Legal Aspects of Public Sector Information (LAPSI)

Basic data for this project

Description

Information generated and collected by public sector entities represents a veritable minefield; itmight make a much greater contribution to EU economies and societies, if current legalbarriers to access and re-user were removed. The LAPSI project will deal both with establishedPSI areas (geographic, land register data, etc.) as well as novel areas (cultural data fromarchives, libraries, scientific information, etc.) and environmental figures and data sets. Legalbarriers to access and re-use and strategies to overcome them shall be considered from theperspectives of information, IP, privacy and competition law; in addition it will deal withadministrative, environmental law and public procurement rules. The proposal brings togetherpartners belonging to research institutions which have made substantial contributions in therelevant fields, as well as a number of crucial stakeholders, from a large number of EUjurisdictions. The debate is to be organized around four focal points: (1)implementation anddeployment issues; (2)design of the incentives for public bodies and private players, both in thefor-profit and non-profit sectors, to make available and, respectively, to re-use public data;(3)special consideration of infra- and supra-national levels of access and re-use policies andpractices, intended to enlist the dynamic forces of regulatory competition and to bring out thefull potential of cross-border, EU-wide services; and (4)strategic vision and occasions forout-of-the box thinking for the next steps ahead in policy making. The discussion will beorganized around cycles of seminars and conferences, intended to foster debate among theresearches and players in the field, which will be complemented by dissemination exerciseslinked to it (primers) and awareness-raising events and contests. The network activity is toproduce a set of policy guidelines that will help all interested stakeholders in their access andreuse policies and practices.