The document summarizes a workshop agenda on open access and preservation in eGovernment. The agenda includes an introduction, general discussion, breakout groups on requirements and policies, and reports from the breakout groups. It also provides background information on the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) and its focus on safety and security. AIT has advanced the state of digital preservation through national and international projects. The presentation argues for open access of publicly funded research and data for moral, pragmatic, and economic reasons. It advocates for a national data service in Austria to ensure long-term access, preservation, and return on investment. Examples from Australia, Netherlands, and existing Austrian initiatives are provided. Next steps proposed include defining user requirements, selecting technical

1. Open Access and Preservation
in eGovernment
CEDEM 2012 Workshop
03. May 2012
Ross King, Joachim Jung, Michela Vignoli
Safety & Security Department
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH

2. Workshop Agenda
16.00 1. Introduction and Presentation
16.20 2. General Discussion
16.30 3. Breakout groups
A. Requirements
B. Policies
17.00 4. Reports of Breakout groups
17.15 5. Discussion
17.30 6. Close
03.05.2012 2

3. AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
 The largest research institution (outside
of the University system) in Austria
 Owned 50.46% by the Republic of
Austria, 49.54% by a Federation of
Austrian Industries
 Around 900 employees
 Five departments
Industrial
 Very diverse research landscape commissions
30%
External
 A “40/30/30” budget model funds
Funded 30%
40% internal financing through BMVIT projects
(Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology)
Matching funds
40% Internal funds Independent
research

4. AIT R&D Focus – Safety & Security Department
FNS – Security
 eGovernment
 eHealth & AAL
HRS – Safety
 Secure energy
 Safety-critical
networks
Soft- und Hardware
 Cloud Computing
DME – Safety IVS – Security
 Manage massive  3D Vision
volumes of data and  High Performance IVS
complex data formats
 Multi-Camera Systems
The four cornerstones of Safety & Security in the
Electronic Universe

5. Digital Memory Engineering – AIT on the Leading Edge
 Through a number of national and international projects, the AIT Digital Memory
Engineering group (DME) has advanced the state of the art in Digital Preservation in
the areas of scalability (applying intensive computation to binary objects) and quality
assurance (automated image-based error detection). In addition, DME has
participated in a number of national and international initiatives:
 OCG working group on long-term archiving (LZA)
 Co-founder and Board Member of the Open Planets Foundation
 Coordinator of the FP7 Integrated Project SCAPE
 Advising EU policy through the Digital Preservation Experts Group
 ISO/IEC JTC Study Group on Digital Content Management and Protection
03.05.2012 image courtesy digitalbevaring.dk 5

6. Presentation

7. Open Access and Preservation
in eGovernment
The case for an Austrian National Data Service
Dr. Ross King
Senior Scientist
Safety & Security Department
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH

8. Outline
 Arguments for Open Access
 Arguments for a National Data Service
 Existing National Data Services
 Next Steps
 Conclusions
03/05/2012 8

9. Arguments for Open Access
 Moral Argument
 Publically funded research should be publically available
 Publically funded government should by publically available
 Pragmatic Argument
 Open Access improves research efficiency
 Open Access improves governmental efficiency
 Economic Argument
 Open Access and Open Data can be
the foundation of new economic growth
(see for example: Graham Vickery, Review of Recent Studies
on PSI Re-Use and Related Market Developments [2011].)
 Is publishing today a value-adding or
a rent-seeking behaviour?
03.05.2012 9
image courtesy digitalbevaring.dk

10. Open Access – Economic Necessity?
 “We write to communicate an untenable
situation facing the Harvard Library. … It is
untenable for contracts with at least two major
providers to continue on the basis identical
with past agreements. Costs are now
prohibitive… since faculty and graduate
students are chief users, please consider the
following options open to faculty and
students…
Make sure that all of your own papers are
accessible by submitting them in accordance
with the faculty-initiated open-access policies.
Consider submitting articles to open-access
journals, or to ones that have reasonable,
sustainable subscription costs; move prestige
to open access. If on the editorial board of a
journal involved, determine if it can be
published as open access material, or
independently from publishers that practice
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77982&tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448
pricing described above. If not, consider Accessed on 24.04.2012
resigning.”
03.05.2012 10

11. Arguments for a National Data Service
 Trust
 Stakeholders versus beneficiaries
 Endurance over time
 Preservation
 Traditional role of memory institutions (libraries, archives)
 Economics
 Economies of scale
 Return on investment
 Planning horizon
03.05.2012 image courtesy digitalbevaring.dk 11

12. Examples of National Data Services
Australia
 data.gov.au
This site provides an easy way to find, access, and reuse public datasets
from the Australian state and federal governments
 Australian National Data Service (ANDS)
An infrastructure that enables national
researchers to easily publish, discover,
access and use research data
03.05.2012 image from http://www.ands.org.au/about/approach.html 12

13. Examples of National Data Services
Netherlands
 overheid.nl
The central access point to all information from government organizations of
The Netherlands. data.overheid.nl (launched 2011) is the central register
providing links to all open government data sets
 Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS)
This service encourages researchers to archive and reuse data in a
sustained manner, e.g. through its online archiving system. It provides
access to scientific datasets, e-publications and other research information.
03.05.2012 13

14. Examples of National Data Services
Austria
 http://offener.datenkatalog.at/
Katalog Offene Daten Österreich began collecting openly accessible data
from both governmental and science related sources
 http://gov.opendata.at/site/
Cooperation Open Government Data (OGD) Österreich
 http://www.archivinformationssystem.at/suchinfo.aspx
Austrian State Archive
03.05.2012 14

15. Next steps
 User requirements
 Must derive from a broad spectrum of public beneficiaries
 Technical solutions
 Should be selected based on the requirements, as well as on the
lessons learned from other National Services
 Policies
 A commitment to preserve and provide permanent access within
government, the scientific community and society in general must be
codified at the national policy level
 Funding
 Initial estimate for such a service: € 20 Million
03.05.2012 15

16. Conclusion
 Austria is considered a world leader in eGovernment
 There are compelling arguments for an Austrian National Data Service
 This service could be unique in a number of ways:
 Integrate eGovernment and Research Access
 Expand support for more content types
• Documents (and Publications)
• Raw Data
but also
• Structured Data (XML)
• Databases
• Software/Applications
03.05.2012 16

17. AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
your ingenious partner
Dr. Ross King
Senior Scientist
T: +43 (0) 50550 4271
F: +43 (0) 50550 4150
email: ross.king@ait.ac.at

18. Discussion