Re: About Text/landing page
Posted by
Tracey P. Lauriault-2 on
Mar 29, 2006; 5:39pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/Splash-screen-tp405p417.html
Thanks Hugh;
Here are my thoughts, forgive the long windedness, to explain the
significance of the choice of some of the terms used in the original
'about' text.
Notwithstanding, i think i managed to incorporated a bunch/most of your
proposed text here -
http://www.civicaccess.ca/wiki/About
Why i kept some terms, am attached to others and need help with some:
- I found this - http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/1997, and i
have to say that I like seeing the full name even if it long - it is
very descriptive. I think we can use the long name in this way -
Citizens for Open Access to Civic Information and Data
(AccèsCivique/CivicAccess for short!). if you google CivicAccess all
kinds of stuff comes up!
- It is important to keep the word - information - along with the
word - data - , as sometimes data come
in nicely & not so nicely packaged formats - web pages, reports,
etc.
- Terms such as - freely available &
should be free - are problematic since at the moment data and
information are freely
available and are free - as in freedom or foi - but they are not for
free, terms such as - at no cost, gratis, etc. are more precise.
- Data - are plural.
- The geographer in me is obsessed with scale - so when i refer to
governments i use the term levels, to ensure that counties and feds are
included - as sometimes it is harder to get data and information from
the smallest unit of gov or the one closest to you as a citizen (e.g.
where are the hazardous waste sites in my city - cities are reluctant
to publish these for insurance claim issues).
- in the rubric of - gov, info highway, economics, life the
universe and everything - it is important to keep the term -
information society - ironically canada markets itself as such and it
is important to push walking the talk and using terms in the current
national discourse taglines
- the terms - reliable, accurate, authentic and timely - are
important, scientists want to work with good quality data not outdated
poorly collected cheap data, currently, there are some scientific data,
maps, remote sensing images, available for free in all the ways we want
them to be, but alas, they are old (e.g. air quality data for 1992 not
today!) or are not accompanied by metadata that explain the fit for use
and the quality of the data. Also, these terms are important in the
world of archives, currently there is discussion in canada on
developing a data archive and there is ongoing research to incorporate
these concepts - see the InterPares Project -
http://interpares.org/ip2/ip2_domain2.cfm
- What to do with this sentence? - " Access to civic data is
impeded by cost recovery, IP, poor or unsuitable formatting, a lack of
discovery strategies, security and confidentiality. " These are the
biggies that are keeping data out of the hands of citizens, if you chat
with folks, you will soon find out that they are mostly unaware of
these concepts. So i want them there somehow. Can you help make that
work hugh or anyone else? See what I did.
- Keeping the word taxation is important - as once people realize
they have already paid for the stuff, they get awfully incensed when
they have to pay for them again. Currently federal departments
purchase data from statcan and provinces - which in effect means we pay
for the same data 4 time! a rather inefficient use of tax dollars!
- Over sensitivity to confidentiality - need advice here, i am a
firm believer in confidentiality, however oversensitivity to this
concept is problematic, for example, aggregated health data is not
being released, think sars and avian flu and ebola outbreaks as
examples. i do not want coacid to sound like we do not support
confidentiality but want highlight that institutions are withholding
critical aggregated information & data and using confidentiality as
an excuse.
- Can you look at the 5th bullet - i would like to include your
point a) innovative solutions and also b) creatively plan - cuz new
interesting and creative proposals are also important! It is also in
the spirit of what was there - re-visioning which i thought was really
nice.
Cheers
Tracey
ps-can still be tweaked i think.
Michael Lenczner wrote:
i think it's great! thanks hugh
On 3/28/06, Hugh McGuire [hidden email] wrote:
Here is my proposal for the intro text - might as well be on the front
page (?), but it's modified from the "about" on the wiki. For the
landing page, it would need more info. for consideration:
****
Accès Civique/Civic Access (ACCA) believes that government-collected
civic data should be free for citizens to use, and available in open
formats.
Our Objectives:
1. to encourage governments to make civic data free and available in
open formats
2. to encourage development of citizen projects using civic data
Making civic data freely available to citizens is important because:
*citizen participation in decision-making is fundamental to democracy
*the best decisions are made by informed citizens
*access to civic data is fundamental to keeping citizens informed
*civic data is gathered on behalf of citizens; it should be freely
available for them to use in constructive ways
*citizen projects using civic data will generate innovative solutions to
problems
*this is what a democracy looks like!
The role of this wiki is to complement [WWW] civicaccess-discuss to
create a community of people across Canada who share these beliefs.
Stephane Guidoin wrote:
I agree with both remarks :
- The sentenses on the splash screen could be more precise about our goal.
- The more it goes, the more we use CivicAccess instead of COACID. COACID gives
a clearer definition but usually people don't really notice the signification
of words in such names/acronyms. So we may simply remove COACID and remain with
CivicAccess. Is it necessary to keep an acronym like CAAC ? I don't think. We
could just use CivicAccess + the little motto Hugh sent "It's our data. Let us
use it." (for example)
Stef
Selon Hugh McGuire [hidden email]:
another suggestion:
why not change the name of the organization from:
*Citizens for Open Access to Civic Information and Data (COACID)/
Citoyen-ne-s pour l'Accès Libre à l'Information et aux Données Civiques
(CALIDC)
to:
*Civic Access/Accès citoyen (CAAC)
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