info 442 chapter 2

INFO 442: INFORMATION POLICY AND INTELLECTUAL

PROPERTY

Senait.s

(Bsc,Msc)

04/10/23 1

Chapter Two: National and international information policy

• National and International information policy

• Requirements of the national or international information policy

• Information policy areas

• Information policy needs

• Policy issues

National and International information policy

• National and International information policy is most important in the new era of information society.

• It is information that is the most important factor of production and wealth creation.

• How well an individual, an organization, a nation (s) and an entire society can harness, access, share, and make use of available information will ultimately decide their ability to generate economic growth and to enhance the quality of life for all.

• Several countries Eg, Asian and Pacific countries like Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India and Thailand have already undertaken the transformation to develop a national information policy needed to take full advantage of the opportunities that are on offer.

National and International…(cont)• But in Africa, many countries are still struggling to develop their own

national information policy.

• Behind it all the information policy will depend on the ability to integrate and apply such technologies as computer, telephone, television, electronic mail, online retrieval, and other multimedia; known as information and communication technology ICT.

Requirements of the national or international information policy

• It requires that there is a need for proper coordination of initiatives and the avoidance of duplication.

• IP, since it cuts across so many different departmental responsibilities.

National and International…(cont)

• However, the job cannot be left to the market alone, because the market will be unable to guarantee that its investment in information for citizens will meet all of society's needs.

• We are dealing with changes that pass through our entire economic, social, cultural and political systems.

• The interrelationships between the different systems are such that there is much to be gained from coordinated development and much to be lost from fragmentation.

National and International…(cont)• IP, Eg, has a bearing on:

• i. industrial and commercial competitiveness;

• ii. employment and the creation of high value added job opportunities;

• iii. lifelong learning and the effectiveness of the education and training system;

• iv. social inclusion and access to services and opportunities;

• v. healthy living and the effectiveness of the National Health Service;

• vi. the efficiency and effectiveness of public services;

National and International…(cont)• vii. participation in the democratic process;

• viii. regional development;

• ix. cultural identity and diversity;

• x. intellectual rights

• To harness the full potential of ICT investment for a nation, ICT must be treated as an invaluable tool for government to use in support of various major national and international policies and development programs.

• In sum, ICT can play a pivotal role in particular to support many of the government's policies:

National and International…(cont)– for better distribution of wealth and opportunity to rural

inhabitants;

– for equal opportunity to personal and corporate development, healthcare and other public services;

– for conservation of the nation (s) natural resources and environment; in addition to that of making the country a regional hub for finance, manufacturing and trade, transportation and tourism.

• ICT not only make what we can do today much more easily, quickly, and efficiently.

• ICT can also make possible new ways of working, learning, communicating, and solving problems.

National and International…(cont)• ICT empowers human ability to reason and gain wisdom, to bridge

distances and to interact, communicate and work.

Generally, ICT can improve the quality of life.

In short, ICT empowers us to succeed as a part of the global community in the 21st century.

Concerned areas for national or international information policy

• Three main areas include:

– connectivity,

– content and

– competencies.

National and International…(cont)Connectivity

• Connectivity incorporates ideally three areas which are information networks, access and interoperability.

• For creating the information networks a policy should set out a strategic approach to the development of the nation's information networks.

• It should provide a framework within which public and private investment can be planned.

• It should specify the preferred approach in the regulation to ensure that the networks operate efficiently and for the public good.

National and International…(cont)• The provision of universal access requires that networks are available

as widely as possible in institutions and homes.

• The policy should specify a strategy to ensure access for key organisations and individuals such as schools, libraries, and those in isolated rural areas.

• Pricing strategies should not exclude people from network access.

• To ensure interoperability one has to focus on the different devices making up the ICT.

• Given the rapidly changing technological environment, there will be a variety of technologies, networks and platforms that can be used to deliver information, including computers, telephones and digital television.

National and International…(cont)• The policy should include provision to ensure that there are no

barriers to the citizen from lack of inter connectivity between the networks.

Content

• Content include the creation of core content, ensuring delivery of the same, protection of the citizen, and provision of free access to core information.

• In creating core content for the public good a considerable amount of public information will be needed in an information society.

• Much of this will require to be provided by public sector institutions working, where necessary, in collaboration with the private sector.

National and International…(cont)• The policy should, therefore, set out a strategy that will ensure that

public support is available for the development of needed information content.

• To ensure effective delivery of content the creation of digital content alone will not be sufficient.

• Effective delivery over the networks requires the development of appropriate information retrieval aids and navigation tools.

• Government departments and agencies must look for innovative ways of presenting information to citizens, cutting across institutional boundaries.

National and International…(cont)• Training and awareness programmes will be required to ensure target

markets are reached efficiently.

• The policy should indicate how these issues are to be addressed. E.g. Ethical issues like protecting the citizen require regulatory mechanisms.

• The information policy should address a range of:

– legal and regulatory issues including:

• privacy and data protection,

• intellectual property rights,

• censorship or fraudulent use of the networks and

• legal deposit of intellectual property.

National and International…(cont)• The rapid development of e-commerce will generate further

requirements for regulation in the consumer interest.

• To have free access to core information a policy will need to cover rights of access to information.

• Individuals already have rights in some countries to access personal information about themselves and there are some rights of access to local government information.

• However more work will be needed on securing and safeguarding access free at the point of use to citizenship information that is already in the public domain.

National and International…(cont)Competencies

• Competencies consist of the development of universal information literacy, the supply of information specialists, and the creation of information strategies for organizations.

• To develop universal information literacy effort is required to develop a base level of information literacy for everyone.

• It should encompass a wide range of skills, including numeracy, literacy, computer and information retrieval skills.

• It must be delivered at a variety of levels throughout the formal and informal education processes, and it should take advantage of the full range of delivery methods now available, including digital networks.

National and International…(cont)• The National and international Information Policy must address the

need to ensure that there is an adequate supply of appropriately skilled information specialists to maximize the value of information for individual users and organizations through processes of collection, organization and dissemination.

• Information skills handling should be explicitly identified in any national and international initiatives designed to improve management and human resources skills.

National and International…(cont)• for a metadata attribute set based on the US metadata.

• In addition Australia ventured into the communications and computer technologies making recommendations for the implications for Australia's future employment and skills.

• Other areas like technology and the enterprise, education and training provision, Commonwealth cultural policy etc. all became part of the information policy in the 1990s.

• For Australia the role and responsibilities of the future lay in the National Information Policy.

• In Japan government information administered by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was first observed on the Internet in the 1990s.


• Shortly after various Ministries administered their part of a National Information Policy on the Internet and many issues to be incorporated in a single policy or a set of information policies can be viewed today.

• The general conclusion of the many reports on information policies in this region is that agencies can immediately enhance both visibility of and access to government information by making descriptions of resources and documents available on the Internet, directly as Web documents or as records in an agency.

• However, in order to provide effective, efficient and long term access to the whole of government information, hence further research should be carried out and the findings should then be presented to the Government for endorsement and promulgation.

The need for developing a national or an international information policy.

• The transition to information societies and knowledge driven economies is a global phenomenon.

• Many of the western countries, USA and Asia and Pacific have created policies to speed the process of transition and some more countries in Asia and Africa, are in the process of doing so.

• If other countries are to maintain their competitive position they must not lag further behind.

• There are many reasons for thinking of this as a decisive moment in the development of the information society.

need…(cont)• Many of the government's initiatives have a significant information

element.

• Failure to get the information right will reduce the impact of individual initiatives.

• There is much to be gained from a coordinated approach to information across the board.

• A national or international information policy framework will contribute to:

• i.Modernizing government: the agenda for a modern government requires that information flows are managed as effectively as possible within government and between governments and citizens and businesses.

need…(cont)

• ii.Building a knowledge driven economy: the planned transformation of industry and commerce will lace a premium on the effective use of information and knowledge.

• iii.A better environment for e-commerce: better co-ordination is needed between government and industry to gain maximum benefit from existing and proposed programs.

• Ambitious targets for electronic transactions with Government will depend on co-ordination across Departments and Agencies.

need…(cont)• iv. Improving educational effectiveness: curriculum

developments such as teaching thinking skills will depend for their effectiveness on children and young people having access to the information they will need to support their learning; lifelong learners will need co-ordinated guidance on all the opportunities open to them.

• v. Avoiding social exclusion: many current information developments could exacerbate social exclusion, further isolating the information have-nots from the rest of society.

• We need policies to ensure that no one is excluded from the benefits of an inclusive information society.

• vi. Strengthening our cultural identity: technological development offers opportunities to articulate and promote minority cultures.

• At the same time, the global nature of the cultural communication system puts national cultures under threat.

To follow up procedures on National or International Information Policy the subsequent series of actions can be formulated:

National and International Policy on Information

Design on a plan of action for the development and operation of information services and systems fully integrated in the country's

national development plan

Launching of information programmes coordinated and integrated in the plan of action

Implementation of information projects at the most appropriate place and

date

Optimum operation of information services and systems

A national policy on information, whether it is a single policy or a set of policies, usually covers the main issues shown above in the field of

information.


• According to Susanne Ornager (UNESCO Regional office for Information and Informatics in Asia and the Pacific) in her paper titled:

• ‘National Information Policy - Differing approaches’

• Stated that the challenge to governments of every nation, is:

– the re thinking of their role,

– their laws,

– their rules,

– their regulations, and

– their national policies in the Cyberspace era,


• so that they maximize the driving forces propelling them to exploiting the fullest potential and positive benefits of the Information Society, while at the same time minimizing the negative, constraining forces that are acting as barriers to frustrate this exploitation.

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION POLICY ISSUES

• Although many of theses issues are international, they must also be dealt with as national issues. They include:

– Socio-cultural issues;

– Political Issues;

– National Security Issues;

– Personal issues;

– Economic Issues;

– Nationalistic Issues;

– Copyright or Intellectual property Rights;

– Educational ;

– Legislation;

– Electronic Environment; and

– Technological Issues.

National and International…(cont)Technological and Socio-cultural issues

• Technological Issues

• Technological issues involve those related to the hardware itself or to issues brought about by the hardware.

• Eg, international negotiations about geostationary "parking orbits" for communications satellites or the allocation of spectrum frequencies related directly to the hardware.

• The development of international standards to use the technologies raises important related issues such as whether some standards favor certain nations or restrict competition.


• Technology has made it much easier to gather and disseminate information, but it has also created new problems in protecting privacy and proprietary or national defense information.

• Because television signals and data are easily beamed via satellite, methods are also needed to protect these signals from piracy and to encrypt data.

• Eg, in the United States, billions of dollars are being spent to develop encryption techniques and protect data and to develop the technologies needed both to disseminate and to protect information.

National and International…(cont)• Socio-cultural issues

• Technologies transform fundamental values, assumptions and activities within society.

• The introduction of such technologies that are not consistent with these values and assumptions may create social and cultural dislocations that are unanticipated and undesired.

• Could the introduction of information technologies increase the capacity of government leaders to control their population?

• Could such technologies change the economic basis of a society from rural to urban?

National and International…(cont)• Could devoting fiscal and Lunar resources to building a technological

infrastructure divert needed resources from other vital activities such as agriculture or education?

• The information of new technologies from one country to another can also raise serious concerns about undue cultural influence or dominance.

• There is a fear that such technologies can influence populations through the messages that are received.

• Thus a developing nation Eg, may fear the influence and effect of technologies imported from a western nation, especially in terms of the developing nation's own culture and traditional values.

• In many countries, information products and services have been strongly nationally oriented; the diversity of languages, alphabets, classification schemes and approaches to organizing information are usually considered assets.


National Security Issues

• An important area in which the government wants to restrict information as a matter of policy is information that could threaten the security of the Nation.

• This will involve the security agents that would require strict government publication for strict security information circulation.

• Related to this issue are the problems of encryption for secure networking including the availability of encryption and decryption programs and the setting of related standards?


• Some data must be protected to insure privacy, protect proprietary interests, or safeguard national security.

• Determining what should be protected, from whom, and how are important issues to be resolved in the years ahead.

• This overview highlights some of the major information policy issues confronting us in the future.

Eg, the transmission and Control of information across National boundaries

• The ability to disseminate information globally has raised some important question.


• In a world in which satellite can instantaneously transmit information, in which substantial electronic computer storage is both practical and economical, and in which this information can be transmitted and retrieved by micro computers in homes around the world, the globalization of information raises deep issues about the impact of the spread and control of such information.

• The international exchange of information is sometimes referred to as trans border data flow (TDF) and concerns itself primarily with the flow of digital information across borders for storage or processing in foreign computers.

National and International…(cont)• There are a variety of personal, economic, national, and socio -

cultural issues to be dealt with.

• Personal issues

• Because individual records through out the world are stored on computer systems, it has become common to transmit this information to various organizations both private and governmental.

• Attempts in Europe Eg, has been made to control the unnecessary transmission of personal information across national borders so that individual rights are protected at the same time that necessary information can be transmitted.


• Economic Issues

• All information policy issues have economic implications because of the value of information and because of the importance of information management and technology for increases in productivity and in improving the quality of life.

• The information industry is worth billions of dollars, and nations naturally compete to dominate this market.

• This leads to international issues such as tariff and trade regulations that restrict or encourage the flow of information and information technologies.

National and International…(cont)• Similarly, different countries may impose special standard on

equipment or insist on a pricing structure inconsistent with the producer of considerable interest is placing tariffs on the information itself, not just on the equipment or information products used to transmit it.

• The higher the proportion of a country's information that is stored and managed outside its borders, the greater the loss to the country of jobs and revenue generated from the information-related activities.

• The economic dimensions are significant and raise a number of issues such as those concerning the need to protect intellectual property, whether trade restrictions are needed, and determining the appropriate roles of the government and the private sector (both for-profit and National Information Policy not-for-profit) in the life cycle of information.

National and International…(cont)• Nationalistic Issues

• The concern over national issues related to TDF has governed over the years.

• Among those is the fear of a foreign national dominating the information resources of one's country, usually the United States, but it could also simply other countries and multinational corporations.

• There is always a temptation on the part of a country to jump ahead by importing technologies, software, and information from, another country.

• This usually means adopting the hardware, software, language, and cultural of the country that provides these means.


• Similarly, the importing of information technologies may inhibit a country's ability to create its own infrastructure to produce its own technologies.

• As nations become increasingly dependent on the technologies of another nation this may be deceived as a potential threat to its sovereignty.

• Similarly, countries may define public and private information differently on information readily and legally available in another.

• Given the ease by which electronic information can be transmitted this can generate much national concern.


• Another issue is the protection of national security information from electronic intrusion by another country.

• Electronic storage of highly sensitive government information is now common in many countries and the fear that the information may be accessed and transmitted across international borders is a common and important consideration.

National and International…(cont)• Information policy issues in the Electronic Environment

• Freedom of speech is one of the primary issue accorded to each citizen.

• This freedom protects not only the right to express oneself, but also to receive information.

• The internet can certainly be perceived as a new and vital form to express and hear the opinions of others.

• In addition, the internet has been characterized by some as the last area where a "frontier" spirit reigns.

• It is a highly individualistic and attractive channel of communication; people have felt free to express themselves on any subject in any manner they see & fit.

National and International…(cont)• Clearly, there is a strong interest in assuring the rights of free speech

on the interest.

• This implies not only that the content of what people say be protected, but also that the system permit free and open access to the network so people are able to express themselves and that the system be designed so that effective two - way communication is available.

• In addition the increasing privatization there will be "public spaces" where people can express themselves freely on the issues of the day.

• At the same times, some serious questions have been raised regarding uncontrolled speech on the internet and the appropriateness of some of the subjects discussed.

National and International…(cont)• Internet communication involves many different activities including

sending and receiving e-mails messages, transmitting and downloading files, participating in electronic discussion, groups and commercial activities involving the purchase and sale of goods and services.

• These activities take place in the privacy of one's own home or in the work setting.

• Many internet users are under the impression that their identities are confidential; in reality, they can usually be discovered easily.

• To what extend are our communications protected and private? Who can read our electronic messages, and under what circumstances?


• Traditionally, intellectual property has been protected by copyright laws (as well as patent and trade mark law).

• The properties being protected were physical representations.

• Today with electronic access the producers of information tend to retain control of the information (the intellectual property).

• Traditionally, the creator of the information sold a physical item (book or periodical), which under the doctrine of the Right of first sale could then be loaned as many times as the item would remain in the system and being used.


• But online access is regulated as much as more licensing and leasing agreements are copyrighted.

• It is not uncommon for such agreements to be negotiated before these services are provided.

• The agreements set forth the conditions under which the library may disseminate the information and provide a very different context for the dissemination of information from the past.

• Because these agreements are mutually agreed upon, they are governed by contract laws, a fundamentally different set of laws.


• Most notably, where the intent of copyright law had the primary objective to advance developments in the arts and sciences, the basis of contract law has no such idealistic motive.

• Rather contract law is written to benefit the parties who enter into the contract; benefits to the society at large are entirely incidental.

• For producers and distributors of the information there is no need to consider the social issues at all; is merely the economic ones.


• Political Issues

• All of the issues discussed earlier, of course, have political aspects.

• In addition, other major political issues relate to:

– equity of access, especially by developing nations to information;

– dissemination and propaganda as tools of national policy; and

– to national security functions.

• Equity of access is one of the most significant issues facing us today.

National and International…(cont)• One futurist has predicted a recolonization of the world based on

access to information; information-poor nations will be linked with and increasingly dependent on information-rich nations.

• The concern is also that those who can find and use information effectively will have great power over those who cannot. This will lead to further inequities in society.

• The potential of information and communications technology to create a global communications network is being realized but with the network comes awareness of a conflict between the information ideologies of the developed nations (often conflicting ideologies) and those of the developing nations.


• Many developed nations advocate the unrestricted broadcast of most information across national boundaries along with the unrestricted access of a private press to all parts of the world with uncensored reporting of whatever the private press wants to report.

• Recently we have seen some questioning of these principles by the governments of some developed nations.

• Most developing nations also appreciate the value of information technology yet may wish to maintain some control to avoid an inundation of broadcasting over which they have no control.


• In part this concern derives from a feeling that reporting is biased and may reflect "developed-nation imperialism."

• The debate between the need for a "New World Information and Communications Order" and the need for a firm stand against control of the press is likely to continue in the near future.

Policy Issues• Impacts of the Net on individuals, families, communities • Balancing the rights, obligations and responsibilities of

information creators, providers, intermediaries and users • The preservation of information • The responsibility for maintaining information archives • Determining rights of access to information • Extent of control of personal information • Determining conditions under which these rights can be

abridged

…continued

• Why do nations need a National Information Policy?

• Nations are dealing with changes that infuse their entire economic, social, cultural and political systems.

• The inter-relationships between the different systems are such that there is much to be gained from coordinated development and much to be lost from fragmentation.

…continued

• Some of the reasons:

– industrial and commercial competitiveness;

– employment and the creation of high value-added job opportunities;

– lifelong learning and the effectiveness of the education and training system;

– social inclusion and access to services and opportunities;

…continued

– healthy living and the effectiveness of health service;

– the efficiency and effectiveness of public services;

– participation in the democratic process;

– regional development;

– cultural identity and diversity;

– intellectual rights.

…continued• Elements to be considered when formulating information

policy: – The right to communicate– Legal and regulatory frameworks– Freedom of expression and information exchange– Diversity of content, ownership and control– The licensing and control of intellectual property– Privacy– Global, regional and national governance of ICT

infrastructure– Rights awareness and realization of rights

info 442 chapter 2

Science