information gulags, intellectual straightjackets & memory holes first african digital curation...
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Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
First African Digital Curation Conference12-13 February 2008
byPaul F. UhlirDirector, Office of International Scientific and Technical Information Programs, and U.S CODATAThe National AcademiesWashington, [email protected]
Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
Information Gulags—the international non-network of dark repositories at both the individual and institutional levels, inaccessible to [most] outsiders
Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
Principle #1: The value of data increases with their use
Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
Comparison of some key characteristics of the print and digitally networked paradigms
PRINT GLOBAL DIGITAL NETWORKS (pre) Industrial Age post-industrial Information Age fixed, static transformative, interactive rigid flexible, extensible physical “virtual” local global linear non-linear, asynchronous, with
time/space collapsed limited content and types unlimited contents and multimedia distribution difficult, slow easy and immediate dissemination copying cumbersome, not perfect copying simple and identical significant marginal distribution cost zero marginal distribution cost single user (or small group) multiple, concurrent users/producers centralized production distributed production slow knowledge diffusion accelerated knowledge diffusion
Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
“Life plus 70 years”
Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
Intellectual Straightjackets
Intellectual property laws have become longer, broader, stronger
Copyright revisions, including digital copyright Restrictive licenses plus technological protection Statutory database protection
Other restrictive laws, especially those based on national security
Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
Principle #2: Public information wants to be free
Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
Characteristics of a “public good”: It is non-depletable—it cannot be diminished by use It is non-excludable—the benefits cannot be
captured exclusively and kept from others
Information is always non-depletable and to various extents non-excludable.
Public information has strong public good and public interest characteristics that make free and open access online with no reuse restrictions the most beneficial distribution option in most cases.
Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
Broad implications of excessive restrictions on access to and reuse of government and government-funded research data:
1) Higher research costs.
2) Significant lost opportunity costs.
3) Barriers to innovation.
4) Less effective cooperation, education, and training.
5) Developing countries especially disadvantaged.
Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
Can avoid hyper-protection of data and information, especially in the public sector, by:
Balancing IP laws between the rights holder interests and the public interest, consistent with the country’s level of development
Carve out broad public-interest exceptions for the public sector
Use common-use licenses, with “some rights reserved” for government and academic information online (www.creativecommons.org)
Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
Memory holes—(1) the intentional alteration, suppression, or destruction of significant factual information,
or
(2) the inadvertent loss of such information through improper management or neglect.
Information Gulags, Intellectual Straightjackets & Memory Holes
Principle #3:
Digital preservation does not happen by accident