Resourcepublic

Resourcepublic is a term used in information governance and open data discourse to describe digital resources that are intended to be freely accessible and reusable by the public. In this sense, a resourcepublic is distinguished from resources that are restricted, licensed with limited rights, or behind paywalls.

Typical characteristics include an open license that permits redistribution and reuse; machine-readable formats; persistent identifiers; rich, standards-based metadata; hosting with long-term preservation; and predictable access methods such as public APIs or direct downloads. Resourcepublic covers datasets, software, media, and documentation released by governments, research institutions, libraries, and other public-interest organizations. It aligns with open data and open licensing practices and is commonly encountered in open data portals, open educational resources, and public-domain collections.

Governance involves clear licensing, provenance tracking, and sustainability planning to maintain accessibility and rights information over time. Standards such as DCAT, schema.org, and Dublin Core support interoperability across platforms and domains.

Examples include national data portals, institutional repositories releasing datasets as permissive licenses, and museum digitization projects making public-domain images available as resourcepublic. The concept emphasizes reuse, remix, and redistribution to maximize public value, while acknowledging the need to navigate privacy, security, and data quality considerations.

See also: open data, open license, public domain, open access, data stewardship.