DL.org Blog

Antonella De Robbio on A Digital Agenda for Europe

Expert View - Antonella De Robbio

I am reading the European Union’s document A Digital Agenda for Europe - COM(2010) 245 – Brussels, 19.05.2010 and I think that it could be useful for the DL.org Technology and Methodology Cookbook.*

Take a look at the Key Priority Areas in the Action Plan for the European Digital Agenda. The Agenda outlines seven priority areas for actions; the second one concerning “improving the framework conditions for interoperability between ICT products and services”.
This key priority foresees that it is essential to enhance interoperability between devices, applications, data repositories, services and networks inside a framework where the conditions for interoperability can be improved in various ways. One important means to that end is to ensure that good ICT standards are available and used, notably in public procurement and legislation.
The Digital Agenda also provides some examples:

• “Propose legal measures to reform the rules on implementation of ICT standards to allow the use of certain ICT fora and consortia standards. But the Commission will also address situations in which standards do not help because significant market players do not support them. A further aim is better coordination between public administrations through a new European Interoperability Strategy and Framework to ensure interoperability between eGovernment and other public services across Europe.”

The first priority is defined as “Single Market”, stressing the need to simplifying copyright clearance, management and licensing. In order to reply to this first priority, the Commission, by the end of 2010, will propose a Framework Directive on collective rights management to enhance the governance, transparency and pan European licensing for (online) rights management.
Another point of the Agenda (in the First priority) is make sure consumers are protected in cyberspace by issuing a digital code that summarises the rights of citizens in the online world in a clear and accessible way. Currently many consumers find it difficult to know what their digital rights are, especially when these are scattered across various complex legal documents. I think we have same problems with digital libraries. While this is far worse in the digital world, significant issues could also apply to digital libraries.
A domain policy could serve as a high-level container that specifies performance goals for work processed in resource and actors domains. The domain policy contains all different policies, at different levels, organisatiional, technical and semantic.
Recommendations for DL.org investigations:
Key Action 1: Simplify copyright clearance, management and cross-border licensing by:

• Enhancing the governance, transparency and pan-European licensing for (online) rights management by proposing a framework Directive on collective rights management.
• Creating a legal framework to facilitate the digitisation and dissemination of cultural works in Europe by proposing a Directive on orphan works, to conduct a dialogue with stakeholders with a view to further measures on out-of print works, complemented by rights information databases.
• Reviewing the Directive on Re-Use of Public Sector Information, notably its scope and principles on charging for access and use.

Key Action 5: As part of the review of EU standardisation policy, propose legal measures on ICT interoperability to reform the rules on implementation of ICT standards in Europe to allow use of certain ICT fora and consortia standards

Antonella De Robbio, University Centre for Libraries of the Library System, University of Padua, Italy

Useful Links: http://www.dlorg.eu/index.php/publications/ec-policy

* The Cookbook is an innovative artefact that collects and describes a portfolio of best practices, patterns
and solutions to common issues faced when developing large-scale interoperable Digital Library Systems
(DLSs). It proposes an interoperability model that can be used to characterise – in a systematic way – facets
of interoperability challenges, as well as existing, forthcoming solutions and approaches so as to have a framework to select and assess them. A Request for Comment version will be available in late summer
2010. The final version will be informed by feedback from the Digital Library community and published in late 2010.