Private Sector View: Change of culture in the public sector towards PSI re-use

1. Private Sector View: Change of culture in the public sector towards PSI re-use Dagmar Vránová EPMA, the Czech Republic ePSIplus Network partner Thematic meeting: Public Sector Culture and PSI re-use, Prague, 11. April 2007 funded by eContentPlus

2. Impact of ICT on work with data • Production on public sector side: • easier processing • faster „life cycle“ of data (from collection to recording) • higher quality of data • bigger amount of data – bulk information • Distribution, dissemination: • data easier available (via internet and data files) • data format fit for next re-use • A2A, XML, Web services in common usage Thematic Meeting, Prague

3. Reality? • Heavy public sources investment to ICT and data processing in public sector • High quality of PSI has been achieved • Re-users face to barriers and obstacles from public sector • The change of approach to information providing and mass distribution is needed Thematic Meeting, Prague

4. Freedom of Information Act • State-of-the-art in the Czech Republic: The Directive 2003/98/EC was transposed into existing act – Free Access to Information Act • FOI legislation governs mainly ACCESS to information but not RE-USE • Practice processes of Public Content Holders (PCH) has not changed considerably • They publish PSI mostly on web pages • They do not care for re-users needs • Distribution services lag behind single shot access • Restrictions and exceptions are occurred Thematic Meeting, Prague

5. Pros and Cons in Czech FOI Act • Pros • Basic democratic right was articulated also with respect to re-use, even only in general form • The Czech Republic formally transposed the European Directive • By this, CR avoided the impending sanction from EC • Cons • The Access to information is still more relevant then Re-use • Citizen's right on unrepeated (single shot) gaining the information is more valuable then businessperson's right on repeated gaining for commercial purposes • No regulation concerning the right on repeating access and mass processing • No licences, only general pricing is defined Thematic Meeting, Prague

6. Could we achieve more? • Transposition of EU „Re-use Directive“ into Czech legal rules was hard and lengthy legislative process • The amendment of existing law (FOI Act) was only way how to meet EC requirements • Lawmakers have not very positive opinion of re-use of PSI – they are lobbed and affected by civil servants • business based on PSI is unwelcome, even immoral • PSI and data is produced for money from taxpayers and available for all • it is immoral to create some information services and then sell it for fees! • „FOI is guaranteed quite enough and it is not necessary to change legal rules!“ Thematic Meeting, Prague

7. PSI Re-use business in the Czech Republic • Information industry based on PSI exploitation is doing quite well in spite of many obstacles • Types of barriers that re-users have to overcome • objective (caused by uncertain law) • subjective (caused by reluctant attitude of civil servants) • Estimating there are more then 150 companies re-using PSI as raw material Thematic Meeting, Prague

8. Types of „industrial“ re-use activities • Two basic lines • „Reference“ function – for purpose of internal control processes, data quality management etc. • „Raw material“ function – for purpose of value added services production and sale on the market Own products and services(e.g. insurance) Internal Information System Check, control, analyzing, comparison, verification, data quality, etc. Reference function Public SectorInformation Public ContentHolders Information products Production System Addition of new Value Raw material function Information content industry Thematic Meeting, Prague

9.  Types of Public Content Holders • Enlightened institutions () • provide information in suitable form for all • free of charge or under clear pricing conditions • easy available distribution channels • Agreeable and Shutting eyes institutions ( - ) • provide information in suitable form with some limitation, but in fact do not prevent re-use • are able to agree with individual re-users on conditions for data delivery and re-use Thematic Meeting, Prague

10. Types of Public Content Holders  • Not supporting and strongly interposing institutions () • provide information but do not support furthers re-use • make reservations, restrictions and exceptions • it is nearly impossible to agree with them • Institutions considering PSI provision as „necessary evil“ ( ) • provide information in user unfriendly form • the only reason to provide PSI is to avoid the conflict with law • Impregnable castles ( ) • refuse PSI provision under different pretences (only for commercial exploitation or completely) Thematic Meeting, Prague

11. Types of re-users • Extra class • Exclusive position, monopoly information provider • Good boys • Agreed on particular, quite good (not exclusive) conditions • Gamblers • Risky game players, no agreement, occasional violation of rules is necessary • Knights (Don Quijote?) • Make effort to achieve fair and transparent conditions for all Thematic Meeting, Prague

12. Barriers of re-use industry development • Clauses of prohibition of re-use PSI • „Free access IS NOT free exploitation!“ • Only personal non commercial usage is permitted (according to FOI Act) • PSI published on web pages are protected by Author law • Other then own need usage is a subject of approval of the provider • Unclear formulations • What exactly means „commercial use“? Reference function or Raw-material function? • What is the manner of proper asking for approval? • How can a re-user achieve the downloading of bigger volume of data? Thematic Meeting, Prague

13. Barriers of re-use industry development • Private investment protection • Unclear long-term concepts of Public information (digital) services development • Private sector is not sure whether it would be profitable to invest to value added services • Why invest private money when Public sector will invest public money in the same service later? • Catalogue of public available sources missing • Which public information assets are available? • Which of them are available for re-use? • Which public institution is responsible for them? • Under what conditions is it possible to exploit the information assets for commercial purposes? Thematic Meeting, Prague

14. Barriers of re-use industry development • Standards for data description and distribution missing • Different Public institutions = different formats, rules, terms of operation, communication parameters etc. • Especially distribution standards needed • Central point for complaints and enquiry center missing • Extending interest in re-use = extending number of conflicts and uncertainty • Who should be addressed in case of refusing? • What independent body will review and judge those cases? • No central point for aggregation of FAQs, comments, demands and claims Thematic Meeting, Prague

15. Requirements of commercial sector • Private sector has quite exact imagine concerning PSI content and distribution • right, correct, updated data • easily available • provided in form suitable for next processing • keeping data exchange and communication standards • providing by clear and equal rules • easy and quick permission obtaining • free of charge or for adequate fees Thematic Meeting, Prague

16. Thank you for your attention! Dagmar Vránová vranova@epma.cz