Teaching Skills for Open Government

After the excellent seminar "Using Creative Commons in the Public Sector" in Parliament House last week, I am rethinking the design of my Electronic Data Management Course at the ANU. My attempts to define skills for an got bogged down in the details of the UK Government Knowledge and Information Management Professional Skills Framework, SFIA, and the ASA/RMAA Statement of Knowledge for Recordkeeping Professionals. Instead I perhaps can look at what the Australian Government is aiming to achieve and then teach what is needed to achieve that.

On 16 July 2010, Lindsay Tanner, Minister for Finance and Deregulation, issued a Declaration of Open Government. This identified three key principles:

Informing: strengthening citizen’s rights of access to information, establishing a pro-disclosure culture across Australian Government agencies including through online innovation, and making government information more accessible and usable;

Engaging: collaborating with citizens on policy and service delivery to enhance the processes of government and improve the outcomes sought; and

Participating: making government more consultative and participative.

Changes to Freedom of Information and the creation of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner came into force on 1 November 2010.

The Intellectual Property Principles for Australian Government agencies" were changed by the Attorney General's Department, 1 October 2010:

11. (a) Agencies should encourage public use and easy access to material that has been published for the purpose of :

• informing and advising the public of government policy and activities;
• providing information that will enable the public and organisations to understand their own obligations and responsibilities to Government;
• enabling the public and organisations to understand their entitlements to government assistance;
• facilitating access to government services; or
• complying with public accountability requirements.

...

11.(b) Consistent with the need for free and open re-use and adaptation, public sector information should be licensed by agencies under the Creative Commons BY standard as the default.

Government Information Licensing Framework (GILF) adopted by the Queensland Government:

The Government Information Licensing Framework (GILF) makes it easy for people who use public sector information (PSI) to understand the rights of use associated with the material.

GILF comprises:

• a supporting policy

• a series of resources to help users

• a Licensing Review process to help to determine the relevant GILF licence

• 7 licences (6 Creative Commons licences and 1 the GILF Restrictive licence)