On arguing for free access to government data

Posted by aph809 on May 18, 2006; 2:26pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/On-arguing-for-free-access-to-government-data-tp619.html

Hello,

This is my first posting to this list.

There has been some discussion here on the question how to best influence
government,
and the federal government in particular, to make government information
freely available.

You might find it useful to have a look at a number of briefs
produced by the Canadian Library Association.  See:

http://www.cla.ca/issues/clabrief.htm

Many of these have to do with influencing government on information
issues, including copyright, postal rates for libraries, access to
government information, library funding, etc.  Perhaps there are
some useful models.

At the risk of appearing self-serving, let me mention that one
of these documents is a brief I prepared for CLA on information produced
by Environment Canada.  See:

http://www.cla.ca/issues/enviro.htm

During the 1990s, in order to argue for free access to such
government information, I used the Access to Information Act
to find out how much it _cost_ to produce certain information,
and how much _revenue_  was generated in its sale.

Universally (including the Environment Canada case), I found
a) that sales generated revenues that were
only a small fraction of the cost of producing the information in the first
place, and b) most sales were to other government institutions, be they
federal, provincial/territorial, or municipal

The brief on Environment Canada information incorporated the
results of these researches.  (Incidently, much of the data is
now freely available, though it is never easy to determine a
causal relationship, and whether our brief had any influence
on the matter.  Release of the data occured by stages and over
a number of years.)

This particular brief was sent to the House Standing Committee
on Environment and Sustainable Development, at the time the Committee
was reviewing the estimates for Environment Canada.  The Committee
did not invite CLA to make an oral presentation.

I have not done very much work along these lines in the last couple
of years, aside from a couple of articles relating to Saskatchewan
government information.

Best regards, and good luck.

Andrew Hubbertz


Andrew Hubbertz
Librarian Emeritus
University of Saskatchewan Library

[hidden email]