The document discusses public sector information (PSI), its significance for government transparency, economic growth, and citizen empowerment. It outlines the varying access and reuse policies across countries, highlighting the benefits of unrestricted PSI in fostering innovation and improving public services. The conclusion emphasizes that free access to PSI enhances societal outcomes and provides economic opportunities, particularly in developing nations.

1. Public
Sector
Information
Nick Dunsmore
Jessica McDonald
Laurie Tewksbury
Yong Yi
Syracuse University
School of Information Studies: IST 618

2. PSI
[public sector information]
“Information, includinginformation
products and services, generated, created,
collected, processed, preserved,
maintained, disseminated, or funded by or
for the Government or public
institution.” (OECD, 2008).

3. Health
PSI [categories]
Weather
Legislative Papers
Geographic Information
Legislative and Judicial Proceedings
Social and Economic Statistics
Food and Water Resources Information
Financial Reports

4. Why does the Government
collect Public Sector Information?
The economic, social, and political values of PSI all have
the potential to enable a more effective and
transparent government, a healthier and competitive
economy, as well as a more knowledgeable and
responsible citizenry (Sharif).

5. General public
Public Sector Information Provides
Value & Benefits to

6. Government Sector
It is comprehensive, as much of the information results from statutory
requirements such as business and vehicle registrations; it often covers long time
periods, having been collected for decades; and it is generally accurate because
significant resources are invested in its collection and analysis (Zakaria, 2000).
New developments leading toward PSI commercialization & the generation of revenue:
• increasing commercial pressure for access to Government information;
• the expansion of the information industry;
• increasing dependence on information by many organizations and the expansion of
information intensive industries;
• increasing use of the Internet and the electronic exchange of data;
• the development of electronic access to government departments; and
• a push by Governments toward identifying new means of income generation - selling of large
datasets, maintained and distributed electronically.

7. Private Sector
Uses the information to achieve social and commercial value as well as efficiency.
By assessing information, the private sector will help in turning this information into an
array of tailored products and services for the public.
The National Weather Service (NWS) is ‘going digital’!
National Digital Forecast Database will be accessible to all and will use digital data to
improve communication of forecast information.
– Provide weather, water and climate forecasts and warnings and will provide a database
for government agencies, private sector, public, global community.
The NWS and the private sector will work together to “foster translation of
environmental data and forecasts into information supporting public safety and
promoting economic growth” (NWS).

8. Information Industries
In the US, open and unrestricted access to public sector information has resulted in
the rapid growth of information-intensive industries—especially with geographic and
environmental information.
Growth potential for the geographic information industry: lowering the price of public
sector geographic data by 60% would lead to a 40% annual turnover growth plus
employment growth of approximately 800 jobs.
Companies that pay a much lower price for public sector information will invest these
savings in the development of new products, thereby expanding the potential market
(NWS).
Revenues from the public sector lead geospatial market growth and account for more
than one-third of total revenue (United State Dept. of Labor).

9. Scientific Communities
With more technology, more widespread and efficient access to sharing of data is
expected to have great benefits for public scientific research.
More efficient, effective and better connected, thereby expanding scope.
“
Open access to, and sharing of, data reinforces open
scientific inquiry, encourages diversity of analysis and
opinion, promotes new research, makes possible the
testing of new or alternative hypotheses and methods
of analysis, supports studies on data collection methods
and measurement, facilitates the education of new
researchers, enables the exploration of topics not
envisioned by the initial investigators, and permits the
”
creation of new data sets when data from multiple
sources are combined (Arzberger et al., 2004).

10. Civil Society Organizations
There are many areas that could benefit from public sector information such as:
Good Governance Public Health
Environmental protection Poverty Eradication
Public health – enhance health facility utilization, disease tracking, health trends,
location and asset management (Cromley, et al., 2002)
Environmental protection – land-use management and planning, urban planning and
development, water and air quality assessments, property assessment and tax policy
development (Clarke, et al., 2002).
Poverty eradication – geo-referenced spatial information and statistics will become a
real tool for reducing poverty (Blakemore, et al., 2006)
– poverty maps can also be created to understand relationships between
poverty and climate conditions, elevation, access to transportation, exposure to
natural disasters (CIESEN, 2006)

11. General Public
PSI that is available to the public, including taxes, education, health services, housing
issues, and safety matters allows the general public to improve their well-being and be
productive citizens (Sharif).
Inform citizens of their rights and responsibilities
Educate them/provide opportunities for life-long learning
Preserve cultural and historical information for the future

12. But what about
ACCESS
& REUSE
?
of Public Sector Information

13. United States
[access and reuse]
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) administers all federal public data. The
data is collected from all federal agencies and branches of government and is freely
available to the public. As an effort to keep the people informed about what is going
on in the government, all information is free to the public.
For reuse for commercial purposes, reasonable fees are applied. (Cornell)
Data.gov

14. United States
[access and reuse]
The policies create an open and transparent
Government that the people/tax payers
should be able to see what information the
Government is handling and how it is being
used. It is also a tool for the Government to
keep the public informed on what is going on
in the country.
Depending for what the information is used,
the limited fees lower the barriers to access
the information, which allows for greater
commercial access and more innovation. This
benefits the economy as a whole in terms of
jobs investments and greater competition in
the market place.

15. European Union
[access and reuse]
The European Union has Directive 2003/98/EC, which
gave the framework for public entities to share their
information with the public. Since it was just a
framework, laws on PSI vary from country to country.
Some barriers for people gaining public information
have been fees, competing public entities, and public
entities failing to see the economic benefits of re-use
of PSI, which the European Union estimates at 140
billion Euros. All European Union branches of
government information is available for public access
(Europe's Information Society).
The European Union wants governments to be
transparent as much as they can. But since the
European Union lacks the centralized control right
now it can only give the frameworks on how their
member countries will govern their PSI.

16. Germany
[access and reuse]
Need to file an application and pay a fee to
access the public information.
Most policy is not made at the federal level but
at the individual district levels.
“Most public and private actors agree that the
strong federalism in the German public geo-
information production – causing the
fragmentation of data stocks and pricing policies
– is the core problem which needs to be tackled
in order to fully reap the benefits of a growing
geographic PSI re-use sector (Deloitte, et al.,
2011).
Since the governance of the release of PSI is with
the different regions it causes confusion on how
to reuse the data. There are many different ways
the information is released with many different
fees. The system is not set up well enough to
maximize the economic effects of the reuse of
PSI.

17. Spain
[access and reuse]
Free use of PSI for both commercial and non
commercial purposes.
There is free licensing based on a mass
download service (Deloitte, et al., 2011).
Spain has a very open form of government; it is
even more impressive since the government is
very decentralized so the level of openness and
ability to maximize economic benefits is great.
The justification is that everyone should have
access to taxpayer funded activities, the
advantages have been millions of downloads a
year of the data and large economic benefits. A
disadvantage of the policy would be that you
could charge a minimal fee and demand would
still exist.

18. France
[access and reuse]
Charges fees for public information for reuse, they used
to charge excessive amounts for the PSI but has since
revised their licensing and fee structure in 2011 to
match a more market based approach for the
information. People can access the information in paper,
or digitalized (Deloitte, et al., 2011).
The restrictive nature of France’s release of PSI has
been a huge opportunity cost to the economy. The
government was seeking to maximize revenue from the
sale of PSI for commercial use but due to the high fees
they ended up losing revenue due to decrease in
demand.
An advantage being that it pushes commercial to seek
out another vendor for that information, which creates
a secondary market for similar to PSI in the private
sector.
A disadvantage would be that it is creating minimal
economic benefits by maintaining high barriers.

19. Italy
[access and reuse]
Italy seeks to maximize revenue from the use of PSI. A
heavy tax was placed on the reuse of PSI, and a fee
increase of over 550% for raw data for reuse.
People trying to access the information must also
provide a legal interest, and it is still quite restricted
information (Deloitte, et al., 2011).
The Italian Government is trying to maximize revenue
from the use PSI by adding fees and taxes on its use to
aid itself during harsh economic times.
The Government also restricts access to only people
with legal justification to access the information. The
policies restrict access to tax payer funded information,
creating a less transparent environment.
An advantage, similar to France, it creates a secondary
market for PSI like information that commercial
enterprise can purchase.

20. Sweden
[access and reuse]
Principle of public access:
“The principle of public access means that the general
public and the mass media newspapers, radio and
television are to be guaranteed an unimpeded view of
activities pursued by the government and local
authorities. ”
Fees are applied for commercial reuse. (European Public
Sector Information Platform) Everyone is allowed to
read public documents held by public authorities
freedom of expression for civil servants and others,
including to mass media court proceedings are open to
the public.
Transparency seems to be the biggest reason for these
policies; the Swedish government wants to make all
information available to hold the government
accountable without threat of punishment. An
advantage is that all information is available to the public,
a disadvantage is that for reuse there are fees attached
to getting that PSI.

21. South Africa
[access and reuse]
Has built freedom to information in their constitution.
The Promotion of Access to Information Act governs the
policy of how to access the information. Citizens have
total access to any information from the government,
replication fees do apply.
An interesting part of the act allows someone to access
to any information held by “another person that is
required for the exercise or protection of any right.”
A web based portal is provided for commercial use to
access information (Access To Information).
They have created a system to allow uninhibited access to
the information. For commercial purposes, a web portal
was created with guidelines and methods of getting the
PSI for reuse. An advantage of this method is it creates a
more open society and government, and greater
economic benefits. A disadvantage is that is oddly invasive
for a private citizen.

22. Pakistan
[access and reuse]
In 2002, Pakistan enacted the Freedom of
Information Ordinance, which allowed citizens
to access any government information except
for government owned entities. The
effectiveness of the law has been challenged by
a NGO called Center for Peace and
Development Initiatives (Abbasi, 2012).
Limited information is available; the original
intention was to allow open access and
transparency for the people. Reports suggest
that the law has not lived up to expectations.
An advantage would be that people have to
ability to access what the government is doing
and stay informed. A disadvantage would be
that the system isn’t sharing that information.

23. Hong Kong
[access and reuse]
Has no formal policy set up by legislators, but
they do have the Code on Access to Information.
This created the Access to Information Officer in
all government entities; their task is to answer
citizen requests for information. The information
though is very limited and fees maybe charged
(The Code on Access to Information).
The issue of sharing PSI does not seem to have
taken a high priority in the Hong Kong council
that legislates the island the policy was created
through executive action. It was created with the
intention to create an open government. An
advantage would be that it does just that by
setting up an Access to information Officer in all
government agencies. A disadvantage is that
access is limited to a request directly to the
officer, there is no web based portal to access the
information.

24. China
[access and reuse]
The General Office of the State Council governs the open
government information work. Set up by the Regulations of
the People’s Republic of China on Open Government
Information.
The law sets out to:
1. Disclose government information promptly and
accurately.
2. Administrative agencies should establish and perfect
a coordination mechanism for releasing government
information.
3. The government information disclosed
administrative agencies may not endanger state
security.
The government is trying to create a more open
government, since the credibility of the government with its
citizens has diminished over the past few years this can be
viewed as a method of gaining some of that lost respect. An
advantage is that it creates a more transparent system that
citizens can participate more in the process. A disadvantage
is that there are no clear terms for reuse, so it can be
implied that PSI for reuse is a case by case basis.

25. In developing countries, PSI
starts with the ability to access
the information and how
accessible the information is to
the public.
There is no popular rule of
thumb for developing countries
when it comes any laws for
access to PSI (see:
Freedom of Information Around
the World for a list of countries
and their Freedom of
Information Laws).
The Internet will be a game
changer for developing
countries as it won’t cost as
much to provide access to PSI.
PSI will be an incredible asset in
developing countries to build a
knowledge economy, become
competitive, provide education,
govern fairly, enhance overall
public quality of life, etc. (Sharif).
Public Sector Information in the
Developing World

26. Public Sector Information in the
Aspects of Government between Developed and
Developing World Developing Countries (Chen, et al., 2007)
Developed Countries
Developing Countries
History and Culture
• Government and economy developed early, • Government usually not specifically
immediately after independence
defined; economy not increasing in
• Economy growing at a constant rate, productivity
productivity increasing, high standard of living
• Economy not growing or increasing
• Relatively long history of democracy and more productivity; low standard of living
transparent government policy and rule
• Relatively short history of democracy and
less transparent government policy and rule
Technical Staff
• Has a current staff, needs to increase technical • Does not have a staff, or has very limited
abilities and hire younger professionals
in-house staff
• Has outsourcing abilities and financial • Does not have local outsourcing abilities
resources to outsource; current staff would be and rarely has the financial ability to
able to define requirements for development
outsource; current staff may be unable to
define specific requirements
Infrastructure
• Superior current infrastructure
• Inferior current infrastructure
• High Internet access for employees and • Low Internet access for employees and
citizens
citizens
Citizens
• High Internet access and computer literacy; • Low Internet access and citizens are
still has digital divide and privacy issues
reluctant to trust online services; few
• Relatively more experienced in democratic citizens know how to operate computers
system and more actively participate in • Relatively less experienced in democratic
governmental policy-making process
system and less actively participate in
governmental policy-making process
Government Officers
• Decent computer literacy and dedication of • Low computer literacy and dedication of
resources; many do not place electronic resources; many do not place electronic
government at a high priority
government at a high priority due to lack of
knowledge on the issue

27. Public Sector Information in the
Developing World
The following factors lead to higher E-Government maturity in a country and can all
be achieved through aid from PSI (Ifinedo, 2011).
Economic Factors
Wealth (GDP per capita) available to a country
Technological Factors
Technological infrastructure available in a country
Technological innovative capacity of a country
Social Factors
Human capital resource available in a country
Transparency (low corruption perceptions) in a country
Political Factors
Rule of law in a country
Civil liberties in a country
Political rights in a country
Government efficiency in a country

28. PSI Implementation Example: Nigeria
(Daniel, 2004)
• Adopting a national policy on ICT
The Federal Government of Nigeria has applications in agriculture, health,
increased efforts to provide public sector education, military and other sectors
information through E-Government. The aim
is to improve the flow of information from • Enacting a National Communication Act
the government to its citizens, from citizens and appointing an independent regulatory
to government and within government body
departments, by setting up relevant Internet
and Intranet systems for federal, state and
• Launching a data and research satellite in
local governments including:
2003 with plans for a communications
satellite in 2006
Public Sector Information in the • Setting up NITDA
(National Information Technology
Developing World Development Agency)
• Promoting cyber-specific
laws to ensure security in
the use of e-mail and other
Internet-based operations

29. TI ON
icy
EN DA
MM
l
i v e Po
CO
E ffect
RE
Free and open system: all government
information that does not violate privacy or
national security would be freely accessible
for personal and commercial use.

30. This would create a more transparent environment regarding
government by allowing people to more easily participate in the
process and hold officials responsible for actions taken. It would also
give more credibility to government operations if more people are
able to see what is happening.
For commercial reasons, it would lower the cost of acquiring the
information and allow governments to allocate the capital towards
more innovation which is a positive impact for the economy since that
investment creates jobs and more wealth for the nation.
TI ON
icy
EN DA
MM
l
ive Po
CO
E ffect
RE

31. PSI
[in conclusion]
Free access to PSI provides the foundation of a greater society.
Public sector entities that are sponsored by tax payers should
be providing access to their information. This creates a
transparent public sector, which increases confidence in these
institutions.

32. PSI
[in conclusion]
Free access to PSI also provides new economic opportunity,
especially in high technology growth areas around the world.
Third world countries can now fully utilize their resources to
create wealth and economic opportunity. The reuse of PSI
creates a larger multiplier effect than its initial investment.

33. PSI
[in conclusion]
Countries that provide access to PSI can reap a multitude of
economic, social and political benefits:
Increased quality of
Increase in Transparency and Positive
life for public
innovation, goods trust in environmental
(health, education,
and services
Governments
effects
poverty, etc.)

34. References
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Access To Information. (n.d.). Retrieved from South Africa:
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Arzberger, et al. (2004). Promoting access to public research data for science, economic, and social development. Data Science Journal,
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35. References
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36. References
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%20Developing%20Countries.pdf
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