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Cuts to CISTI mean less access to Science Data

March 17, 2009 in academia, Access, canada, datasets, federal government, geo, infrastructure, open access, science by Tracey | 1 comment

Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) is

Canada’s national science library and leading scientific publisher, provides Canada’s research and innovation community with tools and services for accelerated discovery, innovation and commercialization.

CISTI delvers science data and information to Canadians online, in the Depository Service and as paper delivery service to researchers in Universities.  But its days of doing that are numbered…

CISTI has just suffered very serious budget cuts – 70% cut – that affects scientific innovation, access to scientific data, the dissemination of Canadian Science and open access publishing.

The Government of Canada and the National Research Council of Canada have decided that the journals and services of NRC Research Press will be transferred to the private sector.

Privatization? In a sense they are a victim of their own success.  The NRC frames it as follows in a letter to their clients (e.g. Depository Service Program):

this transformation is not the development of a “new business” but the movement of a successful program into a new legal and business environment. It is our belief that this new environment will afford us more flexibility to manage our publishing activities.

More flexibility to reduce services to Canadians more like it since the Depository Services Program (DSP) and the delivery of online access to journals to Canadians cannot be funded by an entity outside of the Federal government, and it is expected that the termination date to journals delivered in this way will be sometime in 2010.

This means less access to scientific journals to Canadians. Research Canadians have paid for!  CISTI journals deposited in the DSP were important, since the DSP’s:

primary objective is to ensure that Canadians have ready and equal access to federal government information. The DSP achieves this objective by supplying these materials to a network of more than 790 libraries in Canada and to another 147 institutions around the world holding collections of Canadian government publications.

In addition, hundreds of government jobs – scientists, librarians and researchers are expected to be lost.  The budget cut is $35 million in annual expenditures.

This plan includes a reduction in NRC’s a-base funding totalling $16.8 million per year by 2011-2012 (announced in Budget 2009) as well as reductions in revenue-generating activities.

Hmm! Wonder what our current Federal Minister of State for Science and Technology’s thoughts are about science?

Here are a couple of articles:

Actions:

Here are a few articles:

  • NRC cuts could affect 300 positions, The Ottawa Citizen
  • Access to CISTI Source to End

    • Action:

    Obama vs Harper on Technology

    November 7, 2008 in canada, federal government, government, international, open access, openmovement, R&D, science by Hugh | Permalink

    President-elect Obama & his team have a pretty firm grasp on technology it seems, with particularly exciting interest in opening government to transparency on the web. This is pretty exciting stuff. See how he has articulated the problems facing the US and technology leadership:

    The Problem

    We need to connect citizens with each other to engage them more fully and directly in solving the problems that face us. We must use all available technologies and methods to open up the federal government, creating a new level of transparency to change the way business is conducted in Washington and giving Americans the chance to participate in government deliberations and decision-making in ways that were not possible only a few years ago.

    America risks being left behind in the global economy: Revolutionary advances in information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and other fields are reshaping the global economy. Without renewed efforts, the United States risks losing leadership in science, technology and innovation. As a share of the Gross Domestic Product, American federal investment in the physical sciences and engineering research has dropped by half since 1970.

    Too many Americans are not prepared to participate in a 21st century economy: A recent international study found that U.S. students perform lower on scientific assessments than students in 16 other economically developed nations, and lower than 20 economically developed nations in math performance. Only one-third of middle class physical science teachers are qualified to teach in that subject, and only one-half of middle school math sciences have educational background in that subject area. [more…]

    Among the the solutions proposed, here are a few of the headings:

    • Protect the Openness of the Internet
    • Encourage Diversity in Media Ownership
    • Safeguard our Right to Privacy
    • Open Up Government to its Citizens
    • Bring Government into the 21st Century

    It goes on. I have not read in detail, but just about everything I have read I applaud. What actually happens is a different matter, but at least there is a vision outlined, and specific policies, almost all of which I cheer loudly.

    Compared with the sad state of tech leadership in Canada. I could not even find a true technology platform from the Harper’s Conservatives (I’ve emailed his office to ask, but could someone point me to one?). Here’s the best thing I found, a grocery list of tech investments.

    Conservatives invest in cutting-edge computer research

    Prime Minister Stephen Harper reiterated his promise that a re-elected Conservative Government will invest in scientific research and development to help create jobs and to help Canada reach its potential to be a world leader in science and technology.

    “Our government has invested over $9 billion in scientific research and development to create the next generation of well-paying, high-tech jobs,” the Prime Minister said.

    Today, the Prime Minister announced that a re-elected Conservative Government will provide a $50-million grant to the Institute of Quantum Computing, located at the University of Waterloo. The Institute is a world leader in research and teaching in the field of quantum information, a discipline that could lead to new technologies and new jobs.

    Since 2006, the Conservative Government has invested in a variety of leading-edge science and technology projects last year, including:

    * $510 million to the Canadian Foundation for Innovation to support the modernization of Canada’s research infrastructure.
    * $350 million to support leading Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research.
    * An additional $100 million to Genome Canada for research and technology.
    * Funding for research on key priorities, such as health sciences, energy, information and communications. [more…]

    The Problem: Canada does not have a technology strategy.

    40th Canadian Federal Election Results 2008

    October 15, 2008 in Access, canada, dataviz, federal government, geo, maps by Tracey | Permalink

    I was looking for maps all night on the Tele!  None appeared so I came home and found a few.   I wonder if the cost and license restrictions of the actual electoral boundary file was an issue for television networks and the media.  The only institution that provided a map with ridings was CBC. The rest were visualizations or shell maps of provinces and territories.

    The CBC maps were interactive, with roll overs pop ups and some zooming capabilities!  As I predicted before seeing the maps, multicoloured areas are urban, west is blue with some patches of orange, centre is orange, east is baby blue, with some patches of red and blue, and all those country ridings are tory blue!  And Ottawa, which I did not predict, is surrounded by blue, with one orange and 2 reds!  Ontario, well, it is awfully blue!  Kinda fun to look around to see what is up!

    CyberPresse has a pretty interesting visualization!  One cannot see the real geographic distribution of the results but it remains a creative and interactive way to see the votes!  As you scroll over the little squares a pop up window shows the results!  At a glance a user can see the number of seats per province and then look at the littles squares and their colours, this was perhaps a little less effective but I guess they were struggling with screen real estate and access to a base map.

    CTV had a pretty rudimentary map of the provinces and territories.  If you click on the province you get a window of the ridings and a rather garish obtrusive list of ridings that blocks the map.  You select the riding and then you get the results of the province in a table but not a geographic distribution of results by riding.  The map is then left at the bottom of the page all lonely with not much information associated with it.

    The Globe and Mail also had an interactive map but again just a shell with the provinces and territories like CTV example above, with a small bit of scroll over action that yields a pop up window and the left pane changing on the right.  Informative but not the big picture of the country like a map with all the ridings.

    Finally there is our national institution, Elections Canada!  A few minutes ago it had no results! Oh My!  No maps, and not the most intersting way to access the info. I wonder if they will ever produce a map?  Will it be more than a static PDF? Since they own the base file you’d think they could do a little something with that monopoly access?  Or perhaps because Statistics Canada sells that for them they also have some sort of dissemination restrictions.

    Do Candidates Believe in Open?

    September 25, 2008 in campaigns, canada, canadian projects, federal government, government, openmovement, projects, web by Hugh | Permalink

    ibelieveinopenVisiblegovernment.ca has launched a new site, ibelieveinopen, asking candidates (and citizens) to take a pledge for openness:

    I believe candidates should:

    • Support reforms that increase government transparency and accountability.
    • Make campaign promises specific and measurable, and report progress on promises and their metrics at least semi-annually.
    • Publish the content of his or her daily schedule, including meetings with lobbyists and special interest groups.
    • Support reforms allowing free access to scientific and survey data gathered by government institutions.
    • Support reforms that make it easier for Canadians to obtain government information they have a right to know.

    As of today, there are 51 candidate pledges (29 Greens, 21 NDP, and 1 Libera)l.

    You might consider sending your candidates an email asking them if they intend to take the pledge. This is what I sent to my candidates:

    Hello,

    Will [Candidate Name] be signing this pledge?
    http://ibelieveinopen.ca/

    51 candidates have done so already.

    Hugh McGuire

    Crown Copyright – Who benefits?

    May 12, 2008 in canada, federal government, government by Hugh | Permalink

    Michael Geist has a new post about crown copyright, including all the good arguments that it should be killed. But this gem really takes the cake:

    Beyond the policy reasons for abandoning crown copyright, internal government documents reveal other concerns. Financially, the federal crown copyright system costs taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Documents from Public Works and Government Services Canada, which administers the crown copyright system, reveal that in the 2006-7 fiscal year, crown copyright licensing generated less than $7,000 in revenue, yet the system cost over $200,000 to administer.

    Not only does crown copyright mean citizens face unnecessary restrictions on use of government data and documents they paid for with their taxes, it ALSO means that they have to pay EXTRA to not have free access to the data & documents. (Though note, both 7k and 200k are drops in the bucket of federal budgets). But still, if it’s a money suck as well as everything else, what’s the point of it? Here’s one answer:

    For example, an educational institution request to reproduce a photo of a Snowbird airplane was denied on the grounds that the photo was to be used for an article raising questions about the safety of the program. Similarly, a request to reproduce a screen capture of the NEXUS cross-border program with the U.S. was declined since it was to be used in an article that would not portray the program in a favourable light. Although it seems unlikely that crown copyright authorization was needed to use these images, the government’s decision to deny permission smacks of censorship and misuse of Canadian copyright law.

    Does anyone have any compelling arguments in favour of crown copyright?

    [thanks Sara!]

    feds kill info access registry

    May 5, 2008 in canada, federal government, government, policy by Hugh | Permalink

    OTTAWA–The federal Conservatives have quietly killed a giant information registry that was used by lawyers, academics, journalists and ordinary citizens to hold government accountable.The registry, created in 1989, is an electronic list of every request filed to all federal departments and agencies under the Access to Information Act.Known as CAIRS, for Co-ordination of Access to Information Requests System, the database allowed ordinary citizens to identify millions of pages of once-secret documents that became public through individual freedom-of-information requests over many years…

    Alasdair Roberts, a political scientist at Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in New York, built a version of the database by requesting the CAIRS electronic records through an Access to Information Act request, and updated the site monthly. CBC journalist David McKie took over the work in 2006 using another publicly accessible website (http://www.onlinedemocracy.ca).

    Articles & Posts about this issue:

    canada & electric cars

    May 3, 2008 in canada, federal government, infrastructure by Hugh | Permalink

    From the economist, with the emphasis added:

    IN THESE times of high petrol prices and worries about climate change, you might think that any country would be proud to enjoy a lead in manufacturing electric cars. Not Canada, it seems. Two Canadian companies, ZENN Motor Company and Dynasty Electric Car, make small electric cars designed for city use; a third, which will use new battery technology developed by Exxon Mobil, plans to launch a model later this year.

    But almost all these “low-speed vehicles” (or LSVs) are exported to the United States because Canada refuses to allow their use on public roads. Transport Canada, the regulatory agency, questions their safety. It doubts they would stand up in a collision with a delivery truck or a sport utility vehicle. Officials say they crash-tested one which didn’t fare well, though they refuse to release the data. The agency wants LSVs confined to “controlled areas”, such as university campuses, military bases, parks and Canada’s few gated communities. Its advice has carried weight with the provinces, which make the rules of the road

    [more…]

    INDU Submissions – Open access to data and research!

    April 23, 2008 in Access, canada, federal government, government, infrastructure, open access, R&D by Tracey | Permalink

    I was reading some of the web accessible INDU submissions by Canadian groups and individuals posted on Michael Geist’s Blog, and a common theme is open & free access to data and scientific research! Very Niiiiice!

    You can access them and M. Geist’s here: Industry Committee on Canada’s Science and Technology Strategy

    INDU Brief – Study on Canadian Science and Technology

    April 18, 2008 in Access, canada, federal government, government, infrastructure, open access, R&D by Tracey | Permalink

    I submitted a brief to the Study on Canadian Science and Technology of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.

    I include items on data access, preservation, dissemination, the lack of a data and information infrastructure or vision, the lack of a Science Foundation for Canada and a small mention of community wireless networks.  I also briefly discuss the importance of public participation on these issues.

    ParlVu

    March 20, 2008 in Access, canada, federal government, government by Tracey | Permalink

    ParlVu is apparently bringing Parliament to your desktop! Well then! It seems like you can access live feeds of meetings in progress while access to

    archived audio files are only accessible to those within the parliamentary Intranet (members, senators, press gallery, and staff within the parliamentary precinct).   I am told eventually they will be made accessible to the public, but no idea when.   If you`re willing to contact someone with access to ParlVu archives you could hear it.   Otherwise, ParlVu is a tool for a live feed. (email correspondence from a helpful clerk)

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