The US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released guidelines on how government agencies should make their information accessible online for the public. Senator Joe Lieberman, author of the E-Government Act of 2002, doubts that the new guidelines live up to the statutory requirements and will ask the OMB to explain. I don't plan to cover this issue thoroughly, but I can recommend Jason Miller's story in the December 23 issue of Government Computer News. Excerpt:
Patrice McDermott, deputy director for government relations for the American Library Association, called the policy “disturbing.” “Essentially, what OMB appears to be saying is, for information you want to make publicly accessible, if you put it on your Web site or post it electronically, you have fulfilled all requirements of law,” McDermott said. “That is not true. That is not the spirit or intent of the law.” She added that intent of law was to give the public the ability to know about and gain access to all information the government creates.
Earlier this month the Government Services Administration (GSA) released the comments from government and industry experts, showing that a majority thought the benefit of adding metadata tags to online government information was not worth the cost.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/29/2005 09:28:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
