[Politech] Modern democracy means accessing databases, the Internet? [fs]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Wed Jun 09 2004 - 10:45:44 PDT

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    -------- 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
    
    # # #
    
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