Open Policy Network
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Contents
Overview
In 2011, CC was contacted by multiple institutions and governments seeking assistance to develop materials and strategies for open policies. The need for open policy support was amplified at the CC 2011 Global Summit in Warsaw, Poland. CC Affiliates from 35 countries called for a central hub where open policies could be shared and discussed. Without clearly defined support, open policies are significantly less likely to be introduced and adopted.
As open advocates recognize the potential for open policies to significantly increase the amount and quality of education, research and scientific resources and data, there is a pressing need to provide them support so they can successfully craft and implement open policies. A new Open Policy Institute could provide support to open advocates and governments exploring open policies.
Open policy requires unrestricted access and open licensing of resources financed through public and philanthropic funding in order to maximize the impact of the investment.
Open Policy (for governments) = publicly funded resources are openly licensed resources.
If we are going to unleash the power of hundreds of billions of dollars of publicly funded education, research and scientific resources, we need broad adoption of open policies. For the purposes of open policies that contribute to the public good, we define policy broadly as legislation, institutional policies, and/or funder mandates.
We have observed that current open policy efforts are decentralized, uncoordinated and insular; there is poor and/or sporadic information sharing. There are at least two major barriers that have prevented broad open policy adoption. (1) There is no organized support for open policy advocates and governments who want to learn about, craft, and implement open policies. (2) Existing policy makers typically don’t understand how open policies can increase the impact of public investments. The open community needs access to existing open policies, legislation, and action plans for how open policies were created, discussed and passed. Advocates need to know what barriers were encountered and how they were overcome, and because politics and opportunities are local, open advocates need support customizing an open policy solution and strategy.
If we get this simple idea right, open sustainability could cease to be an issue because: (a) there will be plenty of public funding to build and maintain all of the education, science, data, and other resources the world needs, and, (b) “open” becomes the default and “closed” becomes the exception for publicly funded resources.
Description and rationale
The Open Policy Network (OPN) supports the creation, adoption and implementation of open policies around the world. It does this by:
- mapping the open policy space across open sectors;
- identifying open policy gaps and opportunities within and across sectors;
- communicating the social and economic value of open policy;
- networking together those trying to develop open policies with organizations, communities and individuals who have open policy expertise; and
- curating case studies and open policy exemplars for others to use or adapt.
Open policies require unrestricted access to, and open licensing of, resources financed through public and philanthropic funding. Open policies can support science, data, education, libraries, galleries, archives, museums and other institutions through the efficient use and reuse of resources for the public good.
The adoption of open policies is hindered because most policy makers do not understand how 21st century technical and legal tools can be leveraged to significantly improve the effectiveness of investments in publicly funded resources. The global reach and increasing speed and bandwidth of the Internet; the decreasing cost of hardware and near zero costs of digital storage, copying and distribution; open licensing, and the popularity of mobile devices is making accessibility to digital content universally possible.
When policy makers understand the power of open policies, they can avoid the lock-in of stale frameworks and existing financial models, so they can maximize the positive societal impact of publicly funded resources.
Mission
Version 1
The mission of the Open Policy Network is to foster the development and implementation of open policies and practices that advance the public good by supporting open policy advocates and organizations, connecting open policy opportunities with assistance, and sharing open policy information.
Version 2
The mission of the Open Policy Network is to support open advocates and organizations’ open policy work that advance the public good. The OPN connects open policy opportunities to existing open advocates and organizations who can fulfill open policy opportunities by providing information, resources and advice.
Guiding principles
The OPN will operate under a set of guiding principles to fulfill its mission:
- The OPN will connect open policy opportunities to expert open advocates and organizations who want to provide assistance and support.
- The OPN will not attempt to provide redundant services and resources that are already being addressed and managed by existing open advocates and organizations.
- The OPN will identify and build open policy resources and/or services only where capacity and expertise does not currently exist, by providing needed resources, information and advice.
- The OPN will provide a baseline level of assistance for all open policy opportunities as they arise, to ensure that no policy opportunity goes unfulfilled.
- The OPN will link to, catalog and curate existing and new open policy resources from around the world in support of open policy advocates and organizations.
- All content produced by the OPN will be licensed CC BY. All data generated by OPN will be CC0.
Governance
We’ve already heard from some participants at the Oct 4 meeting that perhaps “institute” is not the best way to characterize this group. At this time, we’re thinking about calling this initiative the “Open Policy Network.” The term “network” seems to better reflect the activities, mission and principles the group discussed.
Other potential names:
- Open Policy Institute (critique: “institute” is typically a think tank; we want this work to be more active)
- Open Policy Hub (critique: implies spoke and hub model, when the players here are more distributed)
- Open Policy Center (critique: too centralized)
- Open Policy Network (have received positive feedback)
- Open Policy Coalition (critique: imply exclusion and time limited)
- Open Policy Working Group (critique: time limited, suggests limitation to information flow only)
- Open Policy Task Force (critique: time limited)
- Open Policy Global Network (critique: is “global” describer needed?)
We foresee the OPN to be comprised of interested individuals, organizations, and potentially companies who support the mission and principles of the OPN. One idea is to have a 10-person rotating council, who will be responsible for providing direction and making administrative decisions for the OPN. As mentioned above, OPN will operate in a manner respectful of sensitivities to existing messaging / communities / business models of the participating organizations.
Priority services and resources
These priority services and resources would be identified (if existing) or created (if not) across various sectors, possibly including: Open Science, Open Data, Open Educational Resources (including OCW & open textbooks), Open Access, Open GLAM, and Open Software. Should an organization not wish to be listed on the OPN or be alerted when there is an open policy opportunity in its “sector,” the OPN will respect the organization’s wishes.
First tier:
- implementation kit with slides and talking points
- consulting / mentoring / networking
- data driven research: curating what exists into policy briefs, identifying gaps, synthesize reports
- evaluation of existing policies / laws & policies documented in ROARMAP, OER Policy Registry, etc.
- Media / PR work
Second tier:
- develop model open policies and bills
- OPN fellows
- graduate students
- business school “open” competitions
- meetings / convenings
- education / training; link to School of Open, webinars, conference presentations
Funding
We did not discuss funding for the OPN at the Oct 4 meeting. CC has allocated (pending Board approval) a small amount of staff time and resources to support the launch phase of the OPN, but more resources will be needed for the OPN to thrive. CC is willing to help explore additional funding, and can act as fiscal agent if useful. Alternatively, CC is happy to partner with other organizations interested in helping to secure funding and managing finances for the OPN.
Another piece to consider is how to address advocacy and grassroots / direct lobbying especially with regard to funding restrictions from foundations. It might be helpful to have a pool of unrestricted funds that could be used for lobbying should such an open policy opportunity arise. This should be discussed in detail given the sensitive nature of the topic.
