Siu-Ming Tam Australian Bureau of Statistics Feb 2010 Emerging trends and ABS initiatives on data communication

Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra

Where we are located in the world

Emerging trends – personal observations NSOs are continually being asked to do more with less –New funding model required More NSOs are going “paper-less” and “price-less” Emerging Web and other technologies to improve communication –Social media –Data visualisation tools

Emerging trends Micro data files become important statistical output Losing grip on who the on-line customers/clients are –New methods of harnessing intelligence –Web Analytics Investing in Statistical literacy –Influencing curriculum development –Education resources World wide growing trend for open Govt and open access to PSI

Liberating ABS statistics for sharing, remixing and re-use - legally

Access to information: a key to open government  “Public access to government held information allows individuals to better understand the role of government and decisions being made on their behalf”

Growing movement for open Govt and access

Open access  Means  Free  Based on open standards  Freely reusable  Open licensing  grants permission to access, re-use and redistribute a work with few or no restrictions  change from “All rights reserved” to “Some rights reserved”

What is Creative Commons?  Offers “flexible copyright management tools for creative work”  Allows creators to choose the rights they pass on with their work   Becoming the default standard

Creative Commons  Four licence elements : 1.Attribution - attribute the author 2.Non-commercial - no commercial use 3.No Derivative Works – no changes allowed 4.Share alike – changes allowed, but only if you put the new work under the same licence  Elements combine to make up 6 licenses

Six types of CC licenses

 ABS adopted Creative Commons BY licence in Dec 2008 for on line stats  Extended to customised tables  User can:  freely use, re-use, change and distribute, even commercially  no limit to quantity of data Creative Commons widens the use of ABS statistics ABS only asks for acknowledgement as source of the data

Free access accelerates use  The ABS website averages 1.5 million page views per week  Took 5.5 years to double from 30 million page views to 60 million before 2005; and only 2 years to double after 2005

Open licensing encourages innovation Some examples –LobbyClue - relationships between govt organisations and businesses net.au/ net.au/ –Know where you live – how safe are your neighbourhoods app01/postcodes/view/2000

ABS has come a long way  From charged access to free access  From “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved” – ABS only requires “attribution” for the use of our statistics  Vital step in supporting democracy and in liberating ABS data for better decision making

ABS has come a long way… “The ABS move is … a very significant one for Australia …. in the international movement to provide public access to publicly funded resources.” - CC Australia – Dec 2008 Also, community reaction was very positive. PS Geoscience Australia has also adopted CC 2.5 Attribution Australia licence in December 2009.