Important Opportunity for Feedback into the US White House

All,

 

I received the below information from the White House last evening and
felt it important to share with the group.

 

Please as always when commenting: if you are promoting a consensus
position of the group, please identify yourself as a group member and
commenting on behalf of the group, if you are taking a personal
position, please identify as such.

 

Kevin

 

Dear Open Gov Community:

 

Three quick updates:

 

First, Norm Eisen and Beth Noveck have posted "Why Open Government
Matters"
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/09/why-open-government-matters
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/09/why-open-government-matters>
). In it they discuss some of the 20 new open government initiatives
launched this week (http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/commitments
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/commitments> ). Without waiting for the
Directive, every cabinet department has stepped up to launch a new
project in support of the Administration's goal of creating more
accountable and effective government.

 

Second, tomorrow we are launching a public consultation on Public Access
Policy.  The Administration is seeking public input on access to
publicly-funded research results, such as those that appear in academic
and scholarly journal articles. Currently, the National Institutes of
Health require that research funded by its grants be made available to
the public online at no charge within 12 months of publication. The
Administration is seeking views as to whether this policy should be
extended to other science agencies and, if so, how it should be
implemented.

 

The Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of
the President and the White House Open Government Initiative is
launching a "Public Access Policy Forum" to invite public participation
in thinking through what the Federal government's policy should be with
regard to public access to published federally-funded research results.
To that end, OSTP will conduct an interactive, online discussion
beginning Thursday, December 10. We will focus on three major areas of
interest:

 

*	Implementation (Dec. 10 to 20): Which Federal agencies are good
candidates to adopt Public Access policies? What variables (field of
science, proportion of research funded by public or private entities,
etc.) should affect how public access is implemented at various
agencies, including the maximum length of time between publication and
public release? 
*	Features and Technology (Dec. 21 to Dec 31): In what format
should the data be submitted in order to make it easy to search and
retrieve information, and to make it easy for others to link to it? Are
there existing digital standards for archiving and interoperability to
maximize public benefit? How are these anticipated to change?
*	Management (Jan. 1 to Jan. 7): What are the best mechanisms to
ensure compliance? What would be the best metrics of success? What are
the best examples of usability in the private sector (both domestic and
international)? Should those who access papers be given the opportunity
to comment or provide feedback?

Each of these topics will form the basis of a blog posting that will
appear at www.whitehouse.gov/open <http://www.whitehouse.gov/open>  and
will be open for comment on the OSTP blog at blog.ostp.gov. 

 

Third, voting ends tomorrow for the SAVE award so please make sure to
visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/save-award
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/save-award>  to cast your vote.

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

Kevin Novak

Vice President, Integrated Web Strategy and Technology

 

The American Institute of Architects

1735 New York Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20006

 

Email:  Kevinnovak@aia.org

Voice: 202-626-7303

Cell:     202-731-0037