Australian Federal Government Commits to Open Access


Design by Ben Crothers of Catch Media CC BY 2.5

Big news from the Australian Federal Government on the issue of access to public sector information (PSI).

CCau followers will remember the Government 2.0 Taskforce report released in December last year, which gave Creative Commons a very big tick as the licensing model of choice for Australian PSI. The Federal Government’s official response to the report was released yesterday and is generally positive, with the Federal Government agreeing (at least substantially) to 12 of the 13 recommendations to come out of the report.

Models are Hot: ccAustralia at the Brisbane Powerhouse next Tuesday

A social engagement for all those interested in digital music and online business models.

CCau’s Elliott Bledsoe is speaking at the Models are Hot event at the Brisbane Powerhouse next Tuesday as part of the Independent Music Project‘s Music Stimulants series. The panel, which also features alongside Tim Price from Musicadium and James Milsom from Melbourne-based group Ancient Free Gardeners, will explore new models of distribution, collaboration and commerce emerging around music in the digital age.

From the website:

For musicians these days, there is a sobering reality about the distribution of music content; wake up and smell the peer-to-peer! How can you ask for the cake and get to eat it too?

… It’s one thing for Girl Talk, Nine Inch Nails and Yoko Ono to give away their music, but what about at the other end of the scale? The panel will discuss new opportunities in the changed media environment, using Melbourne band Ancient Free Gardeners as a case study.

The panel is followed by a gig by Ancient Free Gardeners.

Music Stimulants is a series of monthly gigs and seminars being run by IMP in collaboration with the Powerhouse to bring musicians and music lovers together in stimulating discussion about today’s music.

Where: Turbine Platform, Brisbane Powerhouse
When: Tuesday, 27 April, 6 – 8pm
Topic: Models are hot

Platform Special Issue Call for Papers Extended

Photo: Untitled by pheezyThe deadlines for the “Yes, We’re Open!” Special Issue of PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication have been extended. The new dates are:

17 May 2010: Abstracts/Proposals (500-800 words)
5 July 2010: Full Papers (6,000-8,000 words, including 200 word abstracts and six keywords)

Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Untitled‘ by pheezy, CC BY 2.0 Generic.

Victorian Government commits to CC licensing

Photo: Parliament of Victoria by Brian GiesenAs mentioned in our previous post, today is a very significant day for free culture in Australia, with the Victorian Government becoming the first Australian government to commit to using Creative Commons as the default licensing system for its public sector information.

The commitment is part of the Government’s response to its Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee’s Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector Information and Data, which recommended that the Victorian Government adopt a “hybrid public sector information licensing model comprising Creative Commons and a tailored suite of licences for restricted materials.”

Credits—Photo: Adaptation (crop and resize) of ‘Untitled‘ by Brian Giesen, CC BY 2.0 Generic.

Kookaburras, Bittorents and CC commitments – a big day for copyright in Australia

Photo: Laugh Kookaburra Laugh by -just-jen-If you have an interest in copyright chances are that you, like us, have spent much of today getting excited by the two big copyright cases that were just handed down by the Australian courts.

For anyone who missed it, Judge Cowdroy of the Federal Court has handed down a decision that Australia’s third biggest ISP, iiNet, is not responsible for authorising copyright infringements undertaken by Bittorrenting clients. The decision is very long, but it is also well written and thorough, and we’re impressed with Cowdroy J’s common sense approach, with statements like “There does not appear to be any way to infringe the applicants’ copyright from the mere use of the internet” and “The law recognises no positive obligation on any person to protect the copyright of another.”

Credits—Photo: ‘Laugh Kookaburra Laugh‘ by -just-jen-, CC BY 2.0 Generic.

Government 2.0 Taskforce gives CC a very big tick


Design by Ben Crothers of Catch Media CC BY 2.5

This is a bit belated, as it was released in 22 December – but we thought people would like to hear about the final report of the Government 2.0 Taskforce and its fabulous CC recommendations.

Headed by well know economist Dr Nick Gruen and including representation from the public, private and academic sectors, the Taskforce was launched in June by the Finance Minister, Lindsay Tanner, to advise the Australian government on “increasing the openness of government through making public sector information more widely available to promote transparency, innovation and value adding to government information” and “encouraging online engagement with the aim of drawing in the information, knowledge, perspectives, resources and even, where possible, the active collaboration of anyone wishing to contribute to public life.”

Over the last few months it’s been everywhere – running competitions, public forums, seemingly endless blog posts.

Now the Taskforce has released its final report – Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0 – and pretty impressive it is too, with an excellent summary of the current state of play for Australian government online – the goods and the bads.

Key findings of the report, which is published by the Finance Department, include:

  • Public agencies and public servants should engage more using the tools and capabilities of ‘collaborative web’ or Web 2.0. Forming or join existing online communities of interest around issues of relevance to government policy, service delivery and regulation will help public agencies and their officers become more informed, responsive, innovative and citizen-centric.
  • Once public sector information is liberated as a key national asset, possibilities — foreseeable and otherwise — are unlocked through the invention, creativity and hard work of citizens, business and community organisations. Open public sector information is thus an invitation to the public to engage, innovate and create new public value.
  • To seize the opportunities of Government 2.0, the existing public service culture of hierarchical control and direction must change sufficiently to encourage and reward engagement. Yet it must at the same time, stay true to enduring public service values of impartiality, propriety and professionalism.

Most importantly from our point of view – the report (which is under a CC BY licence) wholeheartedly endorses Creative Commons Attribution as the default licence for government material. In fact, it contains a page and a half long recommendation (no. 6) which spells out exactly how open content licensing can, and should, be made central to Crown copyright policy.

Last days to donate!

Just a quick reminder that there’s only a few more days to donate to CC’s 2009 fundraising campaign.

It’s been a hard year financially for everyone, including CC, and unfortunately at this point there’s still a fair way to go to our goal of $500,000.

So while we’re all winding down 2009, if you’ve got a bit of change in your pocket from Christmas and the sales, think about using it to support CC’s good work in free culture. Anything and everything is appreciated.

Here’s a great post by Michael Carroll going over some of the amazing things that CC has achieved in 2009.

More on Government Data – Geoscience Australia goes CC

Photo: Shattuck_23096-1, Uluru, NT by SouthernAntsWe know we’ve been publishing a lot about licensing of government documents and data of late, but there really has been so much happening that we just can’t resist. This week’s story is one we’ve actually been meaning to post about for a while.

As of late November Geoscience Australia has officially adopted Creative Commons Attribution as the default licence for its website. This means more than 18 877 products available through the website, including 3690 datasets, are now free to be reused, repurposed and remixed, including for commercial purposes – as long as you attribute Geoscience Australia as the original source, of course.

Credits—Photo: ‘Shattuck_23096-1, Uluru, NT‘ by SouthernAnts, CC BY 2.0 Generic.

Realising Our Broadband Future around Australia

And another one for those interested in government communications policy – on Thursday the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is running the Realising Our Broadband Future forum at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

With an opening by – wait for it – the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd, and featured keynote speakers including Senator the Hon. Stephen Conroy Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, well known open access advocate Senator Kate Lundy and CEO of the NBN Co. Mike Quigley, the day certainly looks set to be one of the keystone public consultation events in the lead up to the National Broadband Network.

From the website:

The National Broadband Network (NBN) will turbo-charge our digital economy and enable Australia to become a global leader in using the online world – the world of the 21st century. It will make possible new ways of delivering all essential services.

We need to start planning now for this new world to ensure we maximise the opportunities that the National Broadband Network will provide.

The Government is hosting the Realising Our Broadband Future forum to map the applications and business models that will thrive in Australia’s high speed broadband future.

The UNSW forum is invitation only – but to make sure everyone can get involved there are a number of options for remote participation, from a live stream to an idea wiki to Twitter hashtag. They’re also inviting people to suggest ideas or topics in advance of the forum, based around the five streams of:

• Smart Infrastructure
• e-Business.
• Digital Education
• e-Health
• e-Communities

Furthermore, there are a couple of complimentary forums popping up around the country, combining live streams of the main keynotes with local speakers and discussion forums. For instance, our sister research project, auPSI, will be hosting an event at QUT in Brisbane. A similar forum is being held at Parramatta.

So take advantage of the options to participate in shaping this important part of Australia’s development, while you still have the ability to have your say.

Gov 2.0 report – they want your opinion

Today sees the release of the draft report from the Government 2.0 Taskforce for public comment.

Those who have been following our posts will remember that the Taskforce was launched in June by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner MP to advise the government on “increasing the openness of government through making public sector information more widely available to promote transparency, innovation and value adding to government information” and “encouraging online engagement with the aim of drawing in the information, knowledge, perspectives, resources and even, where possible, the active collaboration of anyone wishing to contribute to public life.” Since then the Taskforce has undertaken an impressive number of initiatives is a very short amount of time, from their national consultation roadshow to the amazingly successful Mashup Australia competition.

Headed up by well know economist and commons expert Dr Nick Gruen, other members include a number of familiar names for the CC community – Assistant Secretary for the Digital Economy Branch at the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and former General Counsel for Creative Commons International Mia Garlick; Head of Digital, Social and Emerging Technologies at the Powerhouse Museum Seb Chan; and our own Creative Commons Australia lead, Professor Brian Fitzgerald.

The draft report includes a number of recommendations relating to Creative Commons – in fact, it’s mentioned 67 times. The most significant CC reference is probably the Taskforce’s recommendation on extending opportunities for the reuse of government information, which is summarised (at p.xii) as follows:

By default public sector information (PSI) should be made available on the following terms:

  • Consistent with the need for free and open re-use and adaptation, PSI released should be licensed under the Creative Commons BY standard;
  • Where ownership does not rest with the Commonwealth, or is shared with other parties, agencies should seek to ensure its release under Creative Commons BY;
  • From June 2011 all agencies that enter into new agreements with third parties should ensure publication under a Creative Commons BY licence;
  • Copyright policy should be amended such that if published or unpublished works are covered by Crown copyright, the works should automatically be re-licensed under a Creative Commons BY licence at the time at which Commonwealth records become available for public access under the Archives Act 1983.

Comments on the draft report are due by 16 December (ie next Wednesday). As an interesting aside, they’ve set up an excellent consultation page, with the ability for people to comment on each paragraph in an open platform. Making it all the more easy to have your say.