-------- Original Message -------- Subject: New Report-Health of Democracy Tied to Access to Online Info Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 12:03:34 -0400 From: Natalia Kennedy <natalia.kennedy@private> To: <declan@private> Contact: Natalia Kennedy, (212) 998-6736 HEALTH OF U.S. DEMOCRACY TIED TO NEW MODEL FOR PUBLIC ACCESS TO ONLINE INFORMATION Report on "Information Commons" Released By Free Expression Policy Project New York, NY - Today, the Free Expression Policy Project released The Information Commons, a groundbreaking report to link the vitality of 21st century democracy to the creation of online communities dedicated to producing and sharing information. Nancy Kranich, a former president of the American Library Association, is the report's author. The Information Commons begins: "For democracy to flourish, citizens need free and open access to information. In today's digital age, this means access to information online." The information commons movement promoted by the report recognizes that public access to online information is being damaged by a combination of restrictive technology, unbalanced changes to intellectual property law, onerous licenses, and media industry consolidation. Essential ingredients for a healthy democracy - political discourse, free speech, civic participation, and creativity - all suffer as a result. According to Ms. Kranich's report, these threats to democracy can be remedied, or at least dampened, by adopting the emerging concept of the information commons. As illustrated by these examples (there are dozens more in the report), the information commons provides a model for treating information as a shared resource, thereby spurring political discourse, stimulating innovation, and fostering creativity: The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). In response to annual subscription prices for scholarly journals that can approach $20,000 - forcing some research libraries to discontinue many of their journals - the academic community sought to reclaim control of its research and scholarship. SPARC, a leading information commons created for this purpose, is a six-year old alliance of universities and research libraries comprised of 300 member institutions in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. SPARC uses a networked digital environment to develop alternatives to high-priced journals and to educate scholars about new publishing possibilities. (www.arl.org/sparc) The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit scientific publishing initiative dedicated to the belief that the "immediate, unrestricted access to scientific ideas, methods, results, and conclusions will speed the progress of science and medicine." Costs are covered by a $1,500 author charge and funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus with his colleagues Michael Eisen and Pat Brown developed this information commons. (www..plos.org) The Internet Archive/International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) works with the publishing community to provide a free online collection of international literature for children. The library's primary purpose is to provide access to literature that helps children understand the global society in which they live. Representatives from national libraries select materials from their respective countries. Publishers must abide by the rules of the information commons in order to provide books to the collection. (www.icdlbooks.org) Project Vote Smart is a citizens' organization that provides unbiased, nonpartisan, and comprehensive voter information, including profiles of elected officials and candidates and status reports on major legislation. (www.vote-smart.org) DSpace is a groundbreaking digital library system created to capture, store, index, reserve, and redistribute the intellectual output of a major university. DSpace provides articles, data sets, images, and audio and video by MIT professors, as well as an open source software platform that allows other universities to adopt the open access model. (www.dspace.org) The OYEZ Supreme Court Multimedia Archives converts audio recordings of Supreme Court hearings to MP3 format, permitting offline listening and sharing through the same software used to swap music and movies. The information commons is based at Northwestern University. (www.oyez.org/oyez) Berklee Shares, at the Berklee College of Music, offers online lessons for downloading and sharing. Topics include composing, producing, engineering, remixing, and performing. Musicians are encouraged to swap audio and video clips of course material over peer-to-peer networks. (www.berkleeshares.com) The Allen Brain Atlas Project was created by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for the purpose of illustrating the anatomy of the brain. The open access information commons will overlay structural imagery of the brain with details about the locations and functions of active genes. (www.brainatlas.org) The Information Commons provides recommendations for building on these examples and for expanding this new movement. The report's central recommendations focus on legislative advocacy, coalition building, and practical actions for expanding of information commons. For example, The Information Commons urges support for legislation that ensures public access to public research, and opposes new copyright laws and regulations that limit the public's access rights. With respect to private action, the report recommends: publication in open access publications; agreement only to licenses and contracts that allow open access and guarantee user rights such as fair use, and "first sale" sharing of copyrighted works; and encouragement of peer production of information. The Free Expression Policy Project (FEPP) was started four years ago to provide research and analysis on difficult issues of censorship, democracy, and access to ideas. Earlier this year, FEPP merged with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. To obtain copies of the report, or to speak with Marjorie Heins, the head of the Free Expression Policy Project, or Nancy Kranich, the report's author, please call Natalia Kennedy at (212) 998-6736. To read The Information Commons online, go to: www.fepproject.org/policyreports/InformationCommons.pdf or www.fepproject.org/policyreports/infocommons.contentsexsum.html. For a printed copy, email Mary Lapas, mary.lapas@private # # # _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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