Influencing public policy through information sharing

The data collected in electronic databases by government agencies, universities, and private organizations could be of use to a public increasingly interested in participating in public policy formation. However, because most users lack skill in communicating with computers and because institutions resist the dissemination of databases, this information is not widely accessible to the public in forms it can use. The authors propose establishing a public access `data hub´ to process requests for database access, download a copy of the requested data from the original source database (databases would not reside at the hub), and display the data in the form requested. The `bridge´ between user and data would be an interface to process the request for data and then shape and interpret the data for the user. A single interface would allow users access to information that resides on many different computers without their having to learn to `talk´ to each different system. Helping to design and implement this interface would be the task of the professional communicator