Information policy briefing instructions and examples

ISI 5162 Policy Briefing Statement – examples and current issues winter 2014

Update Jan. 8: the EU has a "public consultation on the review of the EU copyright rules" with a deadline of February 5, 2014. EU laws affect people everywhere, so you don't have to live in the EU to participate. Participation in this consultation process (with a copy of your response handed in) would be appropriate for the policy briefing assignment. I recommend Maira Sutton's post on the Electronic Frontier Foundation blog as a starting point.  

Update Jan. 14: Industry Canada has a Science and Technology Consultation, comments due Feb. 7th. Possibly of interest under the Evidence for Democracy / Canadian War on Science policy topic. 

Due: Jan. 28 midnight. 2-3 pages (maximum). Single spaced.

In preparing your policy briefing statement it may be helpful to identify a target audience, or two audiences (see the examples below, library associations writing or signing letters to another body). The actor audience could be a library association or another information professional association such as ARMA or the Association of Canadian Archivists. To prepare your policy briefing statement you should investigate the policy issue and the background of your target audience(s). A good policy briefing will address the questions: why suggest change, and why listen to the suggestions.  Following are the suggested issues for 2014. If you would like to work on another issue, please check with the professor first.

Issues

·      Trans Pacific Partnership – intellectual property chapter

·      Evidence for democracy / Canadian war on science (the Fifth Estate Silence of the Labs may be of interest) - see also videos from recent Canadian Science Policy conference

·      Surveillance / privacy (Geist on Obama's statement on surveillance and Canada's silence may be of interest). Free webinar Friday Jan. 24: Big Data calls for Big Privacy

Examples

Canadian Library Association (2013). CLA Statement on Social Media Monitoring of Canadians. Retrieved Jan. 8, 2014 from: http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=14727

Internet Society (2012). To the negotiating nations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.  Retrieved Jan. 8, 2014 from: http://www.internetsociety.org/doc/negotiating-nations-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-agreement. Signed by the International Federation of Library Associations.

Ontario Library Association (2012?). Unprecedented number of cuts to library programs in Canada. Retrieved Jan. 8, 2014 from: https://www.accessola.org/OLAWEB/Issues_Advocacy/issues/Unprecedented_number_of_cuts_to_library_programs_in_Canada.aspx?&WebsiteKey=397368c8-7910-4dfe-807f-9eeb1068be31&hkey=956ef508-5764-4311-b53d-f242a24199cd