Posted by
aph809 on
May 19, 2006; 12:22pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/Freeing-Census-Data-vs-Linux-Access-tp602p626.html
The principal published source for this kind of information
is the Estimates, available on the Treasury Board Secretariat
site at
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/tb/estimate/estime.html.
The site seems to be down this morning. I assume this will
be rectified shortly.
I compiled this information for the 1996 Census, relying upon
the Estimates and information obtained using the Access to Information
Act. I have the details at home, but I have a pretty good
recollection that it runs something like this:
Cost of the 1996 census: $310 million
Revenues from sales: $45 million
Using the AIA, I found that only $15 million of that $45 million came from
non-governmental sources, i.e. 'new' money. Health Canada, for example, might
pay Stat Can to put a few questions into the long form of the
Census. Other government institutions purchase data products,
or customized tabulations.
Don't quote those numbers. I will check on them over the weekend.
Keep in mind the added costs entailed in selling: marketing,
monitoring security to prevent 'data leakage', etc. If the data
is free, these costs are not incurred.
I have not compiled this data for the 2001 census, and of course
data on the 2006 census won't be available for several years.
Regards,
Andrew Hubbertz
Quoting "Tracey P. Lauriault" <
[hidden email]>:
> Anyone have leads on how we can find out how much stat can earns from
> selling data?
>
> Could we estimate if the cost of selling is more expensive than just
> giving it away?
>
> TpL
>
>
> Olivier Charbonneau wrote:
> >> due to the $1000 per mini-set price tag.
> >>
> >
> > Does anyone know how much revenue StatCan generates from its access
> licenses ?
> >
> > I'm ready to bet that Access Copyright and Copiebec generate more profit
> from
> > the *interest* running on the unallocated reproduction licenses collected
> from
> > Canadian Universities, schools and gvmt :)
> >
> > Maybe some of that money could go to "liberate" StatCan data and help
> finance
> > Opne Access initiatives... see:
> >
http://www.fedcan.ca/english/advocacy/openaccess/> >
> > We should use the interest on these amounts (which sould not have been
> created
> > if the market were efficient) to fix the market's market
> failures(unallocated
> > repro fees means that we paied for content and the money has not found an
> > author). Besides, the idea is that if authors have an incentive to give
> works
> > away in the first place, we should use money left over to set this process
> up.
> >
> > Any thoughts ?
> > Olivier
> >
> >
> > Quoting Cory Horner <
[hidden email]>:
> >
> >
> >> There seems to be a little bit of confusion here... 2 different
> >> discussions regarding the Census happening simultaneously.
> >>
> >> 1) Making Census data more freely available
> >> 2) Census 2006 on-line submission form for Linux users
> >>
> >> We're effectively beating a dead horse on the Linux issue... People
> >> complained, StatsCan initially denied their claims were relevant, but
> >> soon gave in. Horray! Threads about 1) seem to keep getting hijacked
> >> by 2)... The petition proposed is related to 1)... not 2) !
> >>
> >> The issue actually under discussion is getting the *results* from the
> >> 2006 Census out to the public -- not the generic "the population of
> >> nunavut is x", but the raw anonymized data, with which an unknown wealth
> >> of knowledge exists but sits unused due to the $1000 per mini-set price
> >> tag.
> >>
> >> Glancing at the Statistics Act, it seems the StatsCan policy on cost
> >> recovery has no basis in the legislation. I'd like to see us aim to get
> >> a new section (3f) added to the act, which would add a responsibility
> >> for StatsCan to disseminate all data freely.
> >>
> >> Cory.
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> >>
[hidden email]
> >>
http://civicaccess.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss_civicaccess.ca> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list
> >
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> >
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> >
>
>
Andrew Hubbertz
Librarian Emeritus
University of Saskatchewan Library
613 692 2709
[hidden email]