eGovernment Unit

Crown copyright user testing

In an interesting and timely post John Sheridan takes a look at Crown copyright at the OPSI blog Perspectives.

One of the key findings of the Power of Information Taskforce is that Crown copyright needs to be easier for people to understand. With recommendation 12 of their report the taskforce called on OPSI (Office of Public Sector Information) to “begin a communications campaign to re-present and improve understanding of the permissive aspects of Crown Copyright along the lines of creative commons by end June 2009”. In particular we were asked to give consideration to the use of symbols and other visual ways of representing re-use conditions. The idea of a “Crown Commons” brand was also mooted in discussion on the draft report as the government equivalent to creative commons.

So, we wanted to better understand what we are up against. Are we inadvertently deterring people from re-using government information? What do people really understand about copyright and Crown copyright more specifically? Do symbols help? Can we just switch to using creative commons licences and everyone will magically understand?

To come up with some answers we commissioned a piece of user testing. If you took part in the online survey we did for this project a couple of months ago, thank you for your time and effort. We’re publishing the results here in full, so people with an interest in the topic can read what we learnt and comment on the results. We were staggered to have almost 1,500 survey responses. There are certainly some startling conclusions – such as the comparative softening effect adding the word “Crown” has on the word “copyright”. We were also surprised about people’s understanding of creative commons and the usefulness of the iconography.

Anyway here are the results:

• Crown copyright user testing (PDF - 1224K)
• Crown copyright user testing (ODP - 2682K)
• Crown copyright user testing (PPS - 3040k)

Link: Perspectives

So, we wanted to better understand what we are up against. Are we inadvertently deterring people from re-using government information? What do people really understand about copyright and Crown copyright more specifically? Do symbols help? Can we just switch to using creative commons licences and everyone will magically understand?

To come up with some answers we commissioned a piece of user testing. If you took part in the online survey we did for this project a couple of months ago, thank you for your time and effort. We’re publishing the results here in full, so people with an interest in the topic can read what we learnt and comment on the results. We were staggered to have almost 1,500 survey responses. There are certainly some startling conclusions – such as the comparative softening effect adding the word “Crown” has on the word “copyright”. We were also surprised about people’s understanding of creative commons and the usefulness of the iconography.

Anyway here are the results:

• Crown copyright user testing (PDF - 1224K)
• Crown copyright user testing (ODP - 2682K)
• Crown copyright user testing (PPS - 3040k)

Link: Perspectives

European Council: moving to open source desktops will not result in savings

The European Council says migrating the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Court of Auditors to open source desktops will not decrease budgetary costs.

The Council, in answers to written questions by the Italian Member of the European Parliament Marco Cappato, on 19 April referred to estimates made in 2005 by a working group from these three institutes, that moving to open source would cost them 76.4 million euro.

The working group says these costs include for instance the hiring of extra IT engineers to help with the migration, training of and support for end-users, converting all office application macros and untangling the complex mix of applications dependent on Microsoft Office or the Microsoft operating system.

The group adds: "It is clear that, at present, a possible mass-migration of PCs to open source offers no new functionality to the end users."

The working group writes it is difficult to estimate the financial benefits of moving to open source. "Given that the institutions spend about 6.2 million euro per on Microsoft licences and assuming that the cost of maintaining open source is about a third of these licence costs, it would take 36.7 years to amortise these cost."

However, the working group also writes that moving to open source would allow the institutions to regain control over their IT environment and would help them to avoid vendor lock-in. "It could be argued that moving to open source would be the best commercial and technological thing to do."

Link: osor.eu

Family Fun Day At Stormont

This years Family Fun Day, in support of Children in Need and sponsored by DID, is to take place on the Stormont Estate, Belfast, on Monday 25th of May.

It promises to be an action packed day of fun and frolics, with such attractions as trampolining and giant slides, crazy golf and clay pigeon shooting.

The event will be well supported by the catering industry with everything from bangers and mash to gourmet sandwiches on offer.

Environmental groups are well represented, with exhibitions from The Ulster Wildlife Trust, the Woodlands Trust and many, many more.

So come along for a good family day out. Kids and bears particularly welcome.

You can download the full programme below:

Download Family Fun Day 1 

UK Government Levels Playing Field For Open Source Procurement

The Cabinet Office has released an interesting document which it says will put open source software onto an equal footing with proprietary forms for procurement.

Announcing it, Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson said: ""Open Source software is a not a cure-all remedy and is not the only solution to IT questions. However, by levelling the playing field and allowing Open Source to be as competitive as possible we can ensure that taxpayers get maximum value for money from Government IT, something that is more important than ever during the worldwide financial climate."

Link: The Guardian

Venezuela takes Intel Classmate for kids

Venezuela is ordering one million low cost laptops for its school children.

The machines will be based on the Intel Classmate laptop that has been designed for school children and will run a version of Linux developed in Venezuela.

Many see the deal as a blow for the One Laptop Per Child organisation that has also been touting its child-friendly machine to developing nations.

Link: BBC