FOI and preservation

Michael Wills, the UK’s Justice Minister has announced the publication of a new Code of Practice on managing digital and other records. He said

"Freedom of Information depends on good record keeping and the preservation of information is important if we are to further increase transparency in public life. The updated Code of Practice is a significant step in ensuring that key records remain accessible to public bodies for day to day business and are preserved for future generations."

The Code makes the excellent point (Introduction, para iv) that “Freedom of information legislation is only as good as the quality of the records and other information to which it provides access.” I couldn’t agree more.

The Code recommends public bodies across the country introduce a strategy for the preservation of digital records to ensure that they can continue to be accessed and used and are resilient to future changes in technology.

Click here to read the announcement on the Ministry of Justice website.

Click here to read the new Code Of Practice.

First British Standard in Data Protection

You may have read recently about the introduction of the first British Standard dealing specifically with Data Protection.

BS10012 Data protection. Specification for a personal information management system has been developed to establish best practice and aid compliance with data protection legislation. It is the first standard for the management of personal information.

The British Standards Institute website explains that BS10012 “specifies the requirements for a personal information management system (PIMS), which provides an infrastructure for, among other things, maintaining and improving compliance with the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998.”

The new standard does not prescribe exactly how operations should be run, but instead provides a framework which will enable effective management of personal information. It is intended that it be used by organizations of any size and sector to create a tailored management system which includes procedures in areas such as training and awareness, risk assessment, data sharing, retention and disposal of data and disclosure to third parties.

The DCC will be publishing a Standards Watch Paper written by Sarah Higgins on BS10012 shortly. I will be sure to let you know once this is out.

For more information on the Data Protection Act please see this DCC Briefing Paper on the topic.

Facebook accused of breaching Canadian privacy laws

The BBC reported on Friday that Canada's Privacy Commissioner has recommended steps to ensure social networking site Facebook protects the privacy of Canadian users of the service, and meets requirements of Canadian privacy legislation. The Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart laid out the findings of a report which said Facebook's information about privacy practices was "often confusing or incomplete", and urged the site to make its policies more transparent to users.

One area of breach is Facebook's policy of holding on to subscribers' personal information, even after their accounts had been deactivated.

It was also criticised for failing to adequately restrict access of users' personal details to some of the 950,000 developers in 180 countries who provide applications, such as games, for the site.

It is reported that Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly has said Facebook is working with the Canadian commission to resolve the issues.

For more information you can read the news release on the website of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or look at the report itself.

Digital Curation Conference deadline extended

Some of you may be interested in submitting a paper to this conference. The conference organisers are interested in receiving papers on a range of legal and policy issues, including: Creative Commons, special licences, the public domain and other approaches for re-use, questions of privacy, consent, and embargo.

5th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC09)
Moving to Multi-Scale Science: Managing Complexity and Diversity.
2 – 4 December 2009, Millennium Gloucester Hotel, London, UK.
**************************************************************************
We are pleased to announce that the Paper Submission date for IDCC09 has been extended by 2 weeks to Friday 7 August 2009: http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/dcc-2009/call-for-papers/
Remember that submissions should be in the form of a full or short paper, or a one page abstract for a poster, workshop or demonstration.
Presenting at the conference offers you the chance to:-

* Share good practice, skills and knowledge transfer
* Influence and inform future digital curation policy & practice
* Test out curation resources and toolkits
* Explore collaborative possibilities and partnerships
* Engage educators and trainers with regard to developing digital curation skills for the future

Speakers at the conference will include:-

* Timo Hannay – Publishing Director, Nature.com
* Professor Douglas Kell – Chief Executive of the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
* Dr. Ed Seidel, Director of the National Science Foundation’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure

All papers accepted for the conference will be published in the International Journal of Digital Curation

Sent on behalf of the Programme Committee –

co-chaired by Chris Rusbridge, Director of the Digital Curation Centre, Liz Lyon, Director of UKOLN and Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information.

FOI for Researchers workshop in Glasgow

Some of you may be interested in attending this useful upcoming workshop being held by the Research Information Network.

“Freedom of Information: what’s in it for researchers?” is being held on the
14 September from 10:00 to 16:00 at The Lighthouse, 11 Mitchell Lane, Glasgow, G1 3NU

The Research Information Network is holding this free event to raise awareness of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) as a tool for researchers and to aid understanding of the access regime. The day will cover how to use FOI to access records and information and how to make successful requests. Case studies will be presented to explore how to use FOI in practice, offering strategies for what works well for particular disciplines and types of research and insights will be provided from the Scottish perspective.

Key speakers:
• Professor Duncan Tanner – Director, Welsh Institute for Social and Cultural Affairs, Bangor University
• Sarah Hutchinson - Head of Policy and Information, Scottish Information Commissioner
• Bruno Longmore – Head of Government Records, National Archives of Scotland
• Hugh Hagan – Senior Inspecting Officer Government Records Branch, National Archives of Scotland

The workshop is aimed at academic researchers; other research workers, such as journalists; librarians, archivists and other information professionals who provide research services and research training; compliance officers interested in facilitating access and advising requestors and public policy makers in the access to information arena.

Click here for the full programme, more information or to book a free place.

Training in licensing electronic resources

Here’s a course coming up in September for those looking for an introduction to the licensing of electronic resources.

Licences and their Negotiation
To be held in : The City Suite, Thistle City Hotel, Barbican, London, EC1V 8DS
24th September 2009, 9.30-16.30

Course Outline
This practical one day training event is designed to provide Information Professionals with an introduction to the licensing of electronic resources such as e books, e journals and abstracting and indexing services. This course has been designed to introduce the major components of such licences and why they are important, what are the issues that are likely to cause the greatest difficulty, and will introduce issues related to the fine art of negotiating.

Click here for more details on the UKeiG website.

Curation and consent. How much is too much?

I’m researching a DCC Legal Watch Paper at the moment, focussing on consent in research (looking at both the legal and the ethical angles). I have been thinking about all this from a curation perspective. With the potential for reuse of resources or data being an important goal in terms of curation, a key question arises which is:

“What use of their data did the participant consent to?”

The answer to this question has a massive bearing on the useability of that data down the line.

So, for example, did the participant consent to:

1. only use A (by researcher A); or
   
2. use A but by any researcher; or
   
3. use A (by researcher A) and use B (by researcher B); or
   
4. researcher A transferring the data to researcher B (crucial if option 3 is to be of any practical use and only researcher A has the data); or
   
5. use of their data by anyone for any purposes.

Of course, some of the answers could be found in the wording of the consent form (N.B. consent is rarely required by law to be in writing but it is still very wise to secure it that way) but my question is about the picture behind it and the legal and ethical appropriateness of what is written in that form – as well as the effectiveness of that consent for enabling scientific progress.

In an era of open approaches to data, the idea of global consent is quite appealing. It ensures that useful data remains useable (IP and contract considerations aside) and ‘open’. But consenting to any use of your personal data...? It has been said that one of the best things about making data open is the things that will be done with it and created by other researchers that you simply would never have thought of. But when it comes to your personal data (i.e. data about you, that identifies you) are you happy to give consent for it to be used in ways you have never imagined? The answer to this may be yes or no, and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Aside from personal feelings on this matter, would such a wide consent be considered legal? Would it be ethical?

What do you think?