Information access
Encyclopedia
Information access is a term used to describe an area of research at the intersection of informatics
, Information Science
, Information Security
, Language Technology
, Computer Science
, and library science
.
The objective of the various research efforts in information access is to simplify and effectivise for human users to access and further process large and unwieldy amounts of data and information.
Technologies applicable to the general area are e.g. Information Retrieval
, Text Mining
, Machine Translation
, and text categorisation.
In discussions on free access to information and on information policy, information access is understood as concerning ensuring free and closed access to information
. Information access covers many issues such as copyright
, open source
, privacy
, and security
.
Provision was made in copyright
and patent law for information in the public domain
. However the extent of the public domain has been under attack in recent years, as database vendors expand the copyright and contract laws to eliminate concepts such as fair use
. UCITA, the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act
has been defeated in most jurisdictions, but restrictions on the public domain still exist in more recent laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA).
Librarians have always advocated for free and open access to government information. Groups such as the American Library Association
, the American Association of Law Libraries, Ralph Nader
's Taxpayers Assets Project have advocated for free access to legal information
. The vendor neutral citation movement in the legal field is working to ensure that courts will accept citations
from cases on the web which do not have the traditional (copyrighted) page numbers from the West Publishing company. There is a worldwide Free Access to Law Movement
which advocates free access to legal information. The Wired Magazine Article Who Owns The Law is a good introduction to the access to legal information issue.
Post 9-11
acts such as the Patriot Act, in the interest of security
has led to restrictions on access to certain types of information as well as an increased government attempts at surveillance of individual's private
information, such as their library records.
takes a freedom based approach to software development and maintenance. The free software movement has impacted areas such as software and free access to scholarly journals
. Lawrence Lessig
, himself a board member of Free Software Foundation
advocates free software and argues that computer code can regulate conduct in much the same way that legal codes do.
Informatics (academic field)
Informatics is the science of information, the practice of information processing, and the engineering of information systems. Informatics studies the structure, algorithms, behavior, and interactions of natural and artificial systems that store, process, access and communicate information...
, Information Science
Information science
-Introduction:Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information...
, Information Security
Information security
Information security means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording or destruction....
, Language Technology
Language technology
Language technology is often called human language technology or natural language processing and consists of computational linguistics and speech technology as its core but includes also many application oriented aspects of them. Language technology is closely connected to computer science and...
, Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, and library science
Library science
Library science is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the...
.
The objective of the various research efforts in information access is to simplify and effectivise for human users to access and further process large and unwieldy amounts of data and information.
Technologies applicable to the general area are e.g. Information Retrieval
Information retrieval
Information retrieval is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational databases, and the World Wide Web...
, Text Mining
Text mining
Text mining, sometimes alternately referred to as text data mining, roughly equivalent to text analytics, refers to the process of deriving high-quality information from text. High-quality information is typically derived through the devising of patterns and trends through means such as...
, Machine Translation
Machine translation
Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the abbreviation MT is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another.On a basic...
, and text categorisation.
In discussions on free access to information and on information policy, information access is understood as concerning ensuring free and closed access to information
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
. Information access covers many issues such as copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
, open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
, privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
, and security
Security
Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...
.
Provision was made in copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
and patent law for information in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
. However the extent of the public domain has been under attack in recent years, as database vendors expand the copyright and contract laws to eliminate concepts such as fair use
Fair use
Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
. UCITA, the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act
Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act
Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act was an attempt to introduce a Uniform Act for US States to follow. As a model law, it only specifies a set of guidelines, and each of the States should decide if to pass it or not, separately. UCITA has been drafted by National Conference of...
has been defeated in most jurisdictions, but restrictions on the public domain still exist in more recent laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization . It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to...
(DMCA).
Librarians have always advocated for free and open access to government information. Groups such as the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
, the American Association of Law Libraries, Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
's Taxpayers Assets Project have advocated for free access to legal information
Legal research
Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. In its broadest sense, legal research includes each step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a problem and concludes with the application and...
. The vendor neutral citation movement in the legal field is working to ensure that courts will accept citations
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
from cases on the web which do not have the traditional (copyrighted) page numbers from the West Publishing company. There is a worldwide Free Access to Law Movement
Free Access to Law Movement
The Free Access to Law Movement is the umbrella name for the collective of legal projects across several common law countries to provide free online access to legal information such as case law and legislation. The movement began in 1992 with the creation of the Cornell Law School Legal Information...
which advocates free access to legal information. The Wired Magazine Article Who Owns The Law is a good introduction to the access to legal information issue.
Post 9-11
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
acts such as the Patriot Act, in the interest of security
Security
Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...
has led to restrictions on access to certain types of information as well as an increased government attempts at surveillance of individual's private
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
information, such as their library records.
Links to free software
Free software takes the approaches of openly accessible information and applies them to software code. Based on the tenets of open information practices, free and open source softwareFree and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
takes a freedom based approach to software development and maintenance. The free software movement has impacted areas such as software and free access to scholarly journals
Academic publishing
Academic publishing describes the subfield of publishing which distributes academic research and scholarship. Most academic work is published in journal article, book or thesis form. The part of academic written output that is not formally published but merely printed up or posted is often called...
. Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence "Larry" Lessig is an American academic and political activist. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark, and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications, and he has called for state-based activism to promote substantive...
, himself a board member of Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
advocates free software and argues that computer code can regulate conduct in much the same way that legal codes do.
See also
- Freedom of information legislationFreedom of information legislationFreedom of information legislation comprises laws that guarantee access to data held by the state. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions...
- Action For Economic ReformsAction For Economic ReformsAction for Economic Reforms is a Philippine non-government organization engaged in research and advocacy. It was founded in 1996 by a group of progressive scholars and activists as an "independent, reform-oriented and activist policy group"....
(On access to information in the Philippines)
External links
- CRS Report - Access to Government Information in the United States
- Access to Information in the Philippines
- Information Access Alliance
- ALA- Access to Electronic Information, Services, and Networks
- Issues in Access to Information: A Bibliography
- The Information Society - The way to equitable globalisation and development? News reports and features by IPS Inter Press Service
- Information and Communication Technologies for Development and Poverty Reduction: The Potential of Telecommunications Edited by Maximo Torero and Joachim von Braun (2006), Johns Hopkins University Press
- Access to Information - The World Bank page