Presentation abstracts will appear here as soon as possible.
The
Information Society, transforming many traditional structures
and services, increases the speed and volume of data exchanges,
facilitates their integration and develops active user/data
interactions. It also popularizes and generalizes the need for
information, but imposes different social structures and trades.
The scope of these movements poses problems on both national
and European levels (see the 1999 Green Paper "Information
from the Public Sector: A Key Resource for Europe" [1]).
A recent
French report [2] distinguishes between the economic
and the citizen aspects in this area. It identifies "an
obligation for public bodies, hubs of the present documentation
system, to place data at the disposal of private networks",
an obligation limited by permission for data access, "the citizen’s
rights". Communication growth is anticipated by regulations
that generally ensure the perennial nature of current public
systems and their adaptation to the Information Society.
But
is this sufficient ? Relations between the public and private
sectors remain difficult to define, particularly in research
where information constitutes the basis of universal knowledge
(public data are often universal data). All this favors an evaluation,
discipline by discipline, of recommendations to ensure minimal
access by public bodies ("citizens" rights and perhaps "researchers"
rights). Private computerized editions can lead to a broadening
of private repertories for which the idea of access to "essential"
data has not yet been defined. A free flow of information is
important, but certain abusive "expropriations" must be curtailed.
The
nature of the data must be carefully defined as basic datum
is accompanied by layers of repertory files and/or metadata.
In this context, a complex datum often becomes an object of
co-ownership between several contributors. This must be considered
when exploiting it. Where should one situate the "essential
datum" accessible without financial or other constraints? At
what access level does a consultation "limited to the essential"
stop?
Submitted
abstracts include:
Access
to Public Data and Mechanisms for Data Sharing in South Africa
Heston E. Phillips. South African Data Archive, NRS
Survey
of the Information Resources in Science and Technology in India
on the World Wide Web.
Dr. J.R. Arora. Ministry of Science and Technology, India
Database
Property Rights pose a serious threat to the Integrity of Science-A
Developing Countries Perspective.
G. Thyagarajan, COSTED
Fundamental
Research Preparation of National Sciences and Technology in
China
Ye Yujiang and Shi Huizhong, China
Construction
and Development of Scientific Database of CAS
Xiao Yun, Wu Kai Chao, Li Wangping, Yan Bao Ping
__________________________________
For
this Session, please refer to the following typology of the
data sectors :
I Data
on active life (meteorology, ecology, mobility, administration
texts, cartography, security, …);
II Industrial, economic and financial data
[3];
III Research and innovation data (crystallography, chemistry,
genetic engineering, pharmacology, earth sciences, botany, …).
References
- [1] Green Paper
on Public Sector Information on the Information Society
(European Commission, 1999, 33p, COM(1998) 585.
- [2] Working
Group on "technologies of Information and New Networks within
the State". Six workshops, one of which was "New Means to
help Distribution of Public Data", Report of the General
Commissariat of the Plan, Paris, La Documentation Française,
1999, 123p.
[3] Distribution of information and Access to I.N.P.I. Data,
B. Marx, Documentaliste, "Science of Information",
1999, Vol. 36, 1.
