On Thu, 2011-10-06 at 15:16 +0100, Tom Morris wrote:
Being able to merge government-produced data that we have funded the creation of (through taxation) with volunteer produced content (through Wikimedia, Open Street Map, free and open source software) could dramatically help our mission of supporting the spread of free and open knowledge. The Dutch government recently agreed to release a lot of their geographical information for free, and it'd be great if the UK could too.
Is there any interest in putting together a response to the government's consultation on the Public Data Corporation basically saying we're firmly in favour of the government releasing as much as they possibly can under free licenses. We could do this either as Wikimedia UK or, if that isn't kosher with the charity application, as "Wikimedians in the UK" or something. ;-)
Tom,
I tend to agree that 'something' should be done and/or said.
Where I think a point should be made in relation to some of the data where a high return can be made from taxpayer investment is that they should *not* lock it up for decades and decades.
I'd give Ordinance Survey as an example. As they re-survey areas to add in new developments, they should be laying down the timeline/route to that data being freely-licensed, and ultimately entering the public domain.
Licensing new map data to commercial interests will only generate income over a period of probably no more than a decade - likely less. I'd argue that after that period the full, highly detailed, data should be CC-BY with an "enters the public domain in X years" clause that can't be dicked with every time Steamboat Willie is threatened with big-eared legal Chinese knock-offs.
Brian McNeil.