Federal information policy: Protecting the free flow of information

Federal information policy is a tangled web, woven over many decades and one which tends to trap information, rather than making it easily available. Although some of the difficulty has been caused by a lack of coherence and by some confusion among members of the Congress, the principal difficulty recently has been the lack of trust exhibited by the Reagan administration. If the United States is to regain its economic and technological health, a well-thought-out and administered Federal information policy will be the cornerstone to those ends. An informed electorate can help by assisting Congress with ideas regarding needs, both present and future. Together with an informed administration, we can, and must, create the Federal information policy that meets all our needs without jeopardizing our national security.     

The strategic importance of information policy for the contemporary neoliberal state: The case of Open Government Data in the United Kingdom

The article analyses the role of Open Government Data policy as part of the broader public policy agenda of the UK government. A thematic analysis of interview, observational and policy documentation is presented which suggests that since 2010 the Open Government Data agenda has been used strategically by the UK's centre-right coalition government to progress a range of controversial policies, which are aimed at the continuation of the neoliberal form of state through its current crisis. Specifically, the relationship between Open Government Data policy and the neoliberal objectives of the marketisation of public services and privatisation of public assets, the leveraging of financial markets and the pharmaceutical industry, and the embedding of OGD into a broader agenda aimed at rebuilding trust in political elites are analysed. These findings are examined in relation to Braman's (2006, 2011) arguments regarding the strategic implementation of information policy by Governments in the exercising of state power, and the development of the ‘informational state’.     

Looking for datasets to open: An exploration of government officials' information behaviors in open data policy implementation

In recent years, more and more government administrations around the world are participating in open data policy implementation. Government officials who are charged with implementing this new policy usually need to look for related information for deciding what datasets to open to the public. Accordingly, a research gap exists in understanding government officials' information behaviors in implementing open data policy. By using a qualitative approach to conduct semi-structured interviews with government officials who have extensive experience in implementing open data policy, this study explores government officials' information behaviors in searching and selecting datasets for open data publication. Specifically, this research investigates government officials' information needs, the employed information sources, and the intervening variables that influence their information behaviors. While open data is an ongoing policy implementation, government officials' information behaviors form an iterative cycle where information needs continually occur, information seeking activities are conducted by using a variety of information sources, and the obtained information is used to satisfy information needs. The findings and discussions of this study are expected to provide insights of government officials' data search and selection to practitioners and to enrich the current literature of open government data.     

Technopolicing,surveillance, and citizen oversight: A neorepublican theory of liberty and information control

In modern society, we see the struggle to balance the proper functioning of government with the interests and rights of the people to access government information playing out all around us. This paper explores the relationship between liberty and security implicated by government surveillance and citizen-initiated efforts to cast the gaze back at the government (so-called “reciprocal surveillance”). In particular, this paper explores how a neorepublican conception of political liberty, defined as the absence of the possibility of domination, can inform future information policy research in this area. The paper concludes that, to be fully non-dominating, government must respect and provide effective institutional and legal mechanisms for their citizenry to effectuate self-government and command noninterference. Establishing liberal access rights to information about government conduct and mechanisms that ensure that citizens can effectively command noninterference are justified on the grounds that they reduce the possibility of arbitrary, and actual, interference with the right of the people govern themselves.     

Enthusiasts, deregulators, guardians, and skeptics: Contrasting policy viewpoints on the National Information Infrastructure

Passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and events leading up to it, brought to public attention a proposed National Information Infrastructure (NII) that would connect homes, businesses, universities, schools, and government offices. The policy discourse surrounding the Act reveals a variety of perspectives among stakeholders, including the Clinton administration, federal agencies, Congress, telephone companies, the computer industry, broadcast and cable TV companies, educators, and other interest groups.While there are many reports and commentaries on the NII, few authors have tried to characterize the political viewpoints behind the public discourse. This article reviews more than 80 NII-related documents, published from 1988 through 1997, and classifies their views and authors according to a two-dimensional typology by policy analyst William Dutton. Comparisons are made between those advocating Public versus Market leadership in NII development, and between Promotional and Restrictive statements regarding NII policy.     

Government transparency: Monitoring public policy accumulation and administrative overload

Democratic governments maintain their legitimacy by answering demands to solve societal problems, thus continuously adopting and implementing new policies, programs, and administrative rules. One possible consequence of this democratic responsiveness is policy accumulation and rule growth, thus overloading administrative resources and, ultimately, impairing policy implementation. The aim of this exploratory research is twofold: first, to analyse the relationship between government transparency and policy accumulation; second, to develop a government transparency framework aimed to monitor public policy accumulation and one of its major consequences, administrative overload. To illustrate the proposal and its applicability, the framework was used to guide the analysis of the Portuguese case, revealing the absence of a comprehensive approach to the overload problem, and identifying relevant components for a future monitoring system. The framework, and the analysis it provides, are intended to guide government transparency initiatives which address the public policy accumulation and administrative overload problem.     

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.     

Government information policy in Canada

Two disparate trends have influenced Canada's long history of examining and developing government information policy. First, various publishing policies of the 1960s and 1970s recognized the public's right to government information. This trend culminated in freedom of information legislation in 1983. Following a transitional period in the mid-1980s, the advent of a corporate resource approach to government information resulted in information policies that emphasized information resources management, cost recovery, and commoditization. Recent attempts to merge the inherent contradictions between the concepts of the public's right to government information and information as a commodity have resulted in policy that leaves much to individual interpretation.     

Information policy in the European community: Balancing protection and competition

This article discusses European Community policy as it relates to information technology and the information industry. With the advent of a common market within Europe there is an increase in competition and the removal of national barriers. This process is slow and difficult to accomplish and is not yet complete. Markets have traditionally been fragmented by linguistic differences, as well as different standards and laws. An EC policy towards information and information technology industries has evolved since the 1960s. This policy has steered a difficult course between protectionism and liberalization. It is unclear whether or not the common European market will be sufficient on its own to foster a competitive information market and information technology industry. The European Commission has traditionally taken an interventionist role. In the field of EC information law many, but by no means all. issues have been confronted. The Commission's role is changing from giving significant grants for collaborative European research and development towards incentives to companies to increase their own research and development spending, and towards building information infrastructure.     

FOIA, federal information policy, and information availability in a post-9/11 world

Access to government records is increasingly shifting to a nether world-governed neither by the FOIA and the Privacy Act, nor by an executive order on classification. Instead, new categories of records, labeled “sensitive but unclassified,” “for official use only,” or “critical infrastructure information,” are being created in a variety of agencies, and are governed by agency regulations. Statutory authority is found in a number of separate laws, such as the Homeland Security Act and the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. These categories can be assigned by agency officials, contractors, or those in the private sector who originated the records; many records categorized this way are not subject to appeal or review by agencies or the courts, or to any automatic “declassification” process that has applied to documents withheld under the FOIA or subject to classification. Trends toward increased secrecy at all levels of government have become sufficiently alarming that individuals across the political spectrum have begun to speak out, and members of the access community (e.g., newspaper editors and public interest groups) have formed coalitions to focus debate on the need to rethink the balance of access with privacy and records protection, and to lobby actively for reinstatement of principles of access that have governed records policy for the past 35 years.     

Deliberative democracy and the conceptual foundations of electronic government

As electronic government (e-government) becomes increasingly important in the presentation of government information to citizens, the potential impacts of e-government on the democratic process must be carefully considered. E-government clearly has the potential to become an institution that helps to ensure reasoned reflection about political issues and active participation in deliberative democracy by citizens and by members of the government. Though the Internet presents innovative new methods for conveying government information to citizens, it also presents new and serious potential impediments to deliberative democracy, such as group polarization about political issues by online social groups. The ability of e-government sites either to foster democratic dialogue by presenting multiple viewpoints or to enable polarization on political issues by promoting specific views demonstrates a key question about the conceptual foundations of e-government. Drawing upon perspectives from information studies, public policy, law, and governance, this article examines the differing political implications between e-government built on a foundation of participation and on a foundation of polarization.     

Congressional oversight of security classification policy

Security classification policy is generally established by the President through an executive order. Although Congress has no formally established oversight role on security classification issues, there has been fairly regular and systematic congressional oversight of security classification policy. However, the nature of the classification process makes it very difficult for Congress to monitor the way in which classification policy is applied in practice.     

The information gulag: Rethinking openness in times of national danger

The founding fathers of the United States recognized that freely available information and an educated citizenry were essential to the functioning of a representative democracy. But almost as soon as the ink dried on the Constitution, political forces moved, and have continued to move, to restrict the flow of information from the government to the public, as well as among members of the public. This article examines whether information availability has become a victim of the war on terrorism – whether the nation has entered a time in which legal and policy initiatives are creating information gulags – secreting government information and restricting communications among members of the public, including the academic community. This article explores how policy is shaping the information relationship among the government, the public, academia, and the media and whether new models may be appropriate and more beneficial to society. In doing so, we examine in depth not only public access to government information but also the emerging and vital issue of government restrictions on scholarly exchange, as most recently presented by the legal dispute between the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), Department of Treasury, and subsequently the litigation brought by the Association of American University Presses (AAUP).     

Government information policy research: Importance, approaches, and realities

Information policy research is a critical tool in the arsenal of library and information science researchers. As developments occur in information access, use, technology, and management, information policies require more attention and research. The article describes the nature of government information policy and policy research, characteristics of policy research, and examples of research methods and approaches that can be used. The differences between textbook-based policy research and how policy research might be implemented in action are also discussed, as are the inter-connectedness of information policies and ways to describe impacts of information policies. The article recommends that researchers and professionals give greater education, training, and professional association attention to using policy research on a day-to-day basis.     

A window on the politics of the government printing office electronic information access enhancement act of 1993

This article discusses political interests and maneuvering that went on among professional trade associations, government agencies, and public interest groups and the ultimate effects that it had on the outcome of the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Act of 1993, also known as the WINDOW bill. Insight is provided into the increasingly contentious politics of information in the United States. With the trend toward the explosive growth in availability of and access to government information in electronic formats, it is recognized that access to and control of government information has tremendous economic and political rewards for libraries, businesses, and politicians alike.     

Canadian federal government policy and Canada's electronic information industry

This article examines, in detail, the history and process of formulation and implementation of information policy in Canada during the period of 1970 through 1994. The sometimes tenuous working relationship of the Canadian federal government and the electronic information industry is discussed. Particular attention is paid to the dynamics and consequences of Crown copyright. The financial environment in which the industry operates is viewed in the context of government policy and suggestions are made as to how those policies might be changed to favor the industry. Also, considered are recent developments—the 1992 National Information Summit, the Stentor alliance, plans for a national information highway, and CANARIE.     

Do you know where your information is in the homeland security era?

Why should we care about our information? As we enter the era of homeland security, one can see a new premium being placed on the role of information to fight terrorism while the policies related to government information practices are in a state of flux. Exactly how these policies are evolving is not always clear. Yet, the decisions being made now will likely have a lasting impact for years to come. In an attempt to better understand dynamics underlying these changes, a number of questions regarding the use, control, and protection of personal and public information are posed in this introduction to the symposium issue. We also review some of the major themes examined in greater detail by the contributors to the symposium. These issues include the role of e-government in homeland security, the emphasis on information sharing, the emergence of new information classification categories, the growth of data mining, and the eroding sense of privacy. While a number of reasons can be offered to justify one policy alternative over another, we conclude that the importance of these issues suggests that they are best debated and implemented during a time not under duress when decisions made in the heat of the moment can lead to unintended consequences.     

Distribution channel management in e-government: Addressing federal information policy issues

Part of the promise of electronic government (e-government) is its ability to transform the delivery of information services and products from government to users. E-government allows federal agencies to supplement and even supplant private sector roles intermediating between government agencies and users, creating unintended consequences in terms of policy, theory, and practice. The problem is called “channel conflict” in the marketing literature, and the typical response is called distribution channel management (DCM). After reviewing the literatures of e-government, information policy, and DCM, the paper explores differing DCM philosophies of two federal agencies: the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Census Bureau. An examination of these two DCM programs provides insights on how federal agencies may be able to manage their various channels for e-government offerings despite tensions in the current legal and policy context. The paper concludes by using DCM literature to help frame options for dealing with these tensions.     

NTIS: Potential roles and government information policy frameworks

Despite major technological and document capture advances in the 1990s, the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) became a privatization target again in 1995 as part of Republican efforts to dismantle its parent agency, the Department of Commerce. After examining NTIS's current operational status and its user profile, this article explores six future role options for the agency. Finally, NTIS's “fit” with four competing information policy models is examined. NTIS has become an innovative, entrepreneurial agency with the potential to assume an expanded role in government and scientific/technical information dissemination, but it is still politically and financially vulnerable in the current Washington climate.     

我国政府信息资源相关研究的主题分析

[目的/意义] 深入分析我国政府信息资源相关研究的成果和存在的问题,提出新时期该领域的研究方向和重点。[方法/过程] 通过综合采用文献计量方法与基于主题词相关度排序的人工阅读分析方法,全面地概括和分析政府信息资源相关研究领域的研究主题。[结果/结论] 研究结果表明,我国政府信息资源相关研究存在基础概念与理论研究薄弱、相关研究受政策与技术双重导向的作用明显、理论研究与实际需求严重脱节等问题。指出应立足于新时期现代化国家治理体系建设的需要,在信息技术加速发展和深度应用的背景下,实现政府信息资源相关概念和理论研究的突破,转变政府信息资源相关研究和政府信息化的发展模式,建立适应我国政府信息资源建设管理实际需要的理论体系。