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Legislation 2.0
Things are changing. The old ways of thinking about "government information" are becoming obsolete at Internet Speed. Check out this:
- Dick Durbin embraces community to help draft broadband legislation. David All, July 31, 2007. "I'm a Republican, so I must say I was somewhat shocked when I heard that Democratic Senator Dick Durbin was going to be posting at the popular conservative outpost, Redstate, about how best to write legislation for a national broadband strategy. But he has....[I]sn't it great that citizens now have the same access to the process as the lobbyists?"
- Legislation 2.0: A conversation with RedState. Dick Durbin, July 31, 2007.YouTube "I think this is a unique experiment in transparent government and an opportunity to demonstrate the democratic power of the internet. If we¹re successful, it could become a model for the way legislation on health care, tax policy or education is drafted in the future."
- What should we include in our national broadband strategy?, Dick Durbin, Redstate.
Amazon and CustomFlix to sell NARA films
- Amazon to Copy and Sell Archives' Footage, by Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post July 31, 2007 pC01.
"Ultimately, the accessibility of the collections and the maintenance of the collections has become such a huge burden on the federal government, the question is how to provide some sort of self-sustaining mechanism for use of these collections."This deal provides one vision of how to provide accessibility and maintenance. Another path would have the government and libraries taking responsibility to preserve such content and make it freely available. Continue reading
The House Floor a-Twitter
twitter.com/HouseFloor has live updates from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, updated every five minutes with any new information from: clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.html . This is in beta testing mode... Continue reading
Less information about Iraq
What the New York times called the "banal bureaucracy of government information" is the day-to-day responsibility of government information professionals. In the last few years, we've seen more and more cases of the government hiding some of the most useful "banal" information. Here is the most recent example:
- U.S. drops Baghdad electricity reports by Noam N. Levey and Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2007.
As the Bush administration struggles to convince lawmakers that its Iraq war strategy is working, it has stopped reporting to Congress a key quality-of-life indicator in Baghdad: how long the power stays on. ...The change, a State Department spokesman said, reflects a technical decision by reconstruction officials in Baghdad...Continue reading
Emerging geoWeb tools give agencies new ways to put their data to use
This is a really interesting article, particularly for those who have GIS or data mixed in with their government information responsibilities.
- Taking it to the streets by Patrick Marshall, GCN 07/23/07
With the geoWeb, however, the federal government has found itself with two major roles from the get-go. First, federal agencies are providing much of the data behind the geoWeb explosion. Second, government is finding the geoWeb to be an effective way to deliver information directly to citizens via its own Web applications.Don't miss the sidebars: Continue reading
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