Public information provision about policy intentions: The Dutch and Belgian experience

This paper examines the manner in which governments should inform their citizens about policy not yet adopted by the competent authority (i.e., the legislature). This is an important but often neglected issue in theory and in practice. This paper focuses on the opportunities and dangers of the public information provisions about policy intentions and presents the relevant laws, principles, and practices in the Netherlands and Belgium. Based on a case study, the paper aims to illustrate the importance of complete, timely, and factual public information provisions in the formulation stage of policymaking. Some directions for further inquiry are suggested and some lessons from the Dutch and Belgian experience are presented. The information gathered is derived from literature, from government information regulations and guidelines, from analyses of government data reports, and from a survey.     

From praxis to pragmatism: Junior scholars and policy impact

ABSTRACT

Drawing on Buckingham’s observation that academic research either has to become public knowledge or its originators must have a high visibility in the public realm before their research can find inclusion into policymaking processes, this article offers a variety of examples of how academics have managed to bridge the gap between media and communication policy scholarship and policymaking. Contrary to the long-standing belief that policy impact is extremely difficult and rare to achieve, we argue that junior scholars have many opportunities to have their work become part of the policymaking process through new forms of conversation, collaboration, coalition-building, changing perceptions of public knowledge, and a more conceptual understanding of impact.     

Visualizations,technology and the power to influence policy

In this paper we explore the influence of visualizations and the technologies used to create and distribute them on the process and outcome of public policymaking. We will analyze nine qualitative case studies, three on agenda setting, three on policy design and decision making and three on policy evaluation. We find that the choice of the technologies used to create a visual event increases transparency and impacts policy greatly. Also we find that the type of story which is told affects the way policy is created or changed.     

Government-led and Internet-empowered citizen participation in China's policymaking: A case study of the Shanghai 2035 Master Plan

Digitalization has expanded the scope of citizen participation. Nevertheless, there are no conclusive findings on online citizen participation and inclusive policymaking. This study adds in line with the discussion with a fresh perspective of institutional bias. It presents new evidence by examining the process, participants, policy agenda, and sentiments of public opinions from the government-led and Internet-empowered citizen participation regarding the 2017–2035 Shanghai Master Plan. Four findings are reported based on the in-depth case study with text and sentiment analysis. First, the government-led model provides institutionalized opportunities for citizen engagement throughout the policy process, while the Internet-empowered citizen participation is characterized by contingency and ad hoc. Second, the government-led model remains elite-dominated, while the Internet empowers a wider scope of stakeholders with an open and popularized participation platform. Third, the public opinion from the Internet-empowered model often goes beyond or even against the pre-defined official principles and goals. In contrast, the civic discussion in the government-led model influences policy by changing the sequence of policy agenda or providing focus within the official setting. Fourth, citizens, especially the experts, are more likely to give positive feedback in the government-led model than the Internet-empowered approach. These findings confirm and identify the remaining institutional bias that hinders inclusive policymaking in the Internet age. Theoretically, it reminds scholars to examine the institutional arrangements regarding citizen participation carefully. Practically, it indicates that the central government could facilitate inclusive policymaking at the local level by reducing the institutional bias of the government-led approach and utilizing text and sentiment analysis to urge the local government's response to Internet-empowered public opinion.     

On making public policy with publicly available data: The case of U.S. communications policymaking

A fundamental principle of public policymaking should be that public policy must be made with publicly available data. This article develops this position and applies it to an assessment of the current state of communications policymaking, a policy area in which controversies surrounding the transparency of policy research and the accessibility of policy-relevant data have been both common and extremely contentious in recent years. This article provides a detailed assessment of the challenges confronting greater transparency and accessibility of communications policy-relevant data, as well as a detailed set of proposals for improving the current situation, in an effort to build towards an environment in which public policy is made with publicly available data.     

Open government

Access to government information in electronic form is essential to the realization of a civil society, democratization, and a rule of law. Freedom of information issues are centrally important in countries around the world, and the Internet's World Wide Web offers the potential to provide freedom of information at low cost. Achieving a sound information policy to promote open government requires constant vigilance by those who care about the goal. The greatest threat is state sponsored monopoly. State sponsored monopolies are inimical to open government and rule of law because they open the possibility of censorship, because they raise prices and increase cost, and because they deprive the public of new technology developments. Agencies should never seek to restrict redissemination or to prescribe prices at which information may be distributed to redisseminated. Copyright law may be interpreted to exclude the possibility of copyright in basic public information. Finally, the proposed database protection treaty now pending before the World Intellectual Property Organization should be opposed, unless drafters add a compulsory license provision to mandate multiple sources and channels for public information locked up by intellectual property and database rights.     

Economic Analysis and Copyright Law: Are New Models Needed in the Digital Age?

Summary

Economic analysis has played a central role in the development of intellectual property policy. Since information exhibits characteristics of a public good, both non-rival consumption and non-exclusivity, information markets are prone to market failure. This requires a policy response in the form of a subsidy or direct government provision. The monopoly rights granted to owners of intellectual property can be viewed as a form of subsidy intended to avert market failure. But in the digital environment, the tendency to market failure increases as information is more susceptible to copying and distribution with neither significant additional cost nor loss of quality.

While a wide range of policy tools are available to meet the challenges of the new digital environment, the range of current legislative proposals shows that the expansion of property rights in information is the only approach being given serious consideration.

This paper reviews these proposals as well as the wide variety of other approaches that could be considered including an increased role for the public provision of information. It is concluded that the traditional model of positive economic analysis is unable to explain the current policy environment and that a broader approach rooted in political economy would be appropriate.     

eParticipation practices and mechanisms of influence: An investigation of public policymaking

This paper investigates eParticipation practices and the mechanisms of influence that help promote changes in public policy formulation. We use the perspective of power as a lens for our investigation. We analyze eParticipation processes in the drafting of three public mobility policies in major Brazilian cities. Based on comparative and retrospective cases, we propose a processual framework for understanding eParticipation practices and the mechanisms used over time to influence decision-making. We show how the actors involved, tools chosen, platform design, interactions on the platform, mediation, and mechanisms used by engaged citizens and the government influence public policymaking. Our study contributes to the literature concerning eParticipation with an original processual framework to explain actors' practices and the mechanisms of influence on policymaking in digital participation spaces. Additionally, we broaden the discussion regarding the complementarity between possession and practice views of power. We argue that a better understanding of the eParticipation platform interactions that influence public policy decisions requires attention to formal authority and critical resource control. However, it is also necessary to recognize the interactions and mechanisms implemented in practice. Our findings are helpful for policymakers seeking to create effective participatory processes while considering citizens' opinions.     

基于信息流的思想库政策影响力分析框架研究

以知识运用理论为基础,使用信息流抽象的方法分析思想库参与政策形成的过程,设计出一个综合性的思想库政策影响力分析框架。该框架分为两个部分,一是思想库影响政策决策的逻辑模型,重点阐述模型的各个组成部分及其中的信息流程,二是思想库政策影响力类型,具体包括直接性影响力和渗透性影响力两个大类。最后对该框架的特点做简要分析。     

国外图书馆数字资源许可政策新近发展研究

数字信息技术的发展、开放获取运动的深入、读者对数字资源使用方式的增加及有关法律的修订等,均对数字资源许可政策提出了新的要求。自2014年以来,国外图书馆数字资源许可政策出现了新一轮的修订潮,美国、加拿大、英国及澳大利亚的多个较早从事数字资源许可政策研究的图书馆联盟先后更新了其数字资源示范许可协议或指导原则。文章拟从这一轮新修订的数字资源许可政策中,选取部分有代表性的政策文本,通过纵向和横向的梳理比较,重点关注新旧政策的变化,分析修订的背景、原因及作用,总结国外图书馆数字资源许可的最新发展动向及经验,并探讨其对我国图书馆的启示,以期助益我国图书馆数字资源许可的实践。     

The Policy Implications of Internet Connectivity in Public Libraries

The provision of public Internet access and related networked services by public libraries is affected by a number of information policy issues. This article analyzes the policy dimensions of Internet connectivity in public libraries in light of the data and findings from a national survey of public libraries conducted by the authors of this article. After providing a summary of the study methodology and findings, this article examines key policy issues that include the nature of sufficient bandwidth and broadband, the perpetuation of the digital divide of Internet access in libraries, the role of libraries as e-government access points, the complexities of funding Internet access, the impacts and contradictions of filtering, and the chilling effect of homeland security legislation in public libraries. This article concludes with a discussion of how examining these policy issues can lead to a better understanding of public libraries and the Internet access they offer within the context of public policy.     

数据挖掘版权政策构建研究:研究型图书馆的立场

[目的/意义]针对大数据背景下数据挖掘所面临的版权政策问题,作为高校科研院所文献信息中心的研究型图书馆应当构建灵活的数据挖掘版权政策。[方法/过程]综合分析研究型图书馆面临的版权政策环境,从国家立法和出版商政策两个角度,分析版权许可和法定例外这两种政策构建方式。[结果/结论]我国研究型图书馆应该积极推动建立数据挖掘版权例外制度,同时完善内容采购的版权许可机制,提高与出版商的谈判能力;从宏观和微观的角度为科研人员开展数据挖掘提供灵活全面的政策支持。     

数字知识环境下的健康信息素养教育和健康信息服务——医学图书馆员的新使命

文章在阐述健康素养和健康信息素养内涵的基础上,全面探讨了美国和英国医学图书馆员在为医务人员和公众进行健康信息素养教育和提供健康信息服务所采取的有效措施。他们主要发挥了以下作用。1）可以对医务人员进行健康信息素养培训,一为医务人员提供优质的信息资源以及开发新的医学信息资源。2）可以促进医务人员与公众和患者的交流和沟通;开发新技术促进公众对健康信息资源的利用。5）可帮助政府制定积极的卫生政策,促进公众健康素养的提升。     

The use of information and communication technologies in public libraries in South Africa as tools for bridging the digital divide: the case of the Kempton Park public library

ABSTRACT

The information and knowledge society has resulted in the exponential growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs), thus creating a gap between those who use ICTs and those who do not; hence the emergence of the term “digital divide” in the 1990s. One of the milestones of South Africa’s National Development Plan, a policy that charts the country’s development up until 2030, is to ensure that high-speed broadband internet is universally available at competitive prices. Notwithstanding the importance of ICTs in public libraries, the provision of such is still taking place on a limited scale in South Africa. This article investigates the use of ICTs in public libraries in South Africa as a tool in bridging the digital divide. It also examines the inequalities in access and use and suggests ways in which ICTs may be used to reduce the digital divide. A qualitative research methodology was adopted. In order for public libraries to function as an important tool in bridging the digital divide, there is a need to standardize the provision of public library services with regard to the digital divide.     

我国公共文化服务体系建设中的政府行为研究

我国的公共文化服务体系建设工作开展已近10年,按照国家相关政策文件的精神,我国公共文化服务的供给者主要是政府,但由于各方条件的限制,在公共文化服务的供给上,我国政府在法律法规体系、财政投入力度、供给的均等性及绩效评估等方面还存在着问题和不足。论文总结了我国公共文化服务体系建设中政府的职能与作用,分析了政府在公共文化服务供给上存在的问题,重点提出了解决问题的对策建议。     

政府开放数据与信息增值:台湾的经验与启示

探索政府开放资料在台湾的发展现况:研究发现政府机关在其信息公开发展已经成熟之际,更持续地进一步施行更为全面的政府资料开放,相关主管机关已经在法制层面开始规划研拟,以逐步完成政府开放资料环境之整备;实证数据显示,政府开放数据实行对于政府信息增值有直接的影响,可以协助公众更有效率地获取政府数据与信息以从事增值应用,并减少公众在使用政府信息增值时所面对的困难;研究建议政府从法令规范、开放数据平台、开放数据面向、技术与格式标准、开放数据的推广与授权使用机制之6个方面,推动政府开放数据政策的落实。     

The role of the British Library for medical and health information*

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Internet's impact on expert–citizen interactions in public policymaking—A meta analysis

This article studies the internet's impact on expert–citizen interactions in the process of public policymaking. It examines a possible solution to a classical democratic dilemma of citizens' right to participate versus citizens' ability to participate. Through a meta-analysis of the past studies on internet's impact on citizen participation in public policy making, the authors find that the internet has successfully reduced resource difference between policy experts and the citizens as promised. However, the technology itself does not provide all the answers. Exogenous factors such as personal characteristics, decision environment, and institutional factors all play a role in enhancing the impact of the internet. Continued education and institutional innovations are necessary to encourage citizen–expert collaboration and reduce resource difference between the citizens and policy experts. Also, more clearly defined and systematic theoretical and empirical studies are needed to help facilitate our understanding of efficient citizen–expert interactions in public policy making by way of the internet technology. ¹