Australian Government defines Policy for Opening Public Sector Information

Australian Government are continuing their Gov 2.0 agenda, by releasing policy defining the Principles on Open Public Sector Information. It focuses on ensuring that "data be freely available, easily discoverable, understandable, machine-readable and reusable".

The principles are:

1. Open access to information – a default position
2. Engaging the community
   
   • ... consult the community in deciding what information to publish ...
     
3. Effective information governance
4. Robust information asset management
5. Discoverable and useable information
   
   • ... published in an open and standards-based format and is machine-readable
   • attach high quality metadata ...
6. Clear reuse rights
   • ... the default licence condition should be the Creative Commons BY open license.
7. Appropriate charging for access
   • ... agencies to facilitate public access to information at the lowest reasonable cost.
8. Transparent enquiry and complaints processes

Press Release: http://www.oaic.gov.au/news/media_release_principles_public_sector_info.html
Policy: http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/agency_resources/principles_on_psi_short.pdf

Image Source: http://usedbooksblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/trinity-college-library-dub.jpg