Publication of Education Information on Creative Commons (CZ0029)

Ensuring the publication of digital content of a wide variety of natures, supported by public funds, under a Creative Commons open licence (or another such), thereby simplifying access to it and enabling modification and sharing with all education stakeholders
Start and end date of commitment: 1 September 2018 – 31 August 2020
Lead implementing agency: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
Which public problem will be resolved by this commitment?
Publicly-funded digital content is frequently not accessible to the public and in addition, the vast majority of cases have technical parameters which make further effective work with this content impossible (sharing, modifying, etc.).
What is the commitment?
Ensuring the publication a wide variety of digital content, supported from public funds, under a Creative Commons open licence (or another such), thereby simplifying access to it and enabling modification and sharing with all stakeholders. The expected outcome is that the great majority (with exceptions where it is impossible) of digital content created with support from public funds will have set rules of use as a default which will enable further sharing and modification.
This commitment does not relate to the project outcomes in research and development, and under the Act on the Support of Public Research Institutions [VVI], project outcomes supported under the compatible public aid scheme or de minimis aid, and outcomes whose free dissemination is restricted by the protection of personal data, security regulations, the legal protection of intellectual property (e.g., industrial rights) and the protection of trade secrets.
How will the commitment contribute to solving a public problem?
Digital content will be accessible to the public and working (modifying, sharing) more effectively with it will be possible. A good example is the recent measure of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, which requires the use of a Creative Commons open licence, BY or BY-SA variants, for applicants and recipients of aid from the Operational Programme of Research, Development and Education [OP RDE]: priority axis 2 or 3. This practice must be extended to other subsidy programmes, both existing and forthcoming, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The commitment’s basic objective is to impose the obligatory use of a Creative Commons licence, ideally the BY or BY-SA variants, in all new contracts for applicants and recipients of support in programmes providing public funds from the relevant sponsors.
How does the commitment relate to OGP values?
The commitment to the use of open licences for digital content where the creation was supported by public funds relates to the value of transparency. Enabling the effective control of public spending, which becomes evident in the quality of public output, relates to the value of accountability.
Further information
The creation of open educational materials conforms with goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals, primarily thanks to lowering the barriers to access to education. Furthermore, the stated commitment is a part of an already-approved strategy. The Digital Education Strategy (sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports) contains measure 1.1, which states: “Ensuring the publication of digital content of a wide variety of natures, supported from public funds, under a Creative Commons open licence (or another such), thereby simplifying access to it and enabling sharing with all education stakeholders.” The Digital Literacy Strategy (sponsored by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs) contains measure 6.4: “Supporting public access to open digital information and education sources” (the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports is also a sponsor of this measure).
Milestone activity with verifiable output
Within the subsidy programmes of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the new contracts for applicants for and recipients of financial support stipulate the obligatory use of Creative Commons licences, ideally the BY or BY-SA variants.
01 September 2018 - 31 August 2020
Name of the responsible person from the implementing agency
Mgr. Iveta Valachová
Mgr. Pavel Dudek
Role, Department
Head of the Strategy and Analysis Unit, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
Labour Market Concepts and Strategies Unit, Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
Email and telephone
Iveta.Valachova@msmt.cz +420 234 811 318
pavel.dudek@mpsv.cz +420 221 923 131
Other stakeholders involved
EDUin o.p.s., Aliance pro Otevřené vzdělávání [Alliance for Open Education]

8. Ensuring the publication of digital content of a wide variety of natures, supported by public funds, under a Creative Commons open license (or another such), thereby simplifying access to it and enabling modification and sharing with all education stakeholders

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

The objective of the commitment is to ensure publication of wide variety of digital content, supported from public funds, under a Creative Commons open licence, thereby simplifying access to it and enabling modification and sharing with all stakeholders. The expected outcome is that the great majority of digital content created with support from public funds will have set rules of use as a default which will enable further sharing and modification.

Milestone:

• Within the subsidy programmes of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the new contracts for applicants for and recipients of financial support stipulate the obligatory use of Creative Commons licenses, ideally the BY or BY-SA variants.

For full text of the commitment please see: https://korupce.cz/partnerstvi-pro-otevrene-vladnuti-ogp/narodni-akcni-plany-nap/ctvrty-akcni-plan-2018-2020/faze-vytvoreni/

Start Date: 1 September 2018            

End Date: 31 August 2020

Context and Objectives

The commitment is to publish a variety of digital content supported by public funds under a Creative Commons open license or similar publication format. Currently, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports requires the use of a Creative Commons open license for applicants and recipients of one of their research programs (OP RED). The idea of this commitment is to extend this good practice to other subsidy programs of the ministry and also include the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

The commitment is specific enough to be verified and requires the subsidy programs of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, to issue internal regulations to make the different programs comply with the obligatory contract request in the use of Creative Commons licenses (ideally the BY or BY-SA variants). However, the commitment lacks specificity as it is not clear which subsidy programs will be requested to comply with this new requirement, and how the ministries will ensure the use of these licenses by applicants and grantees.

The commitment is relevant to the OGP values of access to information and technology and innovation as it aims to publish educational material and digital products that are currently not available online under a public copyright license for free further use. As written, the potential impact of this commitment is minor. Although the mandatory publishing of research and public outputs would be important to protect the investment of public funds and make knowledge products publicly available at no cost, it is not yet clear how many programs will participate, or how these measures will be ensured by the ministries.

Next steps

During the implementation phase, the following suggestions should be considered:

• Define which programs will participate
• Prioritize which types of research products will be published first and create a concrete publication schedule
• Involve CSOs and other relevant stakeholders in the decision-making process

[12]https://www.csicr.cz/en/About-us/Basic-Information, accessed 1 November 2019.

8. Ensuring the publication of digital content of a wide variety of natures, supported by public funds, under a Creative Commons open license

Completion: Substantial

The rules for applicants and recipients of public funding from the Research, Development and Education program of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs state that products created during the implementation of projects must be unrestricted and freely accessible to the public (such as via a Creative Commons 4.0 license). [15] Under the new system, products must now be available on the Project Output Database (https://databaze.opvvv.msmt.cz/) and on the RVP.cz portal (https://rvp.cz/), which is provided as part of the Support for Teachers’ Work project. This additional information includes digital education sources, methodical tools, educational programs, and educational materials. [16] While there is no data on visits from beforehand, the RVP.cz website received over 6 million visits over the two-year implementation period. [17]

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs adopted the obligation to publish digital content with an open license in 2020. This applies only for institutional support to departmental research organizations (these are not contracts but decisions of grant provision), and agreements on grant provision in accordance with Section 320a of the Labour Code for representatives of social partners of the Council of the Economic and Social Agreement (an institutionalized tripartite platform for social dialogue among the government, trade unions, and employers). [18]