Information Policy: Access to Information in the Digital Age

How do we strike the right balance in today’s digital world between public access to the products of intellectual output, and individual incentives to create that output; the balance which the Founders of the U.S. embedded in the U.S. Constitution: “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” (Art. 1, S. 8) The assumption of the Founders was that...(More)

Personal Privacy: Protecting Information About Oneself

Many in modern society freely offer information about themselves in exchange for perceived benefits such as the convenience of using a credit card, realizing savings generated by using a company loyalty card, or obtaining a driver’s license. When these transactions are based upon informed consent, including an understanding of how this personal information will be used, the person offering the information has control over that personal information. However...(More)

The Public Commons: Protecting and Expanding Access

The intellectual commons can be considered to consist of any material which a potential user of that material does not have to get explicit permission to use before the use takes place. Such materials include any work in the public domain, which means works which were never copyrighted; works which cannot be copyrighted (e.g., simple facts, materials produced by the federal government, etc); works which were copyrighted but on which the copyright has expired; and works produced since 1976 which the creators have affirmatively placed in the public domain. In addition to these public domain works...(More)

Informal Science Education: Science for Everyone

Over 50% of bills submitted in the U.S. Congress in recent years have involved science or technology in some way. Yet many citizens are ill-equipped to help make decisions about particular bills or about larger policy questions such as access in information, or control over how their personal information is used. In this environment, how can we make scientific information accessible to, and understandable by, interested non-specialists using generally available communication channels such as radio, television and the Internet?