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CC and Government
This webpage tracks developments and provides information about the use of Creative Commons licences by government agencies at all levels – local, State/Territory and Federal - in Australia.
Government is the area of greatest adoption of Creative Commons in Australia. From the Australian Bureau of Statistics releasing all census data under CC Attribution licences to the Australian Government releasing the entire 2010-11 Budget under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, more and more government agencies are using CC licences to distribute their copyright materials.
Want to know more?
Follow CC in Government AU on Twitter at: @govCCAu or search for the hashtag #govCCAu for updates. See our related project site, Access to and Use of Public Sector Information (auPSI), aupsi.org. Or check out the Australian section of the Government Use of Creative Commons page on the CC International wiki.
Our CC & Government Guide: Using Creative Commons 3.0 Australia Licences on Government Copyright Materials has been developed to assist government agencies apply Creative Commons licences to their copyright materials when distributing them. The guide explains how copyright law applies to Australian government material, how copyright can be managed to facilitate beneficial open access practices by government, how CC licences can be used to achieve open access to government material, and provides practical step-by-step guidance for agencies and their officers on licensing and use of government copyright materials under CC 3.0 Australia licences.
The Guide and its related factsheets are available at QUT's ePrints repository under a CC BY 3.0 Australia licence.
A Guide written in relation to version 2.5 of the CC Australia licences is available at QUT's ePrints. This Guide remains available as version 2.5 has been applied to extensive government copyright materials to date.
If you would like to read more about our research in this area, please see the following publications:
Fitzgerald, Anne M., Hooper, Neale, & Fitzgerald, Brian F. (2010) The use of Creative Commons licensing to enable open access to public sector information and publicly funded research results : an overview of recent Australian developments. In Bourcier, Danièle, Casanovas, Pompeu, Dulong de Rosnay, Mélanie, & Maracke, Catharina (Eds.) Intelligent Multimedia : Managing Creative Works in a Digital World. European Press Academic Publishing , pp. 151-174.
Fitzgerald, Anne M., Fitzgerald, Brian F., & Hooper, Neale (2010) Enabling open access to public sector information with Creative Commons Licences : the Australian experience. In Access to Public Sector Information : Law, Technology & Policy. Sydney University Press.
Fitzgerald, Anne M. (2010) European Public Sector Information Platform Topic Report No. 13 - State of Play: PSI Reuse in Australia.
Hooper, Neale, Fitzgerald, Anne M., Barker, Tim, & McColm, Graham (2006) Government information licensing framework project stage 2 report. The State of Queensland (Queensland Treasury), Brisbane. (Note: this is the earliest report on our research which examined the potential for use of CC licences by government agencies and is the foundation stone for the subsequent work that we did in this area.)
Category Archives: Government
European Commission on the reuse of its documents
Following the launch of the European Commission’s Open Data Strategy on 12 December, the EC has published its decision on the reuse of Commission documents in the Official Journal of the European Union. According to the decision, it:
determines the conditions for the reuse of documents held by the Commission or on its behalf by the Publications Office of the European Union (the Publications Office) with the aim of facilitating a wider reuse of information, enhancing the image of openness of the Commission, and avoiding unnecessary administrative burdens for reusers and the Commission services alike.
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European Commission’s Digital Agenda: Turning government data into gold
On 12 December, the European Commission (EC) announced the launch of its Open Data Strategy, one which is expected to deliver a €40 billion boost to the EU’s economy each year. This strategy involves three steps: Continue reading
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DEEDI and QPS websites licensed under CC BY
There is no shortage of Australian government agencies and departments adopting open access policies , and we’re glad to showcase two Queensland examples – the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI) and the Queensland Police Service (QPS). Continue reading
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Open Government Data Conference and Data Camp a success
The Open Government Data Conference and Data Camp on Friday 23 September 2011 were truly inspiring and thought provoking events, bringing both Australian and international perspectives to bear on open data and governments.
We extend our most genuine thanks to all speakers, participants and attendees – every component was integral to its success.
The conference was chaired by Professor Brian Fitzgerald, Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation at QUT Law Faculty.
Early in the day, we had policy and practice guidance from those working within government.
Credits—Photo:’World Airline Routes‘ by josullivan.59 licensed under CC BY 2.0 Generic.
Posted in ccAustralia, Events, Government Leave a comment
Date claimer: Creative Commons for You, and for Government
Can’t get enough of CC? We will be making our way down to Canberra in about a month, so make sure you mark it in your diaries!
A free public seminar on the topic CC for You, and for Government, will be presented by Professor Anne Fitzgerald, Neale Hooper and Cheryl Foong on Friday, 4 November 2011, 9.00am – 3.30pm at National Library of Australia (Theatre at Lower ground floor), Parkes Place, ACT.
We want to make this event meaningful for you. If you have encountered any practical or operational issues in your personal or working environments, please contact Cheryl Foong at cheryl.foong@qut.edu.au. We will do our best to accomodate your interests.
For more details, updates and to RSVP, please visit the event page.
Credits—Photo: ‘The National Library of Australia and the Canberra Balloon Festival, March 2011‘ by Grey Nomad Australia, licensed under CC BY 2.0 Generic. Continue reading
Open Government Data Camp
The Open Government Data Conference is coming up this Friday, with an impressive line-up of speakers.
The Conference will be followed by an Open Government Data Camp from 4pm-6pm at the same venue. We have updated the event program with a list of Data Camp participants, including:
Anthony Baxter (Google Australia, Crisis Response)
Keitha Booth (Programme Leader, NZ Open Government Data and Information Programme) Continue reading
Posted in ccAustralia, Events, Government Leave a comment
CC Korea translates Gov 2.0 Taskforce Report
The Report of the Government 2.0 Taskforce, released under a CC Attribution 2.5 Australia licence in 2010, has since been translated into Korean.
The translation project began as an inspired effort by a team of CC Korea volunteers.
Credits— Screenshot of CC Korea site. Website licensed under CC BY 2.0 Korea.
Posted in Creative Commons international, Government, Text Leave a comment
Full program for Open Government Data Conference now available
We previously announced that the Open Government Data Conference was to be held Friday, 23 September 2011, at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
The full conference program is now available at the event page.
This free full-day event has been extended to include an Open Government Data Camp from 4pm-5pm, which will showcase several Open Government case studies. Continue reading
Posted in ccAustralia, Events, Government, Uncategorised Leave a comment
Open Government Data Conference in Brisbane
Open Government data is a topic of current strategic interest. From emergency and natural disaster response management through health, education and the environment, to the development of new-data driven services and technologies, it it critically important to be able to obtain access to publicly funded data, in reusable formats.
On Friday, 23 September 2011, 8.30am – 5.00pm we will be holding an Open Government Data Conference at QUT Gardens Point Campus in Brisbane. Continue reading
Posted in ccAustralia, Events, Government Leave a comment
Emergency information wiki launched under Creative Commons
In late 2010/early 2011 the State of Queensland was affected by two significant natural disasters – the 2010/11 floods and Cyclone Yasi. You might remember that the ccAustralia office had to close as a result of the floods. During these incidences, … Continue reading
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Prof Beth Noveck and Prof Brian Fitzgerald talk Gov 2.0
LECTURE CANCELLED: Please be aware that the Beth Noveck and Brian Fitzgerald lecture has been cancelled.
For those Creative Commoners in Australia interested in Government 2.0, ccAustralia is very excited to announce that we are co-hosting with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCi) and the Queensland University of Technology Faculty of Law two lectures by Gov 2.0 heavyweights: Professor Beth Noveck, former Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the US Government and and leader of the White House Open Government Initiative, and ccAustralia’s Project Lead Professor Brian Fitzgerald, specialist Research Professor in Intellectual Property and Innovation at QUT and appointee to the Australia Government’s Government 2.0 Taskforce and the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property.
The two speakers have a wealth of knowledge and expertise in Government use of Web 2.0. Professors Noveck and Fitzgerald will talk through their involvement in Government 2.0 initiatives in the USA and Australia over the last two years reflecting on what this means for the operation of government and more broadly the general public. They will consider both at a conceptual and practical level arguments for “collaborative government” as a strategy for creating a more effective and democratic system. Continue reading
Senator Kate Lundy on Open Government and Citizen-centric Services
On 1 March 2011, Senator Kate Lundy, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister and Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Citizenship, spoke at the Citizen Centric Service Delivery 2011, Canberra on the topic ‘Citizen-centric services: A necessary principle for achieving genuine open government’.
Senator Lundy opened her speech with the meaning of Open Government, which relates to “accessible and transparent data, the extent government engages with citizens in decision making and accessibility of government itself.” With that in mind, she focused her speech on the “three pillars of Open Government”: Citizen-Centric services, Democratizing Data and Participatory Government.
In terms of Citizen-Centric services, Senator Lundy envisioned central and tailored data services for the public, such as mash-ups utilising interoperable data. She cited existing initiatives such as Australia.gov.au and Centrelink’s online profile management system (among others) as good examples of information management.
According to Senator Lundy, the next pillar of open government, Democratising Data, is about “recognising that government data is a public resource”. She emphasised that it is about “ensuring that at the point of creation, government data is assumed to be destined for public release, unless there is a specific reason not to.” This means from creation:
- data should have a permissible copyright license such as Creative Commons,
- data should be stored in an open data format such that it is not locked into a specific product or technology,
- data should be machine readable so that people can create applications that can use the data for new services or analysis,
- there should be a strategy for whether and how to keep the data set up to date, and how updates should be published,
- data should include useful metadata such as date of creation, author, any geospatial information, keywords, to ensure the data is able to be re-purposed on other ways such as by plotting the data on a map.
She pointed out that many government documents and cultural assets have already been released under a Creative Commons licence, including the Federal Budget under a CC BY licence – a world first of which they were proud of.
Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘ Senator Kate Lundy talking about Gov2.0 at SFD Melbourne‘ by Chris Samuel, CC BY 2.0 Generic.
ccAustralia research helped during flood crisis
During the recent devastating flood crisis which affected much of Queensland, geospatial data, specifically digital elevation models or DEMs, were imperative to the creation of accurate flood models and for overcoming many operational challenges.
On 11 February 2011, the Australian Financial Review published an article entitled ‘Floods stress mapping needs’ which emphasises the significance of national elevation data available via Geoscience Australia‘s DEM web portal. The data, which was released on 15 December 2010, consolidates geospatial data from dozens of different agencies. Importantly, all of that data is released under a Creative Commons Attribution licence.
Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Flooding in Australia‘ by NASA Goddard Space Centre, CC BY 2.0 Generic.
New biodiversity atlas encourages sharing of knowledge
The Atlas of Living Australia is a new Australian Government collaborative initiative led by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Acting as a portal, the Atlas facilitates users to explore, combine and analyse information and data on Australian plants and animals. It includes authoritative species lists and classifications, mapping and identification tools, images, literature and occurrence records contributed by a number of data providers.
To help support that aim, the Atlas encourages contributing data providers to license their contributions under a Creative Commons licence. Specifically, because the Atlas wants to ensure content is open for downstream use, the Atlas does not support licensing under either of the two No Derivative Works licences.
Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Superb Lyre Bird 1‘ by Ian Sanderson, CC BY-NC 2.0 Generic.
Posted in Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums, Government, OA Research, Science, Uncategorised Tagged Atlas of Living Australia, Australian Biosecurity Intelligence Network, Australian Museum, Australian Phenomics Network, Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, Biodiversity Heritage Library, CSIRO, Data Observation Network for Earth, Department of Agriculture, Department of Sustainability, Distributed Dynamic Diversity Databases for Life, Education Investment Fund (Australia), Encyclopedia of Life, Environment, Fisheries and Forestry, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Integrated Marine Observing System, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Museum Victoria, National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (Australia), Population and Communities, Queensland Museum, South Australian Museum, Southern Cross University, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network, University of Adelaide, Water, Western Australian Museum Leave a comment
Information Commissioner releases Draft Principles on Open Public Sector Information
It’s only been 8 days since the Australian Government launched the new Office of the Australian Information Commissioner but the new agency that encompasses the existing functions of the Privacy Commissioner and the new appointments of Australian Information Commissioner and Freedom of Information Commissioner is continuing to steer the discussion of access to Australian public sector information in the right direction with the release of their first issues paper, Towards an Australian Government Information Policy. Opening with a reminder that “information is a valuable and powerful resource and is at the heart of government,” the paper synthesises much of the policy work that has happened in this area in the past few years and serves to orientate where the new OAIC fits into Federal Government information management processes. It also signals areas of recommendation where the OAIC is seeking public commentary.
Credits—Photo: Screen capture of ‘Population Pyramid – Australia‘ by Australian Bureau of Statistics, CC BY 2.5 Australia.
