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Why open formats are important for government information
Have you ever tried to open a WordPerfect document when all you have is Microsoft Word? Or maybe you've received a Microsoft Works document and found that your version of Word won't open it. If you've been around documents for a while, perhaps you've tried to open some of the spreadsheets that agencies distributed in Lotus format and found that you couldn't open the files If so, you've experienced first-hand the problem that Aliya Sternstein describes in an article about the importance of open formats for government information:
- The Risks Of Software Choice In E-Government, by Aliya Sternstein, National Journal's Technology Daily, (Sept. 20, 2007 pm edition)
One of the big technological battles going on now is between the truly open ODF format and Microsoft's so-called open format, OOXML. Sternstein writes "Microsoft and its supporters maintain that having a choice between any and all open file formats would be advantageous for governments" but that "[g]iving U.S. agencies a choice in file formats could be bad for record-keeping because down the road, records might be saved in different, non-compatible formats or agencies might be held hostage by one company's product line."
Will Rodger, public policy director with the Computer and Communications Industry Association, says:
"It is hugely ironic that promoters of OOXML and critics of ODF say you need to look at what their technologies do. As far as we can tell, the greatest impetus for the development of OOXML is to create technologies that perpetuate the proprietary lock-in [that] governments were trying to eliminate in the first place."
(See also: Government Information in Legacy Formats: Scaling a Pilot Project to Enable Long-Term Access, by Gretchen Gano and Julie Linden, D-Lib Magazine (July/August 2007) Volume 13 Number 7/8, and a project a colleague of mine, Doug Tower, worked on several years ago, the UCSD GPO Data Migration Project and the page that describes some of the processing for that project, Processing and Quality Control. Also see: Microsoft vs. Open Formats.)
Continue readingHotlining bills: ‘Hearings? We don’t need no stinkin’ hearings!’
What happens to the record of congress, public input, even roll-call votes when members of congress are given 15 minutes to object to a bill being automatically approved? Roll Call has the story:
- 'Hotlined' Bills Spark Concern, by John Stanton, Roll Call, September 17, 2007 [subscription required, but a copy is freely available here]
Senate conservatives are upset that the leaders of both parties in the chamber have in recent years increasingly used a practice known as "hotlining" bills -- previously used to quickly move noncontroversial bills or simple procedural motions -- to pass complex and often costly legislation, in some cases with little or no public debate.
The increase was particularly noticeable just before the August recess, when leaders hotlined more than 150 bills, totaling millions of dollars in new spending, in a period of less than a week.
The practice has led to complaints from Members and watchdog groups alike that lawmakers are essentially signing off on legislation neither they nor their staff have ever read, often resulting in millions of dollars in new spending.
...According to the Library of Congress' legislative database THOMAS, of the 399 bills or resolutions passed by the Senate this year -- which range from recess adjournment resolutions to the Iraq War supplemental bill -- only 29 have been approved by a roll-call vote. The rest have been moved via unanimous consent agreements, the vast majority of which were brokered using the hotline process.
(See also, just for fun, the Stinking Badges Home Page)
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Database of News Stories Based on FOIA
The Sunshine in Government Initiative has a new database of news articles and stories that are based on documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests:
Read more about the database and how to search it here:
- The FOIA Files: Stories that FOIA Made Possible
Countless media outlets, government watchdog groups and individual Americans have used the federal Freedom of Information Act to obtain important information on how -- and how well -- their government operates, knowledge that is crucial to a well-functioning democracy.- Systemic failures keep two million veterans & widows from benefits owed them.
- Military tells next of kin one story about combat deaths, documents tell another.
- $1.2 billion & 6 years not enough to start up anti-terror data mining.
The Sunshine in Government Initiative is a coalition of media groups committed to promoting policies that ensure the government is accessible, accountable and open.
Continue readingCLIR Seeks Public Comment on White Paper
Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization By Oya Rieger
CLIR Seeks Public Comment on White Paper: Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization
The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) seeks public comment on a white paper examining preservation issues relevant to large-scale digitization projects such as those being done by Google, Microsoft, and the Open Content Alliance. The paper, Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization, was written by Oya Rieger, Interim Assistant University Librarian for Digital Library and Information Technologies at Cornell University Library. It is available at http://www.clir.org/activities/details/mdpres.html.
The paper identifies issues that will influence the availability and usability, over time, of the digital books being created by large-scale digitizing projects, and considers the relationship of these new resources to our print collections. It concludes with a set of recommendations for rethinking a preservation strategy.
In issuing this paper, CLIR aims to stimulate discussion among stakeholders and to generate productive thinking about collaborative approaches to enduring access. To this end, CLIR invites those who submit comments to indicate whether they would like their comments posted publicly on our Web site. CLIR will make public only those comments accompanied by permission to post (let us know if the comments are to be anonymous or signed), and all such comments will be moderated. Comments received without permission to post will be shared only with CLIR staff and the author.
Public comment is sought through Friday, October 5. Please address comments to Kathlin Smith (ksmith@clir.org). CLIR will issue a final print and electronic report later this fall.
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World Law Bulletin now available
Thanks to Steven Aftergood, the World Law Bulletin is now available.
For its own peculiar reasons, the Law Library [of the Library of Congress] has declined to make this serial available to the public....
But now a collection of back issues of World Law Bulletin, dating from October 2000 to March 2006, has become publicly available through alternate channels.
"World Law Bulletin", Secrecy News, September 10, 2007.
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