As with all of CTG’s resources, our Open Government Public Value Assessment Tool, or PVAT, is freely available to governments at all levels in the U.S. and around the world. We granted the right for governments to use the tool through the use of a licensing agreement. The licensing agreement was developed to protect CTG’s intellectual property and was not intended to prevent any government practitioner from downloading and using the tool.

The PVAT itself is an innovation. The agreement makes CTG rights with respect to the intellectual property in the tool clear to all parties across all sectors – government, education, not for profit, and private, and allows for a full-range of intended uses. It does however include a special provision requiring that a negotiated agreement with CTG be in place if the intended use is a for-profit purpose.

With that said, the use of such formal software licensing agreements, like the PVAT , is new to CTG. Our goal was to provide easy access to the tool, however after its release, some folks found they couldn’t access it at all. So clearly we did not have all the details of licensing worked out but now we have it in place. Anyone that was originally denied access has been contacted and has been given instructions on how to access the PVAT.

Through the licensing and release of the PVAT, we have learned a great deal and we appreciated your patience as we worked through the bumps. If you would like to share your thoughts or comments about the PVAT or our licensing, please email Meghan Cook. Your input is always welcome.