Report on re-use of public sector information
Jinfo Blog

6th October 2008

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The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) http://www.opsi.gov.uk has recently published its report on public sector information re-use. Entitled Unlocking PSI Potential, this is the United Kingdom Report on the Re-Use of Public Sector Information 2008. The first report, published last year, marked the first two years of operation of the ‘UK regime for public sector information’ and tracked progress made to date. This new report tracks progress made since then http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/psi-regulations/uk-report-reuse-psi-2008.pdf. We wrote about the work of this government body earlier this year (VIP 56), describing its role in government information policy. It is also the main licensing body for access to public sector data. The new report will be of interest to anyone who uses or licenses public data as its contents show. Topics covered this year include: · Intellectual Property Rights and copyright issues · The possibility of extending the scope of the Directive to cover documents held by cultural, education and scientific research sectors (particularly worth keeping an eye on: my italics) · Encouraging re-use across the private sector · UK government initiative focussing on the charging mechanisms · Information Management Standards and Data Quality In his introduction to the report, Michael Will, Minister for Information at the Ministry of Justice, suggests that 25% of commercial information products and services in Europe are based on public sector information. By removing the barriers to re-use and by streamlining and simplifying processes, the Minister suggests that ‘the potential prizes for the economies of Europe are enormous’. One of the recent changes has been the launch of a new online service to gather and assess requests for public sector information in more re-usable forms. This is in recognition of the difficulty users were encountering in getting hold of the information they need in the formats they want.

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