Access to Public-Sector Information in Europe: Policy, Rights, and Obligations

The article reviews the debates and policies on access to public-sector information (PSI) in Europe in relation to the contests between policies of open access, rights of access to PSI by citizens and business, and the assessment of the cost benefits of PSI to the economy and society. The political dimension of these debates within the European Union is highlighted to demonstrate the complexities of the governance of information within a pan-European regulatory framework.     

学科领域期刊科研数据发表政策剖析——以美国化学学会期刊为例

【目的】剖析化学学科领域科学期刊的数据发表政策,了解期刊数据政策的现状。【方法】 以ACS期刊为例,以期刊投稿指南为数据源,梳理和比较分析ACS期刊对发表论文的数据内容、数据格式、数据共享的要求。【结果】ACS的47种期刊要求论文作者将数据作为支撑信息提交,对于包含序列数据、结构数据、电子显微镜数据、微阵列数据、转基因生物和突变体五类特定类型数据的论文要求将该数据存储到推荐的数据仓储中,涉及五类数据的期刊总共有20种。【结论】可作为化学领域科研人员在ACS上发表论文的参考依据,为国内学术期刊数据政策的实施提供借鉴。     

The information practices and politics of migrant-aid work in the US-Mexico borderlands

Abstract

Numerous organizations work to provide humanitarian aid to undocumented migrants along the US-Mexico border—from running shelters in Mexico to placing water on migratory trails. Resistance to information-sharing between organizations (and to the public), especially through technologically mediated means, is common. However, some organizers and volunteers work across organizational boundaries and share information informally. Information secrecy is often justified by concerns that law enforcement authorities or anti-immigration activists might gain access to information, allowing them to harm, detain or remove migrants, or interfere with humanitarian work. The choices made about the collection and (non)disclosure of information are manifestations of what we call “liminal” information practices: such behaviors are unique to humanitarian volunteers working in the gray, ethical area between law enforcement and humanitarian values and action, and they are guided by the information politics at play within this context.     

Data deluge or data trickle? Difficulties in acquiring public data for telecommunications policy analysis

Abstract

There is a paucity of granular, high-resolution broadband data in the United States, which limits the prospects of informed telecommunications policy debates. In the absence of regulation requiring telecommunication providers to accurately report service footprints, pricing, and service quality data, providers refuse to disclose this information, routinely citing competition as the primary reason for keeping network and pricing data obfuscated. In addition, many secondary datasets needed for broadband planning and policy research, such as parcel or address point data, are equally challenging to gather. These datasets are often controlled by county governments, with no overarching access policy, resulting in neighboring counties with widely divergent policies for the release of these important data. In this article we explore the challenges of open data and its impacts on telecommunication policy development. A recent project which explored the spatial provision of Google Fiber in the Kansas City metropolitan area helps to highlight these difficulties. Basic strategies for mitigating information asymmetries and the lack of data transparency for telecommunication policy analysis are discussed.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

The extent to which Federal agencies may properly engage in information dissemination activities is currently an issue of debate within the public and private sectors. Related to this is the question of how Federal agencies should price their information products and services. These issues, although they involve information activities in many spheres, are discussed with specific reference to the policies and practices of the National Library of Medicine.     

Taming the Information Tide: Perceptions of Information Overload in the American Home

Abstract

The open flow and sharing of information are essential for the economic and scientific progress and political freedom of nations as well as the promotion of international peace and harmony. Yet, more and more nations are developing restrictive information policies to maintain their political, cultural and economic status. The author calls this phenomenon, “information protectionism,” and examines a number of cooperative steps that are being taken to assure the open exchange of ideas and information and to create a policy of global information interdependence. The basic challenge, the article concludes, is to find and maintain a realistic balance between open transborder data flow and national concerns and priorities.     

Fragments of your communication: Email,vmail, and fax

Abstract

How are new media, such as electronic mail, voice mail, and fax, used when people have access to several of them simultaneously? This paper reports findings from a field study of media use in four sizable subunits within two large organizations where most employees had access to email, vmail, and fax. Respondents tended to use multiple electronic media rather than relying on one. However, they also showed a tendency to prefer one medium for asynchronous communication and to use the others for occasional, specialized purposes. Further, there were considerable differences across subunits in typical media use patterns. Although respondents expressed strong desires for multimedia integration, this study suggests that technological integration may not necessarily result in seamless, collaborative work.     

Virtual Organization: Toward a Theory of Societal Transformation Stimulated by Information Technology,by A. Mowshowitz. Westport,CT: Quorum Books, 2002. xiii + 264 pp. $49.95. ISBN 1-56720-501-1.

Abstract

Australia's treatment of information technology (IT) has vacillated between two policy directions: laissez faire, market directed strategy on the one hand, and strong government interventionist, plan directed strategy on the other. The resultant policy mix is more a collection of individual initiatives than a coherent strategy. It produces conflict between initiatives aimed at developing indigenous information industries and those improving the productivity and competitiveness of all industry by encouraging the wider application of IT. Unlike its East Asian neighbors, Australia does not have a powerful, independent economic planning agency capable of creating and implementing industrial and technology policy. Policies must be developed through the give and take of a democratic political process, a process that can lead to fragmented, uncoordinated policies based on bureaucratic inertia, the demands of special interest groups, and short‐term political considerations, rather than long‐term strategic plans. The future of IT policy in Australia will depend upon the kinds of consensus that can be achieved on the role of IT in economic development. It will also depend on the government's skill in implementing policy and on the reactions of the private sector to whatever policies emerge.     

Environmental Management,Structure, Networks and Information Exchange: The Case of a Tasmanian Pulp and Paper Mill

Pulp and paper is a major impact industry, in which environmental impacts can be seen to be complex, diverse and characterised by uncertainty and interdependence. A greening process within this industry requires wide ranging environmental knowledge. Also fundamental are effective networks for information exchange and greening is therefore dependent on changes to such networks. This study investigates the issue of how greening occurs, focusing on the process at the Fletcher Challenge New Zealand integrated pulp and paper mill situated in Tasmania, Australia. It was seen that effective greening within this industry relies on information processing capabilities to access external and internal knowledge and skills, and that this is fundamentally dependent on structural arrangements. Appropriate organisational structure and external networks are therefore essential for accessing information and facilitating its dissemination and integration, thereby enhancing the firm's ability to address environmental concerns. The study highlights interaction between the formal change process, one which sought limited change, and an informal change process that continued greening the company beyond the official aims. The reasons for this are located in the power of informal information exchange.     

Exploring Social Theory as a Framework for Social and Cultural Measurements of the Information Society

Using Layder's domain theory (1997) Layder, D. 1997. Modern social theory:Key debates and new directions, London: UCL Press.  [Google Scholar] as an analytical framework, this article shows how the information society can be measured through various levels of society. Layder's notions of psychobiography, situated activity, social setting, and contextual resources help identify cultural and social indicators for understanding changes in the information society. With the help of empirical indicators for each domain, this article uses the case of Estonia to show that there is often more to the information society than what is captured by traditional measures. This article calls for a context-sensitive approach, which takes into consideration social and cultural indicators. Measurements from all four domains are necessary for understanding the complexity of information-society-related issues.     

Student privacy in learning analytics: An information ethics perspective

ABSTRACT

Higher education institutions have started using big data analytics tools. By gathering information about students as they navigate information systems, learning analytics employs techniques to understand student behaviors and to improve instructional, curricular, and support resources and learning environments. However, learning analytics presents important moral and policy issues surrounding student privacy. We argue that there are five crucial questions about student privacy that we must address in order to ensure that whatever the laudable goals and gains of learning analytics, they are commensurate with respecting students' privacy and associated rights, including (but not limited to) autonomy interests. We address information access concerns, the intrusive nature of information-gathering practices, whether or not learning analytics is justified given the potential distribution of consequences and benefits, and issues related to student autonomy. Finally, we question whether learning analytics advances the aims of higher education or runs counter to those goals.     

Cyberocracy is coming

Abstract

The government world lags behind the business world in feeling the effects of the information technology revolution and related innovations in organization. But government may change radically in the decades ahead. This essay fields a concept— cyberocracy—to discuss how the development of, and demand for access to, the future electronic information and communications infrastructures (i.e., cyberspace) may alter the nature of the bureaucracy. Although it is too early to say precisely what a cyberocracy may look like, the outcomes may include new forms of democratic, totalitarian, and hybrid governments. Optimism about the information revolution should be tempered by a constant, anticipatory awareness of its potential dark side.     

Closing the Digital Divide: The Role of Services and Infrastructure in Bhutan 1

Abstract

Considerable attention has been devoted in recent years to the digital divides that exist between and within countries. Within developing countries, information and communication infrastructures are often limited. This paper focuses on the digital divide within Bhutan. More specifically, the paper identifies two related dimensions of the digital divide in Bhutan—access and skills—and argues that the interaction between geography, resources and services will shape how the divide is tackled.     

Where Information Society and Community Voice Intersect

Information and communication technology (ICT) development initiatives have begun to acknowledge the power and importance of cultural and community-focused belief systems. Yet the vast majority of such initiatives tend to preidentify developmental goals that communities hold. Paulo Freire's writings have influenced development initiatives by introducing the possibility of working with communities to orient projects. While these “participatory” initiatives have involved soliciting community feedback relative to a research project whose goals were formulated in the university or development institution, they do not go far enough to harness actual visions held by communities. It is important to conceptualize a model and methodology of engaging communities to develop and articulate their own goals of information access and ultimately, an indigenous approach toward cultural, political, and economic aspects of development. This approach holds promise to sustain communities within a return on the investment and efforts of the researcher or institution. This article closes by describing a current initiative in Southern India that reflects the described methodology.     

欧美政府信息资源开发利用政策法规研究

对欧美政府信息资源开发利用相关政策法规进行研究,并借鉴欧美经验,提出我国应在进一步完善政府信息公开基础上,制定政府信息资源开发利用的专项政策法规和产业扶持政策,促进政府信息的社会再利用。     

Authentication,Privacy, and the Federal E-Government

As federal agencies move toward more sophisticated e-govern- ment offerings, they must consider both policy and operational requirements for electronic authentication (e-authentication). One important consideration in designing and deploying e-authentica- tion solutions is the balance between access, security, authentication, and privacy. Public law and government-wide policy encourage e-government and e-authentication simultaneously with privacy protection, creating policy and operational tensions for e-government efforts. A review of the relevant laws and policies and analyses of the privacy implications of authentication technologies indicates that federal agencies have at least two analytic frameworks for balancing privacy concerns with e-authentication. A framework offered in the 2003 National Research Council report Who Goes There? and the privacy impact analysis requirements of the E-Government Act of 2002 provide e-government projects with the tools for navigating the path between privacy and openness, required by both e-government law and policy.     

User interfaces

Abstract

The technology of electronic information processing favors the eventual existence of large numbers of information publishers, rather than the creation of large central data banks. Publicity and billing are functions that may be assumed by large organizations, but database creation is likely to be highly pluralistic, and access to the data, wherever there are systems of universal electronic access to dispersed databases, raises problems with regard to copyright and to standards for interconnection.     

U.S. competitiveness in international information trade

Abstract

American competitiveness in international information services trade will be determined by the skill with which government and industry can improve the coordination of commercial and technical policies and actions. This article examines some of the key issues, including federal R&D funding, tariff policies, economic assistance programs, and international technical standards.     

The use of information technologies in dutch households

Abstract

In 1985 the Department of Household Sciences conducted research on Dutch households that use information technologies for domestic purposes. This research was part of a six‐nation research programme and was supported by the FAST‐II research activities of the EEC, and the Agricultural University of Wageningen. The use of three types of information technology was surveyed: home computer, Videotext, and Teletext. Analysis of the finding indicates the types of households likely to benefit from information technology in the future and groups households into three classes according to their attitudes to information technology—productivistic, hobbyist, and socially committed.     

开放存取环境下图书馆馆藏发展政策研究

在开放存取环境下,图书馆资源对象的改变造成信息资源政策的调整,OA资源的有效利用,可以提高馆藏质量,优化馆藏结构,把图书馆资源建设提升到一个新的高度.本文基于开放存取的研究进展,从OA资源对图书馆资源建设的影响这一角度出发,对图书馆在开放存取环境下的馆藏发展政策作了详细的分析.