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Re-launching data.gov with interactive data
Launched just two years ago as a site for users to find and download "bulk" data sets from federal government agencies, Data.Gov is re-launching a "next generation" version with datasets that are "interactive" meaning you can search, filter, and explore data on the fly with your web browser. "You can also create charts and maps, and APIs are available for developers."
- http://explore.data.gov/
- Next Generation Datasets
- Introducing the New Data.Gov Platform. Socrata [a Seattle-based startup that has quietly been helping cities and states around the country to get their data online.] "Discover The New Cloud-Based Data.Gov Platform In This 10-Minute Video Tour."
- Data.gov relaunches as a cloud-based open data platform, by Alex Howard, Gov20.govfresh (May 16, 2011)
Privacy: “I have nothing to hide”
We often hear the argument that it is okay for the government to gather or analyze personal information because only those who have something to hide need worry. As the British government slogan says, "If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear."
Libraries take a different approach to privacy. As the American Library Association says, "Privacy is essential to the exercise of free speech, free thought, and free association."
Yet we continue to hear the "nothing to hide" argument. Daniel J. Solove, a professor of law at George Washington University, examines the argument in detail and exposes its flaws in an excerpt from his new book, Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy and Security:
- Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have 'Nothing to Hide', by Daniel J. Solove, Chronicle of Higher Education, "The Chronicle Review" (May 15, 2011) [subscription required] Commentators often attempt to refute the nothing-to-hide argument by pointing to things people want to hide. But the problem with the nothing-to-hide argument is the underlying assumption that privacy is about hiding bad things. By accepting this assumption, we concede far too much ground and invite an unproductive discussion about information that people would very likely want to hide. As the computer-security specialist [Bruce] Schneier aptly notes, the nothing-to-hide argument stems from a faulty "premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong." Surveillance, for example, can inhibit such lawful activities as free speech, free association, and other First Amendment rights essential for democracy.
Chapter 1 of the book is also freely available:
- Nothing To Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy And Security, Chapter 1, by Solove, Daniel J., Yale University Press, 2011. SSRN.
Solove argues that, in many cases, privacy issues never get balanced against conflicting interests. Bruce Schneier, the security expert Solove quotes above and the author of the excellent monthly newsletter, Crypto-Gram, makes a similar argument in a recent presentation on security issues:
- The security mirage, Bruce Schneier. TEDxPSU. (Oct 2010), video, 21 min.
As we have mentioned here before, (see, for example, Will GPO guarantee user privacy? Can it? and PRIVACY: Key Challenges Facing Federal Agencies and "Policy neutral" does not mean "neutral policies"), privacy has important policy implications for individual FDLP libraries and their approaches to access to government information. What is your library policy? Will your library choose to retain its role as a protector of privacy, or will it abandon that role to government agencies?
Continue readingBuilding the Digital Smithsonian Libraries
Building the Digital Smithsonian Libraries, by Erin Thomas, Smithsonian Libraries (May 13, 2011).
As you may already know, the Libraries has been busy digitizing scientific legacy literature as part of the global partnership that makes up the Biodiversity Heritage Library for some time now — the BHL recently published its 90,500th volume! But as you may not have yet noticed, the Libraries has also begun scanning select titles from our History, Art, and Culture collections as well. The Libraries scans roughly 150 History, Art, and Culture titles each month, and those scans are freely available from the Smithsonian Collection at the Internet Archive. At press time, the collection holds 3,838 items!Continue reading
New site: DigitalLiteracy.gov
Digital Literacy, National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The site has links to resources including "educator tools," job skills, success stories, and a central space where practitioners can share ideas and interact through discussion forums.
The Digital Literacy portal is an initiative of the Obama Administration to serve as a valuable resource to practitioners who are delivering digital literacy training and services in their communities. As more and more jobs and educational offerings are available online, the ability to navigate the Internet is critical to participate more fully in the economy. Jumpstarted by a federal interagency working group dedicated to spurring the advancement of digital literacy across all age groups and stages of learning, the Digital Literacy portal organizes content conveniently, enables valuable discussion and collaboration among users and elevates best practices to improve the quality of digital literacy offerings. We invite users to share their content and their ideas to make the portal more robust and to fulfill its role as a destination for practitioners devoted to enhancing digital opportunity for all Americans.Continue reading
Open government requires accessibility, not just data
Open government requires accessibility, not just data, specialists say, By Joseph Marks, NextGov (05/11/2011).
The State Department website, for example, doesn't have a link for passport information on its homepage, even though the largest share of people visiting the site are there for that reason.... About a quarter of the Agriculture Department's home page is taken up by a graphic celebrating the 50th anniversary of the department's Economic Research Service ... even though that's likely not a major reason people visit the site.Continue reading
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