JISC

The Digital Britain report published by Lord Stephen Carter clearly states the Government’s commitment and ambition ‘to secure the UK’s position as one of the world’s leading digital knowledge economies’.

Commenting on the report Dr Malcolm Read, JISC’s executive secretary said: “The report highlights the need to open up the UK’s public resources, an area which is central to the work JISC does for and with colleges, universities and other public bodies.

“We make information available online for teaching, learning and research, with many resources being freely publicly available. Not only are we looking to deliver safe and secure access to quality assured resources today, through our award winning network JANET, but we are also working to create sustainable models where this information can continue to be accessed as technology develops.”

The report refers to the need to ‘make some changes to the legislative framework around copyright licensing, to tackle the problems such as those surrounding the use of so-called orphan works’ and ‘the need to invest in research and innovation to enable a Digital Britain’.

Dr Read added, “We welcome the report’s references to innovation and to change current copyright laws which we hope will avoid the real risk of there being a 20th century black hole of online content as highlighted in the recent ‘In from the Cold’ report.

“We will continue to offer best practice guidance to train academics on how to use digital technologies and deliver the UK’s e-infrastructure to support colleges and universities educate digitally literate graduates.

“However, the report does need to go further to highlight the issues around open access, open innovation and network capacity to be able to support a digital society.”

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