Information Policy definition: The set of rules, formal and informal, that directly restrict, encourage, or otherwise shape flows of information. Information policy includes:
Public policy issue: a fundamental enduring conflict among and between objectives, goals, customs, plans, activities and stakeholders, not likely to be resolved completely in favor of any polar position in that conflict, but changes in environment may require striking a fresh balance among conflicting forces from time to time.
- literacy
- privatization and distribution of government information
- freedom of information access
- protection of personal privacy
- intellectual property rights
- and the like.
Some of the public information policy issues it might be interesting to discuss today are:
- Postive and Negative Impacts of Cyberspace in Individuals, Citizens of the U.S., Familities, Rural Communities, Citizens of Countries outside the US
- Impact of Standardization of ...
For each of these issues, there is conflicting opinion. Some of these value conflicts involve fundamental differences in beliefs about, for example,:
- Formats
- System Interoperability
- Connections
- Languages and Terminology
- Structures
- Bibliographic Conventions and Metadata Tools
- Availability and Entitlement of Government and International Information Products and Services
- Who owns Information? What are the rights, obligations and responsibilities of ...
- the Creator
- the Provider
- the Intermediary
- the User
- What information should be preserved? In what format should it be preserved? Who should have responsiblity for maintain the archive? What rights of access should be provided to whom?
- Confidentiality and Privacy of Information: What rights should people have to control what information is known about them and who knows it? Should the rights be abridged under certain circumstances, for example by an employing organization?
Where do you stand?
- privacy vs collection of personal data,
- information markets vs. government dissemination of information
- information as a public resource vs. need for secrecy
©: Evelyn Daniel,
All rights reserved.
Page revised 2/3/99.