Here’s an innovative approach to the commercialisation of government data and publications: a U.S. not-for-profit is asking consumers to order their government documents, data and video through them. Public.Resource.Org will then seed those documents online, making them available to everyone.

I don’t know if this approach will be viable around the globe. Apparently, the U.S. government does not retain copyright on its publications. In Canada, many agencies retain Crown copyright and nominally require that permission be secured before their doucments are duplicated.

 Pointer from MarginalRevolution.

The Power of Information report is in. I’m slowly reading through it, but I’ll give you some highlights from the fifteen recommendations for action by the British Government:

• coordinate the development of experimental partnerships between major departments and user-generated sites in key policy areas, including parenting advice, services for young people, and healthcare.
• departments should be strongly advised to consult the operators and users of pre-existing user-generated sites before they build their own versions.
• research the scale and role of user-generated websites in their areas, with a view to either terminating government services that are no longer required, or modifying them to complement citizen-led endeavours.
• examine the introduction of non-commercial re-use licences.
• by autumn 2007 the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics and Government Communications teams should together clarify how civil servants should respond to citizens seeking government advice and guidance online.

The full document is available at the Cabinet Office site.