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Free Government Information (FGI) is a place for initiating dialogue and building consensus among the various players (libraries, government agencies, non-profit organizations, researchers, journalists, etc.) who have a stake in the preservation of and perpetual free access to government information. FGI promotes free government information through collaboration, education, advocacy and research.

Lunchtime Listen: Greg Elin on One Click Disclosure

Here is a short, informative interview from NPR. You can listen online or download. It is only about 6 minutes long -- more of a coffee-break listen! One Click Disclosure, On the Media, (January 16, 2009). "Government spending data has long been publicly available but it's never been easier to find and interpret. That's thanks to USAspending.gov, a site created by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 which was sponsored by Tom Coburn and Barack Obama. The Sunlight Foundation's Greg Elin explains what makes the site so revolutionary. " Continue reading

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Government Twitter Directory

There is a directory of government agencies using Twitter: GovTwit and you can, of course, follow GovTwit on Twitter: twitter.com/GovTwit. Mission:

"Looking for government agencies using Twitter or other social media? We want the GovTwit directory to include all facets of government on Twitter: state and local, federal, contractors, reporters, academics and more. The list will be a living list, and we hope to keep it updated via our own research, as well as your submissions...."
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Dept. of Labor Web Archiving Project

Starting on January 5, 2009, the Department of Labor (DOL) archived all DOL agency Web sites as they existed at that time.

According to the GCN article, the Department was concerned that, in the Library of Congress project to crawl and harvest agency web sites at the end of the Bush administration, the Department had no control over what would be archived and when and there will be limitations on what gets preserved and the searchability of those pages. The Department's snapshot will give it control over dates and areas on the site preserved and will allow users to search for key words and text. The department estimates that it has roughly 1.6 million pages of information. With a service agreement with the Internet Archive, the department will be able to archive up to 5 million Web pages and related documents over the course of a year. The Internet Archive is also working separately with the Energy Department, the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine. Continue reading

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FOIA and other documents in the Government Attic

governmentattic.org describes itself this way:

governmentattic.org provides electronic copies of hundreds of interesting Federal Government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Fascinating historical documents, reports on items in the news, oddities and fun stuff and government bloopers, they're all here. Think of browsing this site as rummaging through the Government's Attic -- hence our name.
Bruce Schneier says of one document that has recently show up at governmentattic, "Just declassified by the NSA, this document -- A History of U.S. Communications Security (Volumes I and II); the David G. Boak Lectures, National Security Agency (NSA), 1973 -- is definitely worth reading. The first sections are highly redacted, but the remainder is fascinating." Continue reading

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International Perspective: Making Government More Transparent

The government consulting firm Accenture has released a report in which they analyze their research to help public service organizations around the world serve citizens better.

They conclude that governments need to move beyond a focus on service transactions and focus more on transparency of government decision making. They found that "When customers feel better informed about services and performance and believe that their government is accountable for what it achieves, they trust their government more." The report does not mention anything about public access to or preservation of information, but focuses instead on short-term open communications, transparency, and accountability. It does mention the use of libraries including having government "mobile ambassadors" at public internet terminals to help ensure access to government information. See also: Benchmark for Obama's Web 2.0 Vision, By Allan Holmes, NextGov, Jan. 13, 2009. Continue reading

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