Access to Information Is Not Universal: Here’s Why That Matters

Today is the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI). You may be wondering why this day is necessary—particularly in 2019, when the average person is inundated with an estimated 34 gigabytes of information every day, from emails and text messages to Youtube videos and news programs. In fact, it’s easy to take information … Read More “Access to Information Is Not Universal: Here’s Why That Matters”

Announcing an Open Call for Proposals: The Bassel Khartabil Fellowship

Today the Fabricatorz Foundation announced an open call for applicants for the Bassel Khartabil Fellowship.  The Fellowship supports outstanding individuals developing free culture projects in their communities under adverse circumstances, honoring the legacy of beloved artist, open source technology innovator, free culture advocate Bassel Khartabil. Bassel was Creative Commons’ Syrian project lead, the cofounder of … Read More “Announcing an Open Call for Proposals: The Bassel Khartabil Fellowship”

European Commission adopts CC BY and CC0 for sharing information

Last week the European Commission announced it has adopted CC BY 4.0 and CC0 to share published documents, including photos, videos, reports, peer-reviewed studies, and data. The Commission joins other public institutions around the world that use standard, legally interoperable tools like Creative Commons licenses and public domain tools to share a wide range of … Read More “European Commission adopts CC BY and CC0 for sharing information”

European Commission forging ahead to boost public sector information and open science

  While the EU copyright reform teeters on the edge of turning into a complete disaster, last week the European Commission published a proposal for a revision of the Directive on the reuse of public sector information (PSI Directive), and a recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information. Both of these documents are … Read More “European Commission forging ahead to boost public sector information and open science”

United States Capitol Building

U.S. Pushes Closer To Making Government Data Open By Default

The Open, Public, Electronic, and Necessary Government Data Act (OPEN Government Data Act) has passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill’s text was included as Title II in the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (H.R. 4174). If ultimately enacted, the bill would require all government data to be made open by default: machine-readable and … Read More “U.S. Pushes Closer To Making Government Data Open By Default”