DOC Announces Creation of Chief Data Officer, Private Sector Advisory Council

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker announced that the Department of Commerce (DOC) is expanding its role as “America’s Data Agency” by hiring the first ever Chief Data Officer. The role of the new CDO will be to oversee improvements to data collection and dissemination, and to ensure that Commerce’s data programs are coordinated, comprehensive, and strategic. In coordination with the new CDO, the DOC will also soon create a data advisory council, comprised of private sector leaders, to advise the Department on how to best use and unleash more government data.

This announcement is a major step in the direction of meeting one of SIIA’s key policy priorities. As established in our 2013 paper on Data-Driven Innovation, , SIIA is a leading proponent of open data policies, to use public-private partnerships to provide access to critical public data, and to adopt enterprise architectures that enable sharing. Governments at all levels possess treasure troves of valuable data that have gone largely untapped for many years. More than ever before, citizens want access to government data, and they want it applied in innovative ways to which they are increasingly becoming accustomed.

Publication of European Commission “White Paper” on Copyright Delayed

The press report that a white paper on the future of copyright has been removed from the agenda of a meeting of European commissioners next week. The white paper, which is supposed to set out a roadmap for possible reform in the European Union, has elicited a great deal of interest among both pro-copyright and other stakeholders. Perhaps reflecting the current controversies surrounding copyright, Commissioner Barnier who is responsible for the Internal Market and Services, appears to have been outmaneuvered by the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Nellie Kroes.

Kroes delivered a widely discussed speech on July 2 called “Our single market is crying out for copyright reform.” Her speech has been widely viewed as an attempt to force the Commission’s hand to propose reforms that some observers would consider a weakening of copyright protections. Kroes, for instance, made it quite clear that she would favor a European Union-wide copyright exception for non-commercial text and data mining. And she noted that Japan has introduced a text and data mining exception that includes commercial use. There have been reports of leaked versions of the white paper which suggest that Barnier has taken a neutral approach to many of the issues that critics of copyright cite as ripe for reform. This is what observers believe prompted Kroes to deliver her July 2 speech calling for reform now.

As a practical matter, given that there will be a new Commission in October, copyright changes are not likely before 2015 at the earliest. Moreover, even if Kroes is considered the “winner” now in terms of stopping the white paper’s release, the white paper will likely still be the base document the next Commission uses to start considering possible copyright changes.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy. Follow the SIIA public policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPolicy.