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Digital Democracy Agenda from CDT
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) has posted CDT's Congressional Agenda for the 110th Congress. Executive Summary, January 22, 2007. In addition to sections on Free Expression, Consumer Privacy, Security & Freedom, Internet Neutrality, and Digital Copyright it has a section on Digital Democracy. That section advocates:
- Congress Should Enact the Open Government Provisions in the Ethics Reform Package
- Congress Should Adopt Electronic Filing of Campaign Finance Reports
- Congress Should Enforce Open Government Obligations and Close Gaps in FOIA
- Congress Should Make Congressional Research Reports Available to the Public
New Whitepaper advocates better broadband policies
The Communications Workers of America have issued a a new forty page whitepaper, Speed Matters: Affordable High Speed Internet for All [PDF, 330kb] In it they note that Americans pay far more for much slower speeds than most other developed countries. The Japanese, for example, "have 8.5 times the speed at 1/12 of the cost." A summary of the paper is on the SpeedMatters blog: New Report: Speeding Up Our Internet and Our Economy (January 22, 2007) More about SpeedMatters in our earlier post, The Digital Divide: Speed Matters Continue reading
Doing Legislative Research or Budget Research? Here are two helpful articles
- Testing the THOMAS Beta By Peggy Garvin, LLRX January 15, 2007.
The full January issue of LLRX is now online with Peggy Garvin's article (previously mentioned here) in which she runs the THOMAS beta test site through its paces, evaluating the new search engine and enhanced navigations features, accompanied by screen shots. - Authorization and Appropriation By Paul Jenks, LLRX January 15, 2007.
Paul Jenks explains the process of key Congressional activitiy: before money can be spent, Congress must authorize the expenditure first, and then must appropriate the money to do so.
The Digital Divide: Guide, Discussion, Links
Your Guide to the Digital Divide, by Mark Glaser, MediaShift. PBS (17 January 2007)
The digital divide is the chasm separating the haves and have-nots in digital technology. On one side are people who can afford or who have access to computers, a high-speed broadband connection and the plethora of services from online banking to social networking to blogging. On the other side of the equation are people who cannot afford the technology, cannot get broadband access because of their location, or who have learning or cultural limitations to using the technology. There are many digital divides: Rural and urban; poor and rich, African-American and white; old and young; disabled and able; developing nation and developed nation. All these factors have been studied and solutions have been debated for years.Continue reading
Looking for Presidential Directives? CRS Report Helps.
The type and scope of various Presidential orders can be a bit confusing and tracking them down frustrating. This report describes Executive orders, proclamations oral presidential directive, Homeland Security Presidential Directives, Letters on Tariffs and International Trade, Military Orders, National Security Instruments, Presidential Findings, and more and lists source tools with URLs. Presidential Directives: Background and Overview [PDF], Updated January 7, 2005, by Harold C. Relyea, Specialist in American National Government Government Division. Congressional Research Service Order Code 98-611 GOV. Also see: Abstract. Continue reading
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