Speaker
Iryna Kuchma
(EIFL)
Description
As open advocates, organizations and policy makers recognize the potential for open policies to significantly increase the amount and quality of publicly funded research, education, data, and software, there is a pressing need to provide them support so they can successfully create, adopt and implement open policies – legislation, institutional policies, and/or funder mandates.
The Open Policy Network (OPN) does this by:
- mapping the open policy space across open sectors;
- identifying open policy gaps and opportunities within and across sectors;
- communicating the social and economic value of open policy;
- networking together those trying to develop open policies with
organizations, communities and individuals who have open policy
expertise;
- and curating case studies and open policy exemplars for others to use or adapt.
OPN facilitates access to existing open policies, legislation, and action plans for how open policies were created, discussed and passed. Advocates are provided with an advice on what barriers were encountered and how they were overcome, and because politics and opportunities are local, open advocates receive support customizing an open policy solution and strategy. This helps to create a more efficient and sustainable system for publicly funded scholarly research, educational resources, data, and software.
The OPN is a collaboration and set of coordination actions of its members and not a formal legal entity in any jurisdiction. It is a coalition of individuals, organizations, and other entities who have mutually agreed to the OPN Membership Terms. The current membership includes 49 organizations, among them such organizations as American Library Association, Centrum Cyfrowe (Poland), CLACSO-Latin American Council of Social Sciences, Creative Commons, EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries), Fundación Karisma (Columbia), Harvard Open Access Project (HOAP), OER Africa, OER Foundation, Open Access Button, Open Education Consortium, Open Knowledge, Open University of Tanzania, SPARC and UNESCO Knowledge Societies Division among many others.
We invite other organizations to join the OPN and share information related to open policies. The OPN is here to help you create, adopt and implement open policies.
OPN will:
- Connect policy makers and other interested parties to expert open policy advocates and organizations who are able to provide assistance and support when open policy opportunities arise.
- Identify and build new open policy resources and/or services only where capacity and expertise does not currently exist, by providing needed resources, information and advice.
- Provide a baseline level of assistance for open policy opportunities as they arise, to ensure no open policy opportunity goes unfulfilled.
- Link to, catalog and curate existing and new open policies and open policy resources from around the world.
- Connect open policy advocates and organizations on a listserv and monthly phone conference to maximize knowledge transfer and cooperation.
- Build new constituencies and advocates in support of open policies.
- Operate in a manner respectful of member organizations’ existing messaging, communities and business models.
- Release all content produced by the OPN under CC BY and data under CC0, in a fully transparent manner on the OPN web site.
- Release all content produced by the OPN, including the OPN website, under multiple languages.
Creative Commons is also developing an Institute for Open Leadership (IOL) to train new leaders in education, science, and public policy fields on the values and implementation of openness in licensing, policies, and practices. By training new leaders, connecting them to each other and helping them complete their first capstone open project in their institution, we will prepare them to guide emerging movements in open science, open education, open government, and open culture.
**Contacts**
opn@creativecommons.org, [https://openpolicynetwork.org/][1]
Twitter: [twitter.com/openpolicynet][2]
Facebook: [facebook.com/OpenPolicyNetwork][3]
Google+ Community: [plus.google.com/u/0/communities/117696900540788246022][4]
Google Group: [groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/open-policy-network][5]
[1]: https://openpolicynetwork.org/
[2]: http://twitter.com/openpolicynet
[3]: http://facebook.com/OpenPolicyNetwork
[4]: http://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/117696900540788246022
[5]: http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/open-policy-network
Primary author
Iryna Kuchma
(EIFL)
