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Realising the CoPI MANIFESTO
A Record of Progress to Date
September 1998
CoPI launched its Manifesto at its first AGM on 20 May 1997 and, following consultation, brought a revised version to its EGM on 10 November. Throughout the whole of that period and beyond, the Manifesto has guided Board members in their decisions on CoPI's priorities and in their responses to Government proposals and initiatives.
Looking back over progress in realising the CoPI Manifesto's aims, we can see many substantial achievements. We would certainly not claim credit for all of them - but in some instances we can undoubtedly see CoPI's hand at work.
But more remains to be done. We had hoped to be able to report here on the long promised Better Government white paper, but it has been delayed once again and is not now expected until the autumn. Nevertheless, CoPI's second AGM is an appropriate time to reflect on how much has changed since Charles Oppenheim first proposed the idea of a Coalition in May 1996.
The CoPI Manifesto expresses the belief that the pursuit of certain specific policies is essential if Government is to achieve its aim of ensuring that the rapidly developing information and communications infrastructure empowers commerce, community and individuals, so that they can participate fully in social, economic and democratic activity.
CoPI defines 'Public Information' as being any information that is either gathered at public expense or deemed to be in the public interest by relevant parties - this usually, but not always, means by government or for government purposes.
This record shows how far we have come in the last two and a half years.
| The CoPI Manifesto calls for ... | Progress to date ... | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Basic principles | ||
| 1 | Place greater policy emphasis on information content and communications, not just information technology and hardware. | May 1997 | CoPI Manifesto formally presented to members at AGM, with the emphasis laid on content rather than technology. |
| Dec 1997 | CoPI presents paper at Online Information 97 conference, assessing progress on public information provision. | ||
| Jul 1998 | At the CoPI/LIC Digital TV seminar, CITU Deputy Head Chris Holmes confirms Government content likely to be provided through trusted third party content aggregators - not through a Government channel. | ||
| Autumn 1998? | Better Government to promise further progress? | ||
| 2 | Permit all citizens to copy and disseminate all legislative, regulatory, judicial, consultative, advisory and other public documents. | May 1997 | Conservative Public Service Minister Roger Freeman had undertaken to look into Crown copyright prior to the General Election but ran out of time. |
| Dec 1997 | Dialog Corporation, FT Profile & Reuters jointly call in the Financial Times for free access to Government data. | ||
| Jan 1998 | Labour Public Service Minister David Clark publishes Crown Copyright in the Information Age, which proposes 7 options including centralising its administration, individual departmental copyright, partial waivers and outright abolition. | ||
| Mar 1998 | CoPI response to Crown Copyright in the Information Age recommends retention of Crown Copyright with extensive waivers for core public information, rejects individual Departmental copyright. | ||
| 3 | Remove the restrictions on access to and use of personal encryption technology. | Apr 1998 | Trade & Industry Minister Barbara Roche publishes proposals for secure electronic commerce Bill, including licensing of encryption software and legal recognition of electronic signatures. |
| II | Government communications with citizens | ||
| 4 | Create a public body to co-ordinate the online provision of public information. | Feb 1997 | CoPI presents views on government. direct to senior civil servants, who express concerns about loss of departmental autonomy and possible compromising of integrity of public documents. |
| Feb 1997 | CoPI response to government.direct calls for centrally co-ordinated selection of documents for inclusion, ease of navigation and efficient, flexible searching. | ||
| Apr 1997 | CoPI presents draft Manifesto to senior civil servants, who repeat concerns of Feb 1997 regarding possible compromising of public documents. | ||
| Oct 1997 | Library & Information Commission report New Library: the People's Network recommends central co-ordinating mechanism for information policy. | ||
| Dec 1997 | Dialog Corporation, FT Profile & Reuters jointly criticise requirement to strike licensing & publishing agreements with different Government Departments. | ||
| Apr 1998 | Government response to New Library: the People's Network, includes commitment to connect every public library to National Grid for Learning by 2002, asks LIC to establish Implementation Committee. | ||
| Jul 1998 | At CoPI/LIC Digital TV seminar, CITU Deputy Head Chris Holmes confirms Government content likely to be provided through third party content aggregators - not through a Government channel. | ||
| 5 | Draw up a specification for the online delivery of public information that reflects citizens' needs, not existing official structures. | Feb 1997 | CoPI presents views on government. direct to senior civil servants, who express concerns about loss of departmental autonomy and possible compromising of integrity of public documents. |
| Mar 1997 | Speaking at CoPI conference on Information and the Citizen, Conservative Public Service Minister Roger Freeman says new ways of delivering Government services will not necessarily recognise existing departmental boundaries. | ||
| Apr 1997 | CoPI presents draft Manifesto to senior civil servants, who repeat concerns of Feb 1997 regarding possible compromising of public documents. | ||
| Jun 1997 | Labour Public Service Minister David Clark repeats his Conservative predecessor's remarks about new Government services not necessarily recognising existing departmental boundaries. | ||
| Sep 1997 | Letter to CoPI from Cabinet Office Freedom of Information Unit confirms David Clark's commitment to restructuring public information, but indicates Government still thinking in terms of document dump, not proper navigation or indexing. | ||
| Dec 1997 | Labour Public Service Minister David Clark publishes Your Right To Know: the Government's Proposals for a Freedom of Information Act and tells the Independent that there is no need for Departments to set up catalogues or indices of the information they hold. | ||
| Dec 1997 | Six Government bodies adopt Citizen's Charter Standard Statement for Geographic Information, setting out standards of good practice. | ||
| Jan 1998 | David Clark launches People's Panel to consult on improvements in public service delivery, including use of IT. | ||
| Jan 1998 | CoPI meets representatives of CITU (NI) & BIDS to discuss Northern Ireland Government Web pages. | ||
| Feb 1998 | CoPI response to Your Right to Know urges straightforward access routes to information for the public, requiring only minimum understanding of government. | ||
| May 1998 | CITU (NI) & Dialog Corporation meet directly, with CoPI as observer. | ||
| 6 Set a target of a quarter of all routine transactions between government and citizens being electronic by 2002. | Mar 1997 | Commitment to this target given by Conservative Public Service Minister Roger Freeman at CoPI's Information and the Citizen conference. | |
| Sep 1997 | Labour Public Service Minister David Clark announces electronic form filling pilots nationwide by end of year. | ||
| Oct 1997 | Prime Minister Tony Blair repeats commitment on electronic transactions at the Labour Party conference. | ||
| Dec 1997 | Intelligent Form launched (joint initiative by Benefits Agency, Customs & Excise & Inland Revenue). | ||
| Jan 1998 | Home Secretary Jack Straw orders enquiry into voting arrangements, including possible electronic voting. | ||
| III | Education | ||
| 7 | Amend the National Curriculum to provide for the teaching of information retrieval and evaluation and an understanding of intellectual property. | Feb 1997 | CoPI writes to Conservative Education & Employment Secretary Gillian Shephard and Labour Shadow David Blunkett about the proposed AS-level exam in information skills, saying information retrieval & evaluation skills are essential as well. DfEE takes this in due course as being CoPI's response to Excellence in Schools. |
| Apr 1997 | CoPI presents draft Manifesto to senior civil servants, who point out Labour has accepted Conservative commitment not to amend National Curriculum for 5 years. | ||
| Dec 1997 | British Computer Society, Institute for the Management of Information Systems, Real Time Club & Worshipful Company of Information Technologists form Joint Advisory Panel on IT in Education to help promote understanding of IT. | ||
| Jan 1998 | Education & Employment Secretary David Blunkett issues strong guidelines on amount of time devoted to 3Rs. CoPI speculates he may be persuadable in time to look at information skills training too. | ||
| Jan 1998 | David Blunkett announces 2 year suspension of statutory requirement to teach the 6 non core subjects, in order to concentrate on 3Rs plus information technology. | ||
| Jan 1998 | David Blunkett follows this up by publishing Numeracy Matters, setting out details of national curriculum emphasis on maths. | ||
| 8 | Incorporate information retrieval and evaluation modules into teacher training courses. | Jul 1997 | People's Lottery report from Culture, Media & Sport Secretary Chris Smith proposes funding for teachers to be trained in IT, but not in teaching information retrieval and evaluation skills. |
| Oct 1997 | Chris Smith announces New Opportunities Fund to divert money from National Lottery for teachers' IT training. | ||
| Dec 1997 | CoPI responds to Department for Education & Employment consultation document Connecting the Learning Society, welcoming the proposals for training teachers in IT, but expressing concern about definitions, targets, technology, future proofing, quality control, training and the timescale. | ||
| Dec 1997 | Chris Smith gives details of New Opportunities Fund, including £300m for teacher & librarian training, £50m of which is to be spent on digitising educational & learning materials. | ||
| Jan 1998 | David Blunkett announces a 2 year suspension of statutory requirement to teach the 6 non core National Curriculum subjects, in order to concentrate on 3Rs plus information technology. | ||
| 9 | Enable schools to meet the telecommunications costs of regular use of the Internet. | Oct 1997 | Oftel Director Don Cruickshank confirms a BT pricing formula to give schools access to the Internet at an approximate cost of £1 per pupil per year. |
| Oct 1997 | Prime Minister Tony Blair launches National Grid for Learning, pledging £100m to enable all 32,000 schools to link to it by 2002. | ||
| IV | Enabling communities | ||
| 10 | Actively encourage and support the role of all citizens and communities as creative users and developers of information services, not merely as consumers of information. | Nov 1997 | New clause in the CoPI Manifesto, ratified at EGM. Still to be developed. |
| 11 | Enable public libraries, advice centres, citizens' advice bureaux and other appropriate organisations to act as intermediaries, facilitators and public trainers in the use of information services. | Feb 1997 | Department of National Heritage public libraries review Reading the Future asks Library & Information Commission to investigate how public libraries can respond to the challenge of new technology. |
| Sep 1997 | Audit Commission report Due for Renewal highlights declining public library book issues, urges them to provide public access to Internet. | ||
| Oct 1997 | Library & Information Commission report New Library: the People's Network calls for £770m to provide IT equipment & Internet access for all 5,000 public libraries. Culture, Media & Sport Secretary Chris Smith supports proposals but says money must come from partnerships. | ||
| Apr 1998 | Government response to New Library: the People's Network, includes commitment to connect every public library to National Grid for Learning by 2002, asks LIC to establish Implementation Committee. | ||
| 12 | Make open access to interactive public information services a guiding principle in the granting of licences to cable, satellite and digital terrestrial television services. | Sep 1997 | Responding to Government's review of utility regulation, Oftel Director General Don Cruickshank calls for wide-ranging Communications Act covering broadcasting & information technology as well as telecoms. |
| Sep 1997 | Culture, Media & Sport Secretary Chris Smith tells Royal Television Society conference that he will consult widely on regulation of digital television and that he wants some channels to be educational. | ||
| Oct 1997 | CoPI writes to Chris Smith putting case for interactive public information as well and mentioning proposed joint CoPI/LIC conference. | ||
| Oct 1997 | Cable Communications Association submission to Independent Television Commission objects to contract provisions requiring cable operators to carry specific channels. | ||
| Dec 1997 | British Digital Broadcasting (owned by Carlton) expresses commitment to Internet-based interactivity in its digital TV services. | ||
| Jul 1998 | CoPI and Library & Information Commission mount joint conference on Interactive Information in the Home: the Potential of Digital Television. | ||
| Sep 1998 | Following joint Digital TV conference, CoPI & LIC launch a Position Statement, covering implications for lifelong learning, public library networking and access to public information. | ||
| 13 | Direct National Lottery funding towards the provision of information at community level. | Mar 1997 | Conservative National Heritage Secretary Virginia Bottomley proposes Millennium & Communication Technology fund to provide £300m a year for schools, libraries & museums for IT with money taken from the National Lottery Millennium Fund after the year 2000 celebrations are over. |
| Dec 1997 | Labour Culture, Media & Sport Secretary Chris Smith publishes People's Lottery white paper, proposing a National Lottery-financed New Opportunities Fund to train teachers & librarians in IT skills. | ||
| Apr 1998 | Government response to Library & Information Commission report New Library: the People's Network pledges £50m from the New Opportunities Fund for digitisation of public library material. | ||
| CoPI c/o the Institute of Information Scientists, 44-45 Museum St, London WC1A 1LY. Tel: +44 (0) 171 831 8003. Fax: +44 (0) 171 430 1270. E-mail: iis@dial.pipex.com |
© CoPI
COPI is a coalition working to encourage the development of an information and communications infrastructure which will enable full participation in social, economic and democratic activity.
Last Updated: Friday, December 04, 1998