While governments throughout the world have different approaches to how they make their public sector information (PSI) available and the terms under which the information may be reused, there appears to be a broad recognition of the importance of digital networks and PSI to the economy and to society. However, despite the huge investments in PSI and the even larger estimated effects, surprisingly little is known about the costs and benefits of different information policies on the information society and the knowledge economy. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the current assessment methods and their underlying criteria, it should be possible to improve and apply such tools to help rationalize the policies and to clarify the role of the internet in disseminating PSI. This in turn can help promote the efficiency and effectiveness of PSI investments and management, and to improve their downstream economic and social results. The workshop that is summarized in this volume was intended to review the state of the art in assessment methods and to improve the understanding of what is known and what needs to be known about the effects of PSI activities.

Frameworks for ICT Policy: Government, Social and Legal Issues is a reference on ICT policy framework and a guide to those who are involved in ICT policy formulation, implementation, adoption, monitoring, evaluation and application. This comprehensive publication provides background information for scholars and researchers who are interested in carrying out research on ICT policies and promotes the understanding of policies guiding technology.

The Handbook of Research on Information Communication Technology Policy: Trends, Issues and Advancements provides a comprehensive and reliable source of information on current developments in information communication technologies. This source includes ICT policies; a guide on ICT policy formulation, implementation, adoption, monitoring, evaluation and application; and background information for scholars and researchers interested in carrying out research on ICT policies.

Attempts to show what activities national policy has to cover, what problems arise for policy-making organizations, and in what ways they are being tackled. Problems of system and service development are treated separately from background problems of means and resources. Special problems of developing countries and the machinery required for making and executing policy are emphasized. Most of the examples are taken from experience in the UK. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR