freepolicy

Freepolicy is a concept in policy design that promotes the release and reuse of policy documents, models, and tools under openly accessible licenses, with the aim of increasing transparency, collaboration, and adaptability in public governance. It describes a family of practices rather than a single policy.

Origins: The term emerged from open-government and open-data movements in the 2000s and 2010s, drawing on norms from free software and open licensing. It is used by researchers and municipalities experimenting with participatory policy development.

Principles: Freely accessible and modifiable policy materials; permissive licensing (such as those similar to open-source licenses); machine-readability; version control; public feedback channels; interoperable formats; clear accountability.

Implementation: Steps include publishing drafts under open licenses, maintaining public repositories, using standardized data formats and APIs, documenting assumptions and models, and integrating stakeholder input into revisions.

Applications: Municipal budgeting models, regulatory impact analyses, policy simulations, and procurement guidelines released for reuse by other jurisdictions or organizations.

Critiques: Potential risks include fragmentation, licensing confusion, misinterpretation of models, concerns about security, and the resource burden of maintaining open materials.

See also: open government, open data, free software, participatory governance, policy interoperability.