If you have £70 to spare, you could buy access to what the government calls "the official online directory for all government departments, executive agencies and related organisations" which you can find at at the Civil Service Year Book web page....
We argue that this data should be available for free. As well as strengthening public accountability, free access to lists of public officials would allow the start-up of new online businesses based on public sector information - the case at the heart of Technology Guardian's Free Our Data campaign....
OPSI [Office of Public Sector Information] says that the contents are crown copyright and, as "value added" rather than raw data, are not available under a free "click use" electronic licence.
But freedom of information campaigners say this restriction is outrageous. They point to the growing practice in the US, where organisations such as the City of Seattle publish a directory of all public employees online....
The two possible arguments against making the data available for free - that they might impinge on personal data, or that they might help terrorists - have no merit. In the first case, the data are not personal but about public servants. In the second, the data are already available: a £70 hurdle is hardly a deterrent.
The suspicion with the current arrangement is that Sir Humphrey feels comfortable sharing his phone number with someone who has £70 in their pocket - but not with unwashed trolls on the web.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/06/2006 12:55:00 PM.
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.
