice, public health, resource efficiency, etc. The
> challenge
> is that infographics can be -and often are- poorly executed, overly
> simplistic, or intentionally misleading. Like any other media.
>  
> #2. Hundreds of cities, regions, and countries have launched open
> data
> portals with permissive licensing, allowing people to do great
> things
> with
> their data. The challenges with some of these portals however is
> that
> there
> are still technical and economic barriers to accessing many of
> these
> datasets, as well as a lack of tools to access and use them in
> meaningful
> ways.
>  
> #3. Scientific consortiums have launched repositories and tools for
> sharing
> data, code, and publications. This accelerates scientific discovery
> and
> knowledge dissemination. The challenge however is that exponential
> growth of
> scientific data is not being met by solutions that overcome the
> challenges
> of usability, interoperability, and open dissemination.
>  
> Ted Strauss
> Trudat
>  
>  
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>  
>  
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>  
>  
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Michael Roberts -- Acclar Open Aid Data
> web: www.acclar.org
> email: [hidden email]
>  
> facebook: http://www.facebook.com/acclar.open
> twitter: @acclar
> skype: mroberts_112
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
> ------------------------------
>  
> Message: 5
> Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:09:27 -0500
> From: Ted Strauss <[hidden email]>
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol
> 66,
>       Issue 9
> Message-ID:
>  
> <[hidden email]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>  
>  
> My two "favorite" problems would be:
>  
> 1) the disconnect between the data published and the data that
> people
> want (I'm still waiting for open 311 data, police blotter data, and
> municipal voting, contracts and real estate / zoning)
>  
>  
>  
> Figuring out what people want is a great challenge, since it's
> complicated
> to know what data exists, why it should be open, and what problems
> can
> be solved with it. How can we take some of the mystery out of that
> process,
> so more people can contribute their ideas, and imagine
>  
>  
>  
> 2) the lack of use of the open data that has been published (which
> is
> connected to problem 3) lack of funding for open data projects that
> don't have viable business models.
>  
>  
> I think Tim Berners-Lee's 5 stars <http://5stardata.info/>of open
> data
> would go a long way to address
> your #2, interoperability being the big barrier.
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> ------------------------------
>  
> Message: 6
> Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:52:12 -0800
> From: "michael gurstein" <[hidden email]>
> To: <[hidden email]>, <[hidden email]>,
>       "civicaccess discuss" <[hidden email]>
> Subject: [CivicAccess-discuss] Invitation to Join Discussion re: Open
>       Government Partnership (OGP) process in Canada
> Message-ID: <001801cdf035$2683d7c0$738b8740$@gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>  
> Dear colleagues,
>  
>  
>  
> We are Canadians who have been actively involved with the Open
> Government
> Partnership (OGP) process, including by participating in the OGP
> meeting
> in
> Brasilia in April 2012. The OGP is a joint government - civil society
> initiative to promote greater openness, participation and
> accountability
> in
> countries which have already attained a minimum standard of openness.
> Canada
> joined the OGP in September 2011.
>  
>  
>  
> Participation by interested stakeholders is a key feature of the
> design of
> the OGP. There is equal representation of civil society and
> government
> representatives on the lead body of the OGP, the Steering Committee.
> More
> importantly, a key mechanism of the OGP is for countries to develop
> and
> then
> implement Action Plans setting out their commitments for moving
> forward in
> terms of openness, participation and accountability. Governments are
> formally required to consult extensively with civil society and other
> interested stakeholders in developing and delivering on their Action
> Plans.
> Civil society will also play a key role in reporting on progress in
> implementing Action Plans, including through its participation in a
> parallel
> Independent Reporting Mechanism, which will present its findings on
> progress
> alongside those of the government.
>  
>  
>  
> In several countries, civil society groups and other stakeholders
> have
> formed networks or coalitions to work together to help ensure
> effective
> external input into the development, implementation and evaluation of
> Action
> Plans. We are proposing to set up such a network in Canada and we are
> proposing, as a first step, to establish a discussion list involving
> external (i.e. non-government) groups and individuals who have a
> demonstrated commitment to open government and who are interested in
> getting
> engaged in this important work. We envisage this as a loose and open
> network, through which anyone could propose discussions, ideas or
> action
> points relating to OGP. The network would have no voice or right of
> action
> of its own, and so participation in the network or the discussion
> list
> would
> not involve any obligations or engagements.
>  
>  
>  
> As an example of how the network might work, we note that, to date,
> Canada
> has not complied with its OGP obligations in the area of
> consultations.
> There was very limited civil society or other stakeholder
> participation in
> the development of the Action Plan, which Canada presented in
> Brasilia in
> April, and there has been little consultation since then on
> implementation
> of the Plan. The network might through the e-list discuss this issue
> and
> come up with actions which interested groups and/or individuals could
> participate in (always on a voluntary basis).
>  
>  
>  
> Please let us know if you are interested in joining such an
> initiative. To
> join, visit:
>  
> http://ogp.opengovcanada.ca/mailman/listinfo/discussion_opengovcanada.ca
> and
> follow the subscription instructions. If you have any questions,
> please
> send
> these to [hidden email].
>  
>  
>  
> Thanks for your attention and interest in these key issues.
>  
>  
>  
> David Eaves,
>  
> Open Government Advocate and OpenNorth Board Member
>  
> Vancouver, BC
>  
>  
>  
> Michael Gurstein Ph.D.
>  
> Centre for Community Informatics Research, Development and Training
>  
> Vancouver, BC
>  
>  
>  
> Toby Mendel
>  
> Executive Director, Centre for Law and Democracy
>  
> Halifax, NS
>  
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> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>  
> End of CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66, Issue 10
> ***************************************************
>  
>  
>  
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>  
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>  
>  
>  
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss
>
> End of CivicAccess-discuss Digest, Vol 66, Issue 20
> ***************************************************
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> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> [hidden email]
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