Author Archives: James A Jacobs

An interesting development for government information specialists is the use of video sharing sites by government agencies (U.S. Military's "Multi-National Force" on YouTube) and by politicians. Technology Daily has a story, which says that by the end of the year, according to according to Karina Newton, the director of new media for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "most members of Congress will be using video-sharing sites like YouTube in some way."

• Experts Predict Web Video Revolution On The Hill, by Heather Greenfield, National Journal's Technology Daily, May 2, 2007 PM edition. [subscription required]

While morning floor speeches often are delivered to a largely empty chamber, the excerpts already have been seen 100,000 times.

Is this just a channel for delivering content that we already have in our libraries in the form of The Congressional Record and other documents? or is the particular aggregation of content on a particular site of interest to librarians to point to today and to save for the future? One thing we do know is that the folks maintaining these sites have a different view of "long-term" access than librarians do. "Jeff Weingarten, president of Interface Media Group, noted that unlike with television, the video 'lives on forever.'" Of course, his perspective of "forever" is in contrast to the life of a political ad on TV, not the perspective of maintaining this information past the current election cycle. Interestingly, some Republicans think that YouTube is too liberal and have set up an alternative called QubeTV.tv, "dedicated to bringing your conservative take on politics and culture to the Internet."

• QubeTV set as YouTube alternative, By Eric Pfeiffer, The Washington Times, May 2, 2007

Republican White House veterans Charlie Gerow and Jeff Lord have created a new conservative video Web site called QubeTV, which they describe as an alternative to YouTube, a popular clearinghouse for sharing video files. ...Both Mr. Gerow and Mr. Lord, who served as aides during the Reagan administration, say QubeTV is necessary because of what they view as an anti-conservative bias by the administrators of YouTube.

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House Panel Investigates Over-Classification of Federal Information National Coalition for History April 27th, 2007

On April 26, 2007, the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment held a hearing to consider the problem of over-classification, and “pseudo-classification,” of government information. At issue are the federal government’s attempts to standardize procedures for the treatment of what is referred to as “Sensitive But Unclassified” (SBU) information. There are currently 107 different markings for sensitive information that has led to over-classification and a reluctance to disseminate information to state and local law enforcement agencies. In addition, some 280 laws and 150 regulations control the handling of classified information.

Selected testimony and statements are already available:

• Hearing on The Over-Classification and Pseudo-Classification of Government Information: The Response of the Program Manager of the Information Sharing Environment House Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment April 26, 2007

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According to the L.A. Times, the U.S. military is "offering up its side of the war" on YouTube at a site maintained by the Multi-National Force - Iraq.

• U.S. military shows its side of Iraq war on YouTube, by Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times, May 1, 2007.

  The channel was the brainchild of the U.S. military's "Web masters": Brent Walker and Erick Barnes, two former Marines contracted to maintain the Multi-National Force-Iraq website from a small office in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

• YouTube Multi-National Force - Iraq MNFIRAQ

Multi-National Force - Iraq established this YouTube channel to give viewers around the world a "boots on the ground" perspective of Operation Iraqi Freedom from those who are fighting it. Video clips document action as it appeared to personnel on the ground and in the air as it was shot. We will only edit video clips for time, security reasons, and/or overly disturbing or offensive images.

According the the Times, "This is not the first time the military has delved into the world of online video sharing. The U.S. Navy launched a YouTube channel in November, and the Army followed in February. But they served mostly as recruiting tools, and have drawn a fraction of the viewers of the Multi-National Force-Iraq channel, with its raw footage from the battlefront." I do not know what this means in terms of these videos being official government publications. They are evidently created by the U.S. military, though, and seem to be an integral part of the history of the way the military wishes to portray itself and the war in Iraq. It is difficult to sort out the difference between this and "information warfare" (see What is Information Warfare? and Information Operations Roadmap). The site also allows comments from the public. Interestingly, the Multi-National Force site says, "All content on MNF-Iraq.com is public domain and may be used freely." Continue reading →

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The first article in a weekly series, exclusively in The Hill, exploring the recommendations of the Sunlight Foundation's Open House Project, which advocates online transparency in Congress is now available.

• Give bloggers Capitol access, by Robert B. Bluey, The Hill, April 30, 2007.

Bluey is director of the Center for Media & Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation and maintains a blog at RobertBluey.com. He authored the "Citizen Journalism Access" chapter for the Open House Project. The full report is scheduled for release on May 8. The OpenHouse Project (a project of the Sunlight Foundation) is discussing ways to "open up the House." It will suggest changes "where the internet and Congressional procedures come together" to identify areas where Congress can open up and allow all of us to have more information and access." It is a temporary working group designed to make recommendations to Congress on how to begin making the House of Representatives more open and facilitate communications. Forthcoming Op-Eds will address: Legislation Database, Preserving Congressional Information, Congressional Committees, CRS Reports, Member Web-Use Restrictions, House Clerk's Office, and Coordinating Web Standards. Continue reading →

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