The Census Bureau has a new web site and blog that focus on research at the Bureau.

• Research @ Census.

  This new Web page is a gateway to the world of research at the Census Bureau. Visit the site to learn about innovations to measure and understand America through improved statistics, statistical products and analysis. The new blog -- "Research Matters" -- features the work of researchers from all areas of the Census Bureau. Research ranges from substantive topics of interest in demography, economics and other social sciences to methodological questions, such as the role of statistical modeling in surveys, designs for the 10-year census, research on record linkage and confidentiality protection. Census Bureau researchers include geographers, statisticians, economists, demographers and more. (press release)

• Research Matters, U.S. Census Bureau.

  Welcome to Research Matters, a new blog highlighting research at the Census Bureau. We aim to discuss important research in government statistics, and stimulate informed debate. Research ranges from substantive topics of interest in demography, economics and other social sciences, to methodological questions, such as the role of statistical modeling in surveys, designs for the Decennial Census, research on record linkage and confidentiality protection.

Ed Felton, the Chief Technologist at the FTC, has a new blog which he describes as "published by the Federal Trade Commission" but expressing the views "of the Chief Technologist" and not those of the Chairman or the Commission. The blog will focus on technology issues. It is hosted by wordpress.com not by a .gov site.

• Tech@FTC.

  As the nation’s consumer protection agency, the FTC works on technology issues every day. You’ll see lots of discussion of technology in our reports, cases, speeches and testimonies, not to mention the consumer and business education pieces we publish. But we haven’t had a venue for speaking, more directly and less formally, to the technically minded public about tech issues. That’s what this blog is for.

  Our goal is to talk about technology in a way that is sophisticated enough to be interesting to hard-core techies, but straightforward enough to be accessible to the broad public that knows something about technology but doesn’t qualify as expert.

• RSS feed.

Random Samplings: The official blog of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Thanks to the Scout Report for pointing out this useful blog!

The U.S. Census Bureau provides a wealth of data about the population and economy of the United States, and certain aspects of their work are covered in this eminently engaging blog, "Random Samplings". The intent of this blog is "to describe the objective of their work and explain census and survey results". The blog began in September 2010, and visitors can search the archive of previous posts by category or date of publication. Some of the categories include "business ownership", "income", and "poverty".

-- U.S. Census Bureau: Random Samplings, Scout Report (2011-04-22)

There has been a lot of research done by academic and consulting institutions regarding Twitter adoption in politics. Between February 2010 to now, I think that there have been at least a dozen circulated studies on this topic. The fact that this topic is studied by consultants, economists, marketers, and political scientists suggests that the topic is important; or at the very least, a trend. A number of interesting results have emerged. Collectively, all of these studies give us a refined picture of a typical politician who Tweets.

Williams and Gulati (2010) find that those who adopt Twitter are politicians who have received a lot of contributions. Well funded politicians often have better access and information about "trendy" communication technologies. Alternatively, well funded politicians may have more connections and benefit more from technology that (presumably) maintains these connections.

Lassen and Brown (2010) find that politicians in less competitive districts are more likely to adopt Twitter. It is hard to say why this pattern emerges. However, our well publicized paper (Chi and Yang, 2010) may provide a hint.

Our study finds that the positive effect on adoption associated with the lack of competitiveness (i.e. electoral support) is largest for inexperienced politicians. This pattern seems to fit with the story which links the benefit associated with transparency and electoral support. Those with strong support have an incentive to maintain their constituents' trust. This incentive is strongest for those who are new to the game and have yet to solidify their positive reputation.

Now, this leaves the plethora of studies that seem to be fixated on showing: Republicans are more likely to Tweet (or have higher "Digital IQ"). You can find some of these studies here, here and here.

There are probably more studies floating around. But these are the ones that I believe have gained the most traction in the public arena.

Disclosure Data Catalog, Federal Election Commission

"Each of the files listed here can be downloaded in either csv or xml formats. Each also has a metadata page that describes the information included and the structure of the file itself. There is a pdf version of each file if you need to print the information. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds for each of the files so you're notified whenever new data is available or a change is made."

Also see the Commission's Disclosure Data Blog where the FEC will post information about the files and its future plans. And: they say that "you can get help with any questions about the data we're providing here."

The National Security Archive at George Washington University announced its new blog today: Unredacted: The National Security Archive, Unedited and Uncensored. The announcement says:

The National Security Archive is pleased to open its virtual doors with a new behind-the-scenes blog, "Unredacted: The National Security Archive, Unedited and Uncensored,". The Archive's own experience with thousands of Freedom of Information Act and Mandatory Declassification Review requests provides a wealth of data and fundamental lessons that we hope to share with you.

"Unredacted" will highlight never before publicly seen government documents as part of our regular "Document Friday" series. The blog will feature commentary and analysis from our experts on current news stories, events, ongoing litigation and advocacy efforts, newly-released documents, and other hot topics. We will regularly highlight some of our top document collections -- including unpublished collections donated by top journalists and authors -- that are available to researchers and the public.

The new blog will also tell you more about the Archive's global activities, including reports from the field as Archive staff travel to document archives around the world, assist international courts and tribunals with human rights cases, support efforts to enact and implement freedom of information laws in other nations, and attend meetings and conferences with other NGO representatives and high-level government officials.

The Federal Communications Commission has a new blog: blog.openinternet.gov. The blog is intended to have "expert commentary from FCC staff on how best to preserve the Internet’s openness and questions that arise during this debate." And, in the first post on the site, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski says, "Our staff hopes to use this forum not only to share ideas but also to receive them. We encourage all visitors to weigh in with their own thoughts and engage in an open dialogue."

Want a flavor of the blog? Try this bit about network neutrality from a post by the Jon Peha, the FCC's Chief Technologist:

Back in the 1980s, I spent much of my time thinking about an obscure topic – how to manage the flow of packets around the Internet, particularly if anyone were ever crazy enough to try telephone-like or TV-like services over what was obviously just a computer network. Like most grad students, I thought my dissertation topic was important to everyone. Sometimes after parties, my girlfriend at that time would remind me that a handful of engineers might care about such things, but normal humans, including lawyers like her, never would. But two decades later, it was mostly lawyers who were grappling with critical decisions on this topic, while most engineers paid little attention.

The blog will also offer timely information on the FCC’s latest activities to preserve an open Internet.

The National Archives has started a blog, NARAtions, because, "we are hoping to talk with you about online public access to the records held by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)."

(Hat tip to Kate!)

This blog has been around for at least a year, but I hadn't seen it till recently. It looks worth a bookmark:

• Rumors, Myths, and Fabrications. Blogs at America.gov.

Examining rumors, conspiracy theories and false stories. Todd Leventhal, a State Department expert on these issues, discusses deliberate disinformation, unintentional misinformation, cautionary tales known as "urban legends," and widely believed conspiracy theories.

[Note to grammarians: Yes, I added the comma after "Myths" in the title. Could ... not ... control ... inner ... comma ... fanatic....]

The Minority Business Development Agency (Dept. of Commerce) started a blog, Minority Biz Blog, in March. "The purpose of this blog is to facilitate an ongoing dialogue on minority entrepreneurship and business in the United States."

Althought the blog is linked to from http://www.mbda.gov/blog/ , the actual blog is hosted at wordpress.com, not on a .gov server.