International Digital Library Conference (IDLC) The Royale Chulan Hotel Kuala Lumpur 8 - 10 April...

International Digital Library Conference (IDLC)

The Royale Chulan Hotel Kuala Lumpur

8 - 10 April 2014

FORMULATING NATIONAL INFORMATION POLICY

DR. MOKMIN BASRI

DIRECTOR

CENTER FOR GRADUATE STUDIES

Selangor International Islamic University College (KUIS) http://kuis.academia.edu/MokminBasri

[email protected]

Contents

1. Introduction2. Definition of Information

Policy3. Forms of Information

Policy4. The Disciplines of

Information Policy5. Gaps of Current

Information Policy6. Issues Commonly

Underlying IP 7. Classification of IP

Issues

11. Requirement for Information Policy Model

12. Integrated National Information Policy

13. Library’s Role in Information Policymaking

14. Conclusion

Introduction

Information plays an important role to the development of society and nation. The ability to use information creatively through ICT technology is considered as a source of power (Fatemeh et al. 2009)

Information Policy is an important aspect of public policy in this century (Norman 2006)

Information institutions, information infrastructure and information resources must be managed systematically based on a specific policy (Pajaro & Betancourt 2007).

Introduction

Started since 1950s (Schwuchow 1999).

Expanded significantly

during 1970s (Lamberton 1974)

Current research Arnold 2007, Koga 2010, Case

2010, Braman 2011, Jaeger et al. 2011, Malone &

Bucknall 2011, Saxby 2011, Prins et al. 2011, Jaeger et al. 2012 and Abba & Song

2013.

Formulation of conceptual framework & practices of information policy

Introduction

Ensure the accuracy and security of information (Dae 1996)

The need to prepare technical and scientific Information

The establishment of public libraries (Bustamante 2007, Soler 2007).

New information policy Result from the merging & Introduction of ITC: - Democracy of knowledge in society - The information society (Soler 2007).

Information Policy Issues

Definition of Information Policy

Micro Perspective

•The classical narrow definition of information policy involves or address specific issue such as access to government information (Braman 2011)

Macro Perspective

•Information policy that could not be separated from other fields such as education, science and technology culture, public administration transparency, information technology and health (Bustamante 2007, Soler 2007).

Definition of Information Policy

There is no single accepted definition for information policy (Duff

2004)•Information policy is a social, political, regulation, economic and technological decision related to the role of information in society Maxwell (2003) .•Guideline for planned actions to assure access to universal information to carry out social, economic and political activities help the nation development (Pajaro & Betancourt 2007).

The Discipline of Information Policy

Information Policy is a component of

information science discipline (Burger 1993,

Hahn 2003 & Orna 2008)

The latest view - information policy as a cross-disciplinary field

(Wilkinson & Nilsen 2010 and Braman

2010).

Information Policy was studied academically and become the interest of the government, industry, community groups & individual user (Nilsen 2000)

Gaps of Current Information Policy

Diversity of objectives (Duff 2004)

•Information policies developed by different agencies to address certain issue and focus on different goals - lead to the issues of information policy component overlap and conflict•Information Policy Model is not comprehensive and integrated, is isolated, without involving all agencies related with information.

Issues commonly underlying information policy

Determining the information policy issues are crucial (Wilkinson & Nilsen 2010) to avoid the misunderstanding of researchers relies merely on perceptions and attitudes (Arnold 2007) that can affect the analysis and development of comprehensive policies. (91 Issues)

Infrastructure/ ICT information superhighway

IT for education, innovation and competition

Innovation, R & D and technology transfer

Application and content

Super computer & scientific network

Digital Archive Public Library and National Archive

Library repository

Laws pertaining to books

Government information resource management

Intellectual freedom

Collection, usage and distribution of data

Copy right and intellectual property

Information selection

Electronic government

National bibliography

Government publication

Information data/technical and scientific information

Data transmission beyond boundaries

International information transmission

National information system/ government

Traditional information (heritage, legacy & folklore/ traditions, culture

Network and continuity

Telecommunication broadcasting and satellite projection

Northern divide/ Southern divide, digital divide

Information content distribution

Information access standard

Universal information standard

Government information access

Public centre access

Content development of national information

Maintaining/ storage of information


Skill in information usage

Information literacy/digital literacy

Information expert and field of occupation

Information technology industry

Information industry including creative industry

Agriculture and commerce industry

Information based economy

E-commerce

Filtering Information integrity/ validity/ quality

Information security

Privacy Government secrets/ national security

Information exposure

Piracy Legal deposit

Patent Law Statistics and survey information

Policy pertaining to laws and regulations

Panel code Communications Act

Cyber Law Computer crime and regulations

Price policy

Freedom of speech/communication rights

Information and media freedom

Industrial property rights

Right to assemble

Consumer information and health

Foreign publication acquisition

Access to books

Electronic fund transfer


Commerce stamp

Standard international information access

Information preparation

Education/ training/ work

Tax and workers’ law

Information obtained at work

Global village Market information

Metadata Information exchange/ sharing information

Information value for economic competition

Cost/finances pertaining to execution of information policy

Theoretical approach to develop information policy

Illiteracy rate Freedom to develop

Supervision of technological, communication and multimedia merges

Information issue pertaining public and private sector

High capacity information storage

Information society

Business secrets law

Business development, productivity and competitiveness

Information development process

Information access cost

Human rights

Quality of life Reading campaign

Social contract

Classification of Information Policy Issues Some researchers of information policy are prone to classifying issues that underlie information policy into certain aspects.

• Lamberton (1974) classified information policy issues into four - scientific and technical information, social science, information service and information technology.

• This paper research information policy issues as a whole without giving specific focus because only then it can provide a complete list of issues that underlie information policy development.

• Classify information policy issues into six: Technical and Scientific Information, Library, ICT, information pertaining to Social, Economy and Governmental issues.

Requirement for Information Policy Model

1. Integrated

• Existing models (13) failed to show interaction between sectors such as private sector information managers, public information policy makers, community of researchers and society in general (Trauth 1996).

• Policy issues being addressed separately leading to duplication and waste of resources (UNESCO year not stated).


1. Integrated

• A study for developing an integrated Information policy model should be undertaken to overcome existing gaps (Trauth 1986, Browne 1997, Arnold 2004).

• An integrated Information policy model should be developed to provide a comprehensive understanding and can be used to analyze the fields of information policy (Trauth 1986, Montviloff 1990, Browne 1997, Priftis & Oppenheim 1999, Norman 1998 and Moore 2005).


2. Multi Sectors

• The Purpose of a holistic national information policy is to address issues relating to strategic areas of development such as education, health, security, industry, agriculture and trade need to be done (Pajaro & Betancourt 2007).

• Information policy is needed to ensure that appropriate information is made available to the industry, policy makers, businessmen, bankers & other professionals (Uhegbu 2004)

• This shows that there is mutual interdependence between sectors in the formulation of national information policy (Bustamante 2007, Pajaro & Betancourt 2007).


3. Dynamic

• Information policy issues were presented, debated and developed dynamically since 1970s (Arnold 2007).

• Issues such as privacy, intellectual property rights and access to government information have been discussed and addressed since 1970s, while issues such as information /digital literacy, e-commerce and free speech are issues which began to be associated with information policy starting 2000 (Mokmin & Zawiyah 2008).

• Therefore, the information policy model need to show that the issues associated with it is dynamic in nature.

Integrated National Information Policy Model


Main components - Scientific & Technical Information

• The first sector of interest to researchers in the field of information policy (Lamberton, 1974). This cluster of information grows in tandem with the awareness of the importance of information to other fields, especially social, economy and government. Scholars who proposed this cluster are Lamberton 1974, Porat 1977, Brown 1983, Streotmann & Schwuchow 1992, Hill 1994, Kularatne 1998, Duff 2004, Chambers 2006, Bustamante 2007 and Pajaro & Betancourt 2007).

• Issues associated - integrated ICT infrastructure, the acquisition of electronic resources, improved services, communication with consumers and feedback, consumer education, cost effective use of resources, electronic library transactions and knowledge sharing.


Main components - Library

• In the early stage, the library serves as a provider of information to scientists and technical people. But with the development of ICT, the role of libraries as information providers is decreasing due to the introduction of ICT in daily life.

• Hence, to maintain its role as a provider, disseminator and maintainer of reliable and valid information, libraries need to adapt to the method of preparation, dissemination and maintenance by using ICT. The cluster were studied by Lamberton 1974, Porat 1977, Chartrand 1989, Eisenbeis 1989, Hill 1994, Rowlands 1996, Cornella 1998, Rowlands 1999, Rowlands et al. 2002, Arnold 2002, 2004, 2007, Library Association 2002, Smith 2004, Duff 2004, Chambers 2006, Bustamante 2007 and Pajaro & Betancourt 2007.

• Issues associated - cross-border data flows, the national information system, information experts and fields of employment, skills to use information, content distribution, laws relating to books, collection policies, use and distribution of data, national reading campaign, information retention, public access center, information sharing, national bibliographies, repository library, acquisition of foreign publication, digital archiving, availability of information & access to book


Main components - ICT

• ICT in the proposed model has two main roles, as an ‘enabler’ and as an economic 'sector' on its own. ICT is an enabler to libraries especially to the life cycle of information: the collection, distribution & retention of information.

• ICT is also an enabler to the development of technical and scientific information to the social, government and economy information cluster. Scholars who presented this study are Lamberton 1974, Porat 1977, Wesley-Tanaskovic 1985, Chartrand 1989, Montviloff 199, Hill 1994, Webster 1995, Nilsen 1997, Cornella 1998, Rowlands 1999, James 2001, Arnold 2004, Duff 2004, Henrici 2004, Moore 2005, Bustamante 2007 and Pajaro & Betancourt 2007.

• Issues associated - the infrastructure, group/information & communication technology, network & connectivity, IT for education, innovation & competition, computer crime and regulation, freedom of information & media, north/south gap, cost of access, pricing policy, international standards, information technology infrastructure standard, super computers & scientific networks, the convergence of technology, telecommunications, broadcasting & the Internet.


Main components - Social

• The development of information in the social field gave rise to issues especially the right to access information to ensure that citizens can carry out their social functions properly. Scholars who presented this cluster are Wesley-Tanaskovic 1985, Trauth 1986, Burger 1988, Overman & Cahill 1990, Muir & Oppenheim 2002 and Pajaro & Betancourt 2007.

• Issues related - privacy, policy related to informed society, traditional information protection policy including heritage and folk or traditional stories, and culture, data protection, comprehensive access, information/digital literacy, censorship, freedom of speech/right to communicate, social contract, information security, intellectual freedom, global village, information disclosure, tax & labor law, the right of assembly, quality of life, human rights, freedom of expression and the rate of illiteracy.


Main components - Government

• Generally, it is the government’s role to create, distribute and maintain information needed by the people. Therefore, the government must provide mechanisms to access these information easily and affordable to people. Scholars who presented this cluster are Lamberton 1974, Bushkin & Yurow 1979, Chartrand 1989, Eisenbeis 1989, Montviloff 1990, Hill 1994, Nilsen 1997, Cornella 1998, Rowlands 1999, Smith et al. 2000, Rowlands et al. 2002, Smith 2004 and Arnold 2007.

• Issues to be addressed - access to information, government information resources management, government information systems, integrity, validity and quality of information, the government secrets / national security, electronic government, statistics and mapping information policy, health information, government publications, policy process, electronic government, and security of personal information.


Main components - Economy

• Porat (1977) claimed that new issues arise when computers and telecommunications merged to form an 'information technology', eventually entering the economic sector. External effect of information technology on the economy should be given attention. Thus, as early as 1970s, Porat suggested that the information policy be developed specifically for supporting the information industry and was also supported by Rowlands 1996, Rowlands et al. 2002 and International Engineering Consortium 2007. Scholars who presented this cluster are Trauth 1986, Bortnick 1985, Hill 1994, Webster 1995, Henrici 2004, Moore 2005 and Arnold 2007.

• Issues related to this cluster are the intellectual property rights / information ownership, copyright, information and creative industries, information-based economy, national content, e-commerce, innovation, research and development and technology transfer, patent law, industry, agriculture and commerce, customer information, software and applications, software piracy, information technology industry, information value for economic competition, electronic fund transfer, business development, productivity and competition, trademarks, industrial property rights, trade secrets law, market information, and telecommunications industry.

• In addition to the clusters mentioned previously, other sectors that have the potential to become an information cluster are the agricultural (Pajaro & Betancourt 2007), tourism, international (Trauth 1986) and health (Pajaro & Betancourt 2007).


Other Components

• Education• To ensure effective and correct use of information in social

groups, government, economy, and others, universal values should be applied. The implementation of this universal values should be carried out through education, whether formal or informal to make it a culture within the community.

• Information Life Cycle• Each cluster undergoes information life cycle which begins

with planning, design, distribution, maintenance and disposal of information. Life cycle process of the underlying issues of each cluster generally resulted in the need for specific legislation.


Other Components

• Legislation• From the information life cycle of each sector will result in

the need to formulate new legislation or amendments to existing ones. For example, development of electronic information resources cause changes to privacy issues and lead to specific legislation being formulated or amended (Goodyear 1993).

• In the U.S., the importance of privacy is marked and protected by the Privacy Act (1974). According Rothfeder (1992), to ensure privacy, information policy should be changed by determining the owner and custodian of the information.

Library's Role in Information Policymaking

The development of a national information policy in the 1970's focused on the role of a national library and provision of access to information generated within the country (Arnold 2007). UNESCO led an international effort aimed at ensuring

access to information resources.

Matters relating to information policies should be the responsibility of the library (Kargbo 2007).

Library play an instrumental role in the information policymaking, especially national information policy (Gill 2001 & Kargbo 2007).

Rowlands (1999) established that the root of information is closely related to information and library science.


540 articles were published in information and library studies journals -

92 were articles in legal journals

32 in the field of public

administration

32 in political science

26 in the field of communication

studies,

24 in the social sciences

15 other articles were on

management and business

From a total of 771 articles related to information policy:

Library's role in information policymaking

Arnold (2007) explains that the national information policy published before1980's aims to regulate the "... creation, distribution and use information."

Gray (1988) claims there are two alternative approaches for making or policy formulation. Information policy based on the concept of "library" and the information policy based on the concept of "information".

The NATIS program, launched by UNESCO in 1974, is an example of using the information policy development library approach.


Owen, Cooke & Matthews 2012) report that the role of library and information professionals in the UK information policymaking is not changing

There is a strong suggestion that those working in knowledge and information field to be involved in information policymaking to make the policy information more focus on content rather heavily on technical issues.


In New Zealand, information and knowledge are considered holistically to constitute a national information policy (Smith 2002). Strong frameworks of law, convention, and policy exist and continue to develop, to ensure the persistent creation and use of information and knowledge.

Thus since 1980’s the national information policymaking has been asserted by certain elements in the library sector, and has been formally taken up by the professional association called LIANZA.

Though IT is always at the forefront in discussion about information policy, it is strongly felt that the content (information and knowledge) that should remain at the heart of consideration of national information policy.

This above evidences shows that the role of library and information professionals is important and crucial.

Conclusion

Although interest in ‘information’ has been available for the past 30 years, the development of an information policy has not been done systematically, only reactive when it comes to certain issues or pressure from authorities and interest groups.

However, the pressure received by the government on issues of information is not strong enough to allow for information policy development efforts to be structured.

Information professionals need to change their mindset in order to make their voice being heard by the government.

Conclusion

Even though the history of information policy shows a fragmentary approach, scholars in this field began calling for a coordinated information policy, since early 1970's. The Rockefeller report underscores the need for a national information policy to be coordinated.

According to Orna (2008), development of a national information policy should be coordinated centrally by an advisory committee, consisting of representatives from the private sector, local government, academics, and professionals from the discipline of Library and Information Science.

This proposal was established through the belief that the development of an information society should be based on information from the jurisdiction of Library and Information Science.

Conclusion

Countries need to be clear about the information that is produced, owned, and accessible. Information held should be organized.

ICT cannot be viewed as a solution to the management of information, but only as a tool to facilitate information management.

A technology-centred approach must be avoided. Experience shows that good information management provides many benefits and should remain as a top priority to the country. All of these need to be clearly stated in an national information policy.

Conclusion

Information Policy should be cross-discipline. Even though the country gives priority to ICT to accelerates nation development, information cannot be neglected.

Therefore, library and information sciences are particularly significant in the development of an information society, because society should be anchored by a strongly integrated information base.

The End

Thank you

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