Re: On arguing for free access to government data

Posted by Tracey P. Lauriault-2 on May 18, 2006; 8:29pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/On-arguing-for-free-access-to-government-data-tp619p622.html

HI Andrew;

I posted your comments here- http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/Politiques
and the recommended readings here - http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/CensusAction

and added you in the participants list as well as created a page for you
to add some bio content, which would be great here -
http://civicaccess.ca/wiki/AndrewHubbertz

I really liked your brief.

[hidden email] wrote:

> 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]
>
>
>
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