6: PSI
Make Public Sector Information open, accessible and reusable Other Information:
By default Public Sector Information19 • Free (PSI) should be. • Based on open standards; ; • Easily discoverable; • Understandable
• Machine-readable; and • Freely reusable, The definition of PSI is introduced in Chapter 5 of this report. For ease of reference
it is as follows: “information, including information products and services, generated, created, collected, processed, preserved,
maintained, disseminated, or funded by or for the Government or public institutions, taking into account [relevant] legal
requirements and restrictions”. Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Council, April 2008, Recommendation
of the OECD Council for enhanced access and more effective use of public sector information, PSI should be released as early
as practicable and regularly updated to ensure its currency is maintained. Consistent with the need for free and open re-use
and adaptation, PSI released should be licensed under the Creative Commons BY standard24 Use of more restrictive licensing
arrangements should be reserved for special circumstances only, and such use is to be in accordance with general guidance
or specific advice provided by the proposed new Office of the Information Commissioner. as the default. Regarding the existing
stock of PSI that has been brought into existence before the information management policies recommended in this report have
been adopted, the proposed new Office of the Information Commissioner should, in consultation with relevant agencies, propose
policies to government which would maximise the extent to which that stock of PSI was re-licensed Creative Commons BY whilst
ensuring that this did not impose undue administrative burden on agencies. The Taskforce envisages that rules could be adopted
whereby a large amount of PSI that has already been published – for instance government reports, legislation and records that
are already accessible to the public – could be automatically designated Creative Commons BY, with other PSI being re-licensed
Creative Commons BY on application with rights of appeal to the proposed new Information Commissioner function. Where ownership
of the data rests with the Commonwealth, data should be released under Creative Commons BY licence. Where ownership does not
rest with the Commonwealth, or is shared with another party/ies, agencies are required to negotiate with the other party/ies
with the aim of ensuring its release under these arrangements and under Creative Commons BY. Where Agencies enter into any
new contracts or agreements with a third party/ies they should endeavour to include a clause clearly stating the Commonwealth's
obligation to publish relevant data and that this be under a Creative Commons BY licence. Copyright policy should be amended
so that if published or unpublished works are covered by Crown copyright, the works should automatically be re-licensed under
a Creative Commons BY licence at the time at which Commonwealth records become available for public access under the Archives
Act 1983. This policy should become mandatory for all contracts signed by the Commonwealth after June 2011. Any decision to
withhold the release of PSI, other than where there is a legal obligation to withhold release, should only be made with the
agreement of, or in conformity with policies endorsed by the proposed new Office of the Information Commissioner and consistent
with the Government’s Freedom of Information policy, noting that: • In the case of structured data26 • Agencies must proactively
identify and release, without request, such data that might reasonably be considered as holding value to parties outside the
Agency. , agencies must exhaust options to protect privacy and confidentiality before seeking an exemption; and, The Australian
Government should engage other members of the Council of Australian Governments, to extend these principles into a National
Information Policy agreed between all levels of Government, federal, state, territory and local. In order to accelerate the
adoption of Government 2.0, in addition to any distribution arrangements they wish to pursue, agencies should ensure that
the PSI they release should be discoverable and accessible via a central portal (data.gov.au) containing details of the nature,
format and release of the PSI. Within a year of its establishment, the proposed new Office of the Information Commissioner,
in consultation with the lead agency, should develop and agree a common methodology to inform Government on the social and
economic value generated from published PSI. The major agencies under the (FMA Act) should use the common methodology to report
their performance in the release of PSI in their annual reports, commencing from the first of the establishment of the proposed
OIC. The proposed new Information Commissioner function should annually publish a report outlining the contribution of each
agency to the consolidated value of Commonwealth PSI, commencing in the first of the establishment of the proposed OIC. The
report should be published on line and be accessible for comment and discussion. Following Government acceptance of the initial
Value of PSI Report, the proposed new Office of the Information Commissioner should consider the development of a ‘lite’ version
of the common methodology for use by other FMA Act agencies. The Taskforce notes the proposed changes to the Freedom of Information
Amendment (Reform) Bill 2009 to have the Information Commissioner issue guidelines to support the future operations of the
Act as described in the Explanatory Memorandum for Schedule 2, Section 8. To ensure a consistent implementation of PSI in
relation to the Freedom of Information Act, these guidelines should give due consideration to the concepts outlined above.
Objective(s):
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