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DHS, White House, Privacy, Secrecy
Two stories in the news describe different approaches to government secrecy and citizen privacy:
- White House Orders New Computer Security Rules, By ERIC SCHMITT, New York Times (October 6, 2011) "The White House plans to issue an executive order on Friday to replace a flawed patchwork of computer security safeguards exposed by the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of classified government documents to WikiLeaks last year. "...In addition to these immediate measures, Mr. Obama’s order creates a task force led by the attorney general and the director of national intelligence to combat leaks from government workers, or what the White House calls an “insider threat.” "The directive also establishes a special government committee that must submit a report to the president within 90 days, and then at least once a year after that, assessing federal successes and failures in protecting classified information on government computer networks. "...[Pentagon issued cyber identity] credentials allow supervisors to track what users are working on."
- Data Mining: DHS Needs to Improve Executive Oversight of Systems Supporting Counterterrorism, Government Accountability Office, GAO-11-742 (September 7, 2011). The report says that, until needed reforms are put in place the Department of Homeland Security and its component agencies "may not be able to ensure that critical data mining systems used in support of counterterrorism are both effective and that they protect personal privacy." "By not consistently performing necessary evaluations and reviews of these systems, DHS and its component agencies risk developing and acquiring systems that do not effectively support their agencies' missions and do not adequately ensure the protection of privacy-related information."
OAIS / TDR presentation at FDLP
Here are the slides and a handout from my presentation on Monday October 17, 2011 about the OAIS and TDR standards.
NTIS To A Offer Repository Service to Federal Agencies
The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) has announced the development an Institutional Repository (IR) Service for federal agencies. Excerpts from press release (link to original [.doc]):
NTIS NEWS RELEASE - October 5, 2011 National Technical Information Service, Information International Associates INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY SERVICE FOR FEDERAL SCIENCE AGENCIES UNDERWAY The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce and Information International Associates, Inc. (IIa), a small, woman-owned company in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, have recently formed a Joint Venture (JV) to develop an Institutional Repository (IR) Service for federal agencies. Institutional Repositories are collections of agency scientific and technical information documents and other content that represent the work and mission of the agency, provided as a searchable, digital collection. The IR will be hosted by NTIS and promoted and supported by expert content managers and a technical team from IIa and NTIS. As part of this new NTIS line of business, the IR will provide a framework through which federal agency content can be made available, providing users with increased ease of access and agencies with cost savings. The Director of NTIS, Bruce Borzino, states: "There is a huge demand coming from national laboratory and federal research communities to dramatically update the way scientists publish, share, and archive information. Through selected partnerships such as this one with IIa, NTIS can attain its e-science development goal of creating new levels of transparency for scientific, technical, and engineering content." The president and founder of IIa, Bonnie Carroll, points out that "the Institutional Repository Service will provide content management and information dissemination, making it easier for agency personnel and the public to find and receive better access to information resources. The IR will support a wide variety of content types including images, audio, video, and traditional text." Individual IRs will be developed for agencies based on a core set of services with optional services, including those based on Web 2.0 technologies. This IR Service will be a valuable asset for smaller agencies, agency components, projects and programs that need to provide information collection and dissemination but do not have sufficient IT and content management support, for agencies who are interested in support for retooling their current repositories, and for agencies seeking to take advantage of new technologies such as mash-ups, blogs, and wikis which they can reuse and repurpose from other resources through the IR. Agencies will be able to respond to growing Administration Open Government requirements for transparency and citizen involvement. One major benefit will be that cost savings will occur as the technology and development of the system is shared - not redeveloped in multiple settings. Among the core services to be provided will be content inventories, selection, and harvesting; the ability to map agency information to a core metadata scheme based on the standards to be used by and on the needs of the agency; customized interface design; increased search capabilities; and disaster recovery, archiving and preservation. Optional services may include extension of the core metadata scheme to meet the specific needs of the agency audience, customized controlled vocabularies and taxonomies, metadata creation and controlled vocabulary indexing, quality assurance capabilities, and value-added subject matter expertise. Links can be developed between different types of content and documents to make searching easier and add to the value of searches.Thanks and a big hat-tip to Bill McGahey of NTIS. Continue reading
More than 100 Dot-Govs Cut or Consolidated
More than 100 Dot-Govs Cut or Consolidated, By Joseph Marks, NextGov (10/05/11).
The government campaign against outdated and unnecessary websites appears to be gaining steam. An updated list of top-level dot-gov domains posted to the government dataset repository Data.gov Friday lists only 1,634 domains, down from nearly 1,759 domains when the list was first posted.Continue reading
GPO Partners With University Of Iowa To Preserve Historic Collection
Press Release from GPO:
GPO PARTNERS WITH UNIVERSITY OF IOWA TO PRESERVE HISTORIC COLLECTION FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 5, 2011 No. 11-57 WASHINGTON-The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is partnering with the University of Iowa Libraries to preserve and make available in digital format historic Government-issued posters from pre-World War II to the 1990s. The University of Iowa Libraries is providing public access to the collection of 1,500 posters promoting services, programs, and initiatives by Government agencies. The University of Iowa Libraries is part of GPO's Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), which provides public access to published information of all three branches of the Government through partnerships with more than 1,220 libraries nationwide. GPO is providing back-up support for the digital poster collection; in the event that the University of Iowa Libraries cannot provide access, GPO will make the digital poster collection available on the agency's Federal Digital System (FDsys), a one-stop site to authentic, published Government information. Link to digital poster collection: http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/gpc/index.php "GPO's mission of keeping American informed is demonstrated through the agency's partnerships with more than 1,200 libraries nationwide and our joint effort to make Government information available to the public," said Public Printer Bill Boarman. "As GPO celebrates its 150th anniversary, we recognize the importance of history and preserving history for future generations and that is why GPO is thrilled to work with the University of Iowa Libraries to preserve and make available this historic collection." "GPO is excited to partner with the University of Iowa Libraries to preserve and protect the future of this historic collection," said Superintendent of Documents Mary Alice Baish. "As we embrace the new digital age, GPO is seeking partnerships with libraries nationwide in order to safeguard historic collections and provide the American people with permanent public access to Government information." "I'm delighted that this previously hidden collection is now available to anyone with an Internet connection. These posters often represent a graphic documentation of priorities of a given presidential administration or reflect social culture at a discrete point in time," said Marianne Mason, Federal Information Librarian University of Iowa Libraries. "Nearly all federal agencies, both past and present, have produced social marketing posters including the Works Project Administration, War Mobilization Office, EPA, Dept. of Interior and NASA. This visual collection has the potential to complement academic course work in public policy, history, communication studies, and health sciences and to enhance outreach activities to primary and secondary (K-12) students. The Government Printing Office has been a steadfast partner in preserving rich digital collections from many libraries and, happily, The University of Iowa has joined that partnership."Continue reading
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