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FCC’s new Open Internet Blog
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. Continue reading
Gov’t Unveils New Short URLs
Gov't Unveils New Short URLs, By Andrew Noyes National Journal, "Tech Daily Dose" (October 13, 2009).
The General Services Administration on Tuesday announced a new application that allows government employees to shorten their Web addresses. Go.USA.gov lets officials create short .gov URLs out of any .gov, .mil, or .si.edu URLs. As of 5:30 p.m., Go.USA.gov has shortened 249 URLs that have been clicked 14,299 times.Continue reading
Putting Congress In Your Pocket
Putting Congress In Your Pocket, By Andrew Noyes, National Journal "Tech Daily Dose (October 13, 2009).
Want to find a congressional office phone number or a Hill aide's e-mail address? Review a bill or peek at a member's Twitter feed? There's an app for that.Continue reading
More about Federal Register in XML
The Open House Project mailing list has been abuzz this week with discussion about the availability of the Federal Register in XML format. I cannot remember a time when government information has had so many active followers and supporters and such intense interest outside the FDLP community. This is an indication of how important this change in distribution is to the public. Now, Carl Malamud has an interview with Raymond Mosley, Director of the Office of the Federal Register and Michael L. Wash, the Chief Information Officer of the Government Printing Office (O'Reilly Radar, Oct 6, 2009). Wash says that GPO plans to add data feeds (e.g., RSS) for the FR in the near future. Check out Carl's interview for an up-to-date, behind-the-scenes view of this important news. Continue reading
Federal Register in XML
The Federal Register is now available in XML for download from data.gov and GPO's FDSys (http://www.fdsys.gov/fdsys/bulkdata/FR).
- Federal Register 2.0: Opening a Window onto the Inner Workings of Government, by Ray Mosley, White House blog, (Oct. 5, 2009).
- A More Web-Friendly Register With Federal Data in XML Form, Users Have New Options, By Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post (October 5, 2009).
- Federal Register XML Release, By John Wonderlich Sunlight Foundation blog (10/05/09). "
Now that the XML will be available, we can expect to see a renaissance of public reuse of Federal Register data. Sites that let you follow government activity by geographical or issue area will now feature more reliable, more timely data, since all that scraping and parsing will now be unnecessary. More advanced analysis will also be possible as well, allowing for trends and patterns to more readily emerge from this vital collection of national information.According to the documentation, this version is not "official" -- yet.
The XML-structured files offered for bulk download are not part of the official on-line format of the Federal Register. While GPO’s XML files are based on the original source data submitted by Federal agencies, OFR markup, and GPO typesetting and composition markup in SGML, only the PDF and Text versions of Federal Register content on GPO Access and FDsys have legal status as parts of the official online format of the Federal Register. Additional development will be required before OFR/GPO can specify that XML files are a part of the official online edition of the Federal Register.Continue reading
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