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Labor Does More With Less: 175 datasets, 1 API
Labor Does More With Less on Streaming Data, By Joseph Marks, NextGov (June 25, 2013).
When the White House directed agencies to make at least two data services available through a streaming process known as application programming interfaces in 2012, most tech and transparency savvy agencies focused on releasing as many APIs as they could. The Health and Human Services Department, for example, released 61 APIs connecting to 61 datasets. The Labor Department took a different tack, releasing 175 datasets through a single API.Continue reading
Schneier on Government Secrets and the Need for Whistleblowers
Security expert Bruce Schneier makes a strong case, with lots of links to background material:
- Government Secrets and the Need for Whistleblowers by Bruce Schneier Crypto-Gram Newsletter (June 15, 2013). The U.S. government is on a secrecy binge. It overclassifies more information than ever. And we learn, again and again, that our government regularly classifies things not because they need to be secret, but because their release would be embarrassing. Knowing how the government spies on us is important. Not only because so much of it is illegal -- or, to be as charitable as possible, based on novel interpretations of the law -- but because we have a right to know. Democracy requires an informed citizenry in order to function properly, and transparency and accountability are essential parts of that. That means knowing what our government is doing to us, in our name. That means knowing that the government is operating within the constraints of the law. Otherwise, we're living in a police state.
Canada set to privatize public documents, papers, and data for 10 years
We have seen this happen before in the U.S. (See, for example: The NARA/TGN contract as a bad precedent and GAO *did* sell exclusive access to legislative history to Thomson West) and Canada (Help save the Library & Archives Canada), but this seems like a particularly bad, unjustifiable example of privatization of public information.
- Library and Archives Canada private deal would take millions of documents out of public domain, By Chris Cobb, OTTAWA CITIZEN (June 12, 2013). Library and Archives Canada has entered a hush-hush deal with a private high-tech consortium that would hand over exclusive rights to publicly owned books and artifacts for 10 years. ...LAC is partnering with Canadiana.org in what is being billed as The Heritage Project -- digitizing 40 million images from more than 800 collections of publicly-held LAC material, much bought by Library and Archives over the years with taxpayers' money. ...Under the agreement, digital images will begin rolling back into the free public domain -- known as "open access" -- as the 10-year exclusive rights expire.
Fister on Privacy: “Ordinary Americans”
Barbara Fister writes about privacy and government secrecy in the wake of the exposure of the government's "Prism" program and other surveillance activities.
- Ordinary Americans, by Barbara Fister, Inside Higher Ed (June 10, 2013).
- PRIVACY: Key Challenges Facing Federal Agencies (2006)
- Privacy and the "Terrorist Surveillance Act" (2006) The "Terrorist Surveillance Act" is misnamed. It doesn't authorize the government to spy on terrorists, it authorizes the government to spy on everyone hoping that it can find terrorists.
- Turkle on Privacy (2007)
- Privacy: "I have nothing to hide" (2007)
- Siva on Privacy and 'the Nonopticon' (2008)
- Privacy: "I have nothing to hide" (2011)
- Privacy in the value chain: an important role for libraries past and future (2011)
- Privacy then and now: Some history of the "Patriot" Act (2011)
- more...
International List of Transparency Organizations
The Sunlight Foundation is compiling a list of "transparency advocates" (CSOs, groups, networks, government projects) from all around the world. They are making their findings public as a spreadsheet available as a google doc ( https://docs.google.com/a/sunlightfoundation.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoQuErjcV2a0dF85QTRRSEFtR3pfcjN4VHdwLVYzSXc#gid=0 ). In addition to name and URL, the list includes focus areas and social media links and much more. So far they have a list of over 500 opengov groups across the globe. If you don't see your transparency organization in the list, submit information about it to Sunlight Foundation here: http://snlg.ht/19tUoCS
- International Transparency Organizations, Sunlight Foundation.
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