National Academies Press: OpenBook
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Page R9
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Page R10
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Page R11
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2009. The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies: Workshop Summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12687.
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Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

THE SOCIOECONOMIC EFFECTS OF PUBLIC SECTOR INFORMATION ON DIGITAL NETWORKS TOWARD A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF DIFFERENT ACCESS AND REUSE POLICIES WORKSHOP SUMMARY Paul F. Uhlir, Rapporteur U.S. National Committee for CODATA Board on Research Data and Information Policy and Global Affairs in collaboration with the Working Party on the Information Economy Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS Washington, D.C. www.nap.edu

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001 NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance. This study was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. GEO-0738128 and by the United States Geological Service under Grant No. 07HQGR0177. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project. International Standard Book Number 13: 978-0-309-13968-7 International Standard Book Number 10: 0-309-13968-6 Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, N.W., Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area); Internet, http://www.nap.edu. Copyright 2009 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering. The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine. The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council. www.national-academies.org 3

STEERING COMMITTEE ON THE SOCIOECONOMIC EFFECTS OF PUBLIC SECTOR INFORMATION ON DIGITAL NETWORKS Roberta Balstad (Chair), Columbia University Christine Borgman, University of California, Los Angeles John Houghton, Victoria University, Australia Harlan Onsrud, University of Maine Knut Rexed, Rexed & Spröndly, DB, Sweden v

U.S. NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR CODATA (as of February 2008) Roberta Balstad (Chair), Columbia University Bonnie Carroll, Information International Associates Hal Abelson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Peter Arzberger, University of California, San Diego Helen M. Berman, Rutgers University Christine Borgman, University of California, Los Angeles Sara Graves, University of Alabama Myron Gutmann, Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research Krishna Rajan, Iowa State University David Scott, Rice University Mary Waltham, Publishing Consultant Working Party on the Information Economy (WPIE)1 Daniela Battisti (Chair ad interim), Italy Josie Brocca (Vice Chair), Canada Antti Eskola (Vice Chair), Finland Sangwon Ko (Vice Chair), Korea Doreen McGirr (Vice Chair), United States Egypt (Regular Observer) Russian Federation (Regular Observer) Estonia (Regular Observer) Singapore (Regular Observer) India (Regular Observer) South Africa (Regular Observer) Israel (Regular Observer) 1 WPIE membership is open to all thirty member states of the OECD; regular observers are not currently member states. vi

Preface Governments are the compilers and owners of a great deal of digital information, from geospatial data to statistical compilations and real estate records. In particular, the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have made huge investments in generating and disseminating public sector information (PSI), in large part because of the recognition that there are very significant socioeconomic values of and effects from this information. This is recognized to be especially true for PSI on the Internet. Unfortunately, however, there is relatively little empirical data available on the effects of PSI disseminated online or on the various policy approaches that are now being taken to this dissemination, and what data that do exist are generally neither detailed nor comprehensive. This state of affairs leaves policy makers and information managers without the facts they need to assess and improve these policies. Thus there is a clear and compelling need to better understand what the large public investment in the creation of public sector information can produce or is already producing. Because of the important potential economic and social benefits of PSI activities in the United States and in other OECD countries, the U.S. National Committee for CODATA1 and the OECD organized an international workshop on February 4-5, 2008, aimed at obtaining an improved understanding of the methods, models, and techniques used to assess the specific effects of different access and reuse policies for PSI disseminated online. Specifically, the workshop was designed to address the following questions: 1. Why is a better understanding of the specific economic and non-economic values and effects of policies of access to and reuse2 of PSI important? What could be done to improve knowledge of these issues? 2. What is the state of the art in different approaches for evaluating the direct and indirect economic and non-economic benefits and costs of access and reuse policies for PSI in the online environment? Define the underlying concepts and survey the literature about these policies and assessment methods. 3. How have these methods been applied, for what types of information, and by which organizations? What are the commonalities and differences among the various methods in relation to the types of information and policies being assessed? 1 CODATA is the Committee on Data for Science and Technology, an interdisciplinary body of the International Council for Science in Paris. The mission of CODATA is to strengthen international science for the benefit of society by promoting improved scientific and technical data management and use. See, http://www.codata.org/. The U.S. National Committee for CODATA has been the U.S. national member in CODATA at the National Academy of Sciences for more than three decades. 2 According to the OECD report, Digital Broadband Content: Public Sector Information and Content, 2006. Working Party on the Information Economy. DSTI/ICCP. Paris: OECD, “reuse” is focused on exploiting the economic value of public information (p.10). There are also many other cases, however, in which end users only “use” this information for their own purposes, such as personal education and other socially focused activities without adding any value to the original PSI. Because reuse potentially involves much broader and greater economic (as well as non-economic) effects, the workshop focused primarily on the reuse of PSI and distinguished between reuse and end use only where that distinction was important. vii

4. What are the criteria to assess the validity and reliability of such methods? What is known or still needs to be known about the application of these methods to the evaluation of public information policies in the online environment? 5. Identify a range of best practices, theoretical frameworks, and models that are currently used to assess the economic and non-economic value and effects of different policies of access to and reuse of digital PSI, 6. Identify a range of activities that might be undertaken by information managers and policy makers in the OECD countries to enhance understanding of the economic and non- economic value and effects of different policies of access to and reuse of digital PSI. The first day and a half of the workshop were focused on tasks 1-4, and the final half day addressed tasks 5 and 6. The OECD hosted the workshop at its headquarters in Paris. The entire workshop discussions were recorded, but not for attribution, with the exception of the invited presenters on the first day of the meeting. The workshop presentations and discussions were subsequently summarized and edited, and U.S. National Committee for CODATA produced this report in collaboration with the OECD. We hope that the report will contribute to the improvement of methods and techniques for obtaining a better understanding of different policies for managing public sector information online. Roberta Balstad Chair, Project Steering Committee Columbia University Paul F. Uhlir Project Co-Director The National Academies Graham Vickery Project Co-Director Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development viii

Acknowledgments The U.S. National Committee for CODATA and the Board on International Scientific Organizations of the National Research Council of the National Academies wish to express their sincere thanks to the many individuals who played significant roles in planning the international workshop, The Socioeconomic Effects of Public Sector Information on Digital Networks: Toward a Better Understanding of Different Access and Reuse Policies. The workshop steering committee was chaired by Roberta Balstad of Columbia University, and the other members of the committee were Christine Borgman of the University of California at Los Angeles, John Houghton of the University of Melbourne in Australia, Harlan Onsrud of the University of Maine, and Knut Rexed of Rexed & Spröndly AB, Sweden. We also would like to thank the experts who made presentations during the workshop, who are listed in the table of contents below, as well as the session chairs and rapporteurs who are listed in the meeting agenda in Appendix A. This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Academies’ Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for quality and objectivity. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Antti Eskola, Ministry of Employment and the Economy, Finland; Anne Fitzgerald, Queensland University of Technology; Jeff Lazo, National Center for Atmospheric Research; Knut Rexed, Ministry of Finance, Sweden (Retired); and J. Timothy Sprehe, Sprehe Information Management Associates. Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the report, nor did they see the final draft before its release. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the author and the institution. Finally, the U.S. National Committee for CODATA and the OECD would like to recognize the contributions of the following individuals to the completion of this project and the publication: Tilman Merz helped to organize the meeting at the OECD, and Chad Abel-Kops and Daniel Cohen, both on assignment to the National Academies from the U.S. Library of Congress, assisted with the editing and the production of the manuscript. ix

Contents PART ONE Page 1. Introduction 1 Paul Uhlir, The National Academies United States 2. Overview of U.S. Federal Government Information Policy 3 Nancy Weiss, Institute of Museum and Library Services United States 3. PSI Implementation in the UK: Successes and Challenges 7 Jim Wretham, Office of Public Sector Information United Kingdom 4. The Value to Industry of PSI: The Business Sector Perspective 10 Martin Fornefeld, MICUS Management Consulting Germany DISCUSSION BY WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS 14 5. Achieving Fair and Open Access to PSI for Maximum Returns 17 Michael Nicholson, PSI Alliance United Kingdom DISCUSSION BY WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS 19 PART TWO 6. Public Sector Information: Why Bother? 25 Robbin te Velde, Dialogic The Netherlands 7. Measuring the Economic Impact of the PSI Directive in the Context of the 2008 29 Review Chris Corbin, ePSIplus United Kingdom 8. Different PSI Access Policies and Their Impact 31 Frederika Welle Donker, Delft University of Technology The Netherlands 9. The Price of Everything but the Value of Nothing 37 Antoinette Graves, Office of Fair Trading United Kingdom xi

10. Enhancing Access to Government Information: Economic Theory as It 40 Applies to Statistics Canada Kirsti Nilsen, University of Western Ontario Canada 11. Assessing the Impact of Public Sector Geographic Information 45 Max Craglia, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, JRC Italy 12. Assessing the Economic and Social Benefits of NOAA Data Online 47 Rodney Weiher, NOAA United States 13. Exploring the Impacts of Enhanced Access to Publicly Funded Research 51 John Houghton, Victoria University Australia DISCUSSION BY WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS 56 PART THREE 14. Measuring the Social and Economic Costs of Public Sector Information 61 Online: A Review of the Literature and Future Directions Paul F. Uhlir, Raed M. Sharif, and Tilman Merz 15. Summary of the First Breakout Session 69 Juan Carlos de Martin, Rapporteur 16. Summary of the Second Breakout Session 73 Tilman Merz, Rapporteur PART FOUR 17. General Discussion of Results from the Breakout Sessions and Possible Next 75 Steps Paul F. Uhlir, Rapporteur APPENDIXES A. Workshop Agenda 83 B. Biographical Summaries of Workshop Chairs, Presenters, and 87 Rapporteurs xii

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While governments throughout the world have different approaches to how they make their public sector information (PSI) available and the terms under which the information may be reused, there appears to be a broad recognition of the importance of digital networks and PSI to the economy and to society. However, despite the huge investments in PSI and the even larger estimated effects, surprisingly little is known about the costs and benefits of different information policies on the information society and the knowledge economy.

By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the current assessment methods and their underlying criteria, it should be possible to improve and apply such tools to help rationalize the policies and to clarify the role of the internet in disseminating PSI. This in turn can help promote the efficiency and effectiveness of PSI investments and management, and to improve their downstream economic and social results.

The workshop that is summarized in this volume was intended to review the state of the art in assessment methods and to improve the understanding of what is known and what needs to be known about the effects of PSI activities.

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