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Progress in release of government data
Bringing government up to data. by Abby Phillip and Kim Hart. Politico (7/20/10)
Their goal: Create government websites that are more like an Apple app store than the Department of Motor Vehicles. And for Vivek Kundra, Jeffrey Zients and Aneesh Chopra, that means trying to turn Obama’s vision of data-driven and digital government into reality.Continue reading
Washington Post on “Top Secret America”
"The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work." So begins an investigation by the Washington Post.
"Top Secret America" is a project nearly two years in the making that describes the huge national security buildup in the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.... The articles in this series and an online database at topsecretamerica.com depict the scope and complexity of the government's national security program through interactive maps and other graphics. Every data point on the Web site is substantiated by at least two public records.... The Top Secret America database was put together by compiling hundreds of thousands of public records of government organizations and private-sector companies.The chief reporters are Dana Priest, author of the 2003 book, The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace With America's Military, and William M. Arkin, author or co-authored more than a dozen books about the U.S. military and national security. Gary has a nice road map to the web site of information at Resource Shelf: Several New Databases From the Washington Post Investigative Series, "Top-Secret America". Continue reading
Diplomatic Tweets
"On Twitter, Cohen, who is 28, and Ross, who is 38, are among the most followed of anyone working for the U.S. government, coming in third and fourth after Barack Obama and John McCain. This didn’t happen by chance. Their Twitter posts have become an integral part of a new State Department effort to bring diplomacy into the digital age.... Traditional forms of diplomacy still dominate, but 21st-century statecraft is not mere corporate rebranding — swapping tweets for broadcasts. It represents a shift in form and in strategy — a way to amplify traditional diplomatic efforts, develop tech-based policy solutions and encourage cyberactivism. Diplomacy may now include such open-ended efforts as the short-message-service (S.M.S.) social-networking program the State Department set up in Pakistan last fall." Digital Diplomacy. By Jesse Lichtenstein, New York Times (July 12, 2010). Continue reading
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