Creating the information commons

Thanks to Martin Dudley for a reference to The Free Expression Policy Project which has produced a public policy report on The Information Commons. It details the history (mainly from a US perspective) of government and corporate attempts to constrain public access to information, and the ways that "librarians, cyber-activists, and other public interest advocates have sought ways to expand access to the wealth of resources that the Internet promises, and have begun to build online communities, or "commons," for producing and sharing information, creative works, and democratic discussion."

The policy recommendations and strategies from report author Nancy Kranich are:

Create a movement similar to environmentalism promoting the information commons:
o Focus on what we are fighting for, not just against.
o Emphasize the public interest in information access.
o Highlight successes; document problems and chilling effects of enclosure; identify examples of harm caused by technological controls and digital rights management.
o Educate concerned individuals and groups, the press, and the public.
o Organize coalitions based on common interests among disparate groups that cut across traditional alliances.
o Encourage the development of robust information communities.
o Seek funding for demonstration projects and ongoing support.

Apply common property resource models to the information sphere:
o Spell out common property resource economic models that elevate the value of shared access.
o Involve information communities in the design, creation, governance, and management of information resources.

Support legislation that encourages information sharing and oppose legislative, regulatory, and judicial actions that undermine opportunities to participate in the information society:
o Promote legislation that ensures public access to public research.
o Oppose new copyright laws and regulations that limit the public's access rights.

Develop, make available, and adopt open source software, content, standards, and best practices:
o Publish in open access publications.
o Sign only those licenses and contracts that enable open access and guarantee user rights such as fair use and "first sale" sharing of copyrighted works.
o Encourage peer production of information.

Apply open access, digital repository, and other practices developed by scholars more widely.

Value the public domain:
o Protect it as a sanctuary against enclosure.
o Develop advocacy programs, governance structures, and new laws that ensure it is well preserved, governed, managed, and valued.
o Resist attempts to apply technological measures that control access to ideas.

Those in the UK concerned with these issues can turn to the long-running Campaign for Freedom of Information.
The UK Freedom of Information Act received Royal Assent on 30 November 2000. However, the right of access will not come into force until January 2005. A provision in the Act requiring authorities to produce publication schemes describing information they publish proactively, will be phased in earlier, starting with central government departments in November 2002.