eGovernment, free licenses & FoI in Germany
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The document discusses issues around open government data and licensing in Germany. It summarizes that (1) German government agencies currently restrict access to and reuse of public information, using "All Rights Reserved" instead of open licenses. (2) Open licenses like Creative Commons and open source software could make more government data and software freely available for public use and innovation. (3) Laws around freedom of information and reuse of public sector information in Germany aim to increase transparency but agencies can still charge fees and deny some requests.
![Raw Data from government agencies
Example data.gov (US): raw data, geodata, tools
What is this good for?
surveillance cameras /
crime rate?
financial aids / local
economic growth?
[Put your idea here.]
Image: captsolo @ flickr
cc Share Alike 2.0 Generic
Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/200909hankenfreeegov-090911092251-phpapp01/85/eGovernment-free-licenses-FoI-in-Germany-20-320.jpg)
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eGovernment, free licenses & FoI in Germany
- 1. eGovernment 2.0, free licenses and real Freedom of Information Claas Hanken ifib
- 2. ≒ Ideal vs. administrative reality in D ≒ 損All rights reserved束 ≒ Freedom of Information and reuse of public sector information Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 3. Scientific & Creative Commons Image: Bundesarchiv @ Wikimedia Commons unter cc by-sa/3.0/de/ Free as in Freedom (Richard Stallman) Image: ESA/NASA
- 4. Creative Commons Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright. The simple cc-Attribution License allows others to copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work but only if they give credit the way you request. Source: CreativeCommons.org http://creativecommons.org Creative Commons by/3.0 Image: Joi @ flickr Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0) cc Attribution 2.0 Generic
- 5. German government agencies and CC Wikimedia Germany in cooperation with German Bundesarchiv: more than 100.000 images, mostly documenting German history . The images are issued as Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 Germany. Apart from this publication under cc only in individual cases, for instance 損Die Lage der Biologischen Vielfalt束 (Creative Commons Attribution License 2.5). German government works are published under special copyright conditions. Even CC0 is not applicable. Creative Commons licenses could be applied on other works for which the Government holds copyright. Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 6. Lawrence Lessig on 息: Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables.束 L. Lessig: Free Culture (2004), p. 199 Image: Joi @ flickr cc Attribution 2.0 Generic Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 7. 損Alle Rechte vorbehalten束 vs. 則 5 UrhG? Standard copyright protection is not appliable on German government works (則 5 Abs. 1 of the german Urheberrechtsgesetz UrhG). In many cases government publication could be freely distributed, if only the source is identified in a recognizable way. None the less most government agencies are using 損All rights reserved束 (損Alle Rechte vorbehalten束) for their Websites. Why? Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 8. Excuses for restrictive 息-Conditions 損It always worked, why change it?束 Worries over 損Someone elses intellectual property could be harmed.束 possible damage to public image privacy 損There could be negative effects for some companies.束 損We wont give away our intellectual Uncertain fears and property .束 doubts Image: germanium @ flickr cc Attribution 2.0 Generic Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 9. Proprietary Software vs. OSS Usually contractors dont have to provide results under Free and Open Source Licenses (FOSS like GNU, EUPL, 損Bremer Lizenz束). Due to agreements from the 70s (損Kieler Beschl端sse束) government agencies can adopt and use certain applications that were developed for other administrative bodies free of charge. Examples: Ginfis, EPOS, Favorit OfficeFlow, Government Site Builder Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 10. Excuses for restrictive licenses 損It always worked, why change it?束 損OSS is tinkered 損Anyone could mess around with by unknown with the source code!束 people and faulty.束 privacy 損There could be negative effects for 損We paid for it some companies.束 therefore we own it.束 Uncertain fears and doubts Image: germanium @ flickr cc Attribution 2.0 Generic Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 11. Freedom of Information (FoI) The german laws on FoI (by Bund and L辰nder) have the purpose to ensure that the governments operations are apparent. They grant unconditional access to public information for everyone with few exceptions (abandonment of the Amtsgeheimnis-paradigm). Risks for requesters: refusal of enquiries, high costs Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 12. FoI documents as Legal torrents? In case of a successful FoI request, fees payed: Is one allowed to re-publish the document online (without commercial interest)? Common answer: No. Example from the US: Download for Democracy (documents made available over P2P-networks) Expandable prototype by CCC e.V. and FoeBuD e.V. (Germany): 損Befreite Dokumente束 Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 13. Laws on the reuse of PSI The german 損Informationsweiterverwendungsgesetz束 is aimed to transpose directive 2003/98/EC on the reuse of public sector information into national law. The law deals with the sharing and reuse of public sector information by citizens and businesses. Government agencies can impose fees on the reuse of information. (Do they charge the taxpayer again for information that has been collected using tax money?) Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 14. Remix of public data sources? ≒ merge data sources ≒ remix and filtering ≒ RSS-feeds to manage information ≒ Example: Google News puts together articles on a topic from various newspapers ≒ Example: Yahoo! Pipes makes it easy to concatenate, combine and transform web content (損mashup束) Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 16. Beispiel: swim & fun Nordwest
- 17. Open APIs ≒ An open API (Application Programming Interface) gives programmers the opportunity to reuse data and certain functionalities in new applications. ≒ Examples for german government APIs: eCard-API-Framework, ELSTER COALA Java-APIs Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 18. Raw Data Now! Web founder Berners-Lee (2009) TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/484 Vision: Governments provide free information as raw data in a machine-processable form. Image: captsolo @ flickr cc Share Alike 2.0 Generic Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 20. Raw Data from government agencies Example data.gov (US): raw data, geodata, tools What is this good for? surveillance cameras / crime rate? financial aids / local economic growth? [Put your idea here.] Image: captsolo @ flickr cc Share Alike 2.0 Generic Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 22. Wrap-up Government agencies (in Germany & elsewhere) should: ≒ make sure that hindrances for free publication are removed ≒ favor offers that allow publication under free licenses ≒ provide free raw data ≒ use structured data formats ≒ move public data into the interconnected web ≒ provide open APIs Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)
- 23. Contact: Claas Hanken hanken@ifib.de Am Fallturm 1, 28359 Bremen Telefon: ++49(0)421 218-2674 Telefax: ++49(0)421 218-4894 www.egovernment-akademie.de Internet: www.ifib.de E-Mail: info@ifib.de www.ifib.de The presentation is published under Creative Commons Namensnennung 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Author: Claas Hanken ifib & E-Government-Akademie are registered trademarks (DPMA.de) of ifib GmbH.