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Financial Crisis Commission report released to the cloud
The final report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was released on Thursday. Or as Frank Portnoy, in a NYT opinion piece today described it, three reports: "a 410-page volume signed by the commission’s six Democrats, a leaner 10-pronged dissent from three of the four Republicans, and a nearly 100-page dissent-from-the-dissent filed by Peter J. Wallison, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute." GPO has quickly created a purl for the report (http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo3449) which is linked to from the commission's Web site (and already available from Marcive and embedded in my library's catalog record). But what's more interesting is that the main link to the commission report -- http://c0182732.cdn1.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/fcic_final_report_full.pdf -- is actually hosted on RackSpace, a cloud Web services company. It's interesting not only because the commission decided to publish their report with a private company -- and one not even listed at the GSA's apps.gov portal for .gov contracting of cloud services -- but that they couldn't even spoof the url so it *looked* like it was coming from a .gov server. This brings into question whether the commission's report is in the public domain as it is actually hosted on a non-.gov server. I've collected it with the Stanford library's EEMs tool (here's a project briefing from fall 2010 CNI meeting brief about Everyday Electronic Materials (EEMs)). But part of the EEMs process is a workflow for managing copyright issues. I'm assuming it IS in the public domain as the work of an official US govt organ, but how would Stanford University's general counsel (or IP lawyers in general) read this? This will no doubt be a growing and ongoing concern. Continue reading
Watch Obama’s 2nd SOTU address with Sunlight
I'm sure all you policy wonks are itching to hear President Obama's second [w:State of the Union address] (SOTU) tonight (9PM EST / 6PM PST). There has been plenty of news coverage prognosticating about what Obama will talk about. WI Representative Paul Ryan is scheduled to give the Republican response to Obama's SOTU. If you're REALLY wonky, you'll definitely want to tune in to Sunlight Live where you'll get the CSPAN live video, live real time blogging with Sunlight Foundation, Huffington Post, Center for Public Integrity, National Journal and CQ Roll Call, government transparency data and twitter coverage all wrapped into one page! Sunlight's coverage will begin 30 minutes before SOTU starts. Thanks Sunlight! Continue reading
Mary Alice Baish named GPO Superintendent of Documents
Congratulations to our friend Mary Alice Baish (nee Director of Government Relations for the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)) for being named Assistant Public Printer and Superintendent of Documents at the Government Printing Office (GPO). This is an important position at a critical time for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). We look forward to working with Mary Alice on the many issues pertaining to the realization of the digital FDLP. Congratulations again Mary Alice!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 20, 2011 No. 11-04 MEDIA CONTACT: GARY SOMERSET 202.512.1957, 202.355.3997 cell gsomerset@gpo.gov LIBRARY ADVOCATE BECOMES SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS WASHINGTON – Public Printer Bill Boarman has named Mary Alice Baish Assistant Public Printer, Superintendent of Documents, for the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). This position is the agency's lead in guaranteeing permanent public access to Government information published by the three branches of the Federal Government. Baish will oversee GPO's Library Services & Content Management unit, Publication & Information Sales unit and the management of GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys www.fdsys.gov), which is a one-stop site to authentic, published Government information. In her role, Baish will work with more than 1,200 Federal depository libraries nationwide, through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), to ensure Government information is available in all forms to the public. Link to photo: http://gpo.gov/images/news-media/management/Baish_180.jpg “Mary Alice has been a strong advocate for GPO and the library community throughout her entire career, which makes her a natural choice to assume this important position for the agency,” said Public Printer Bill Boarman. “Her vision and experience with open Government initiatives will be an asset to the FDLP and GPO’s effort through FDsys in making Federal Government information open and transparent for the American people.” Throughout Baish's career, she has worked with all sectors of the library community, testifying before Congressional committees on behalf of GPO, and has been a leading voice in developing electronic systems to disseminate Government information. Prior to her appointment at GPO, she previously served as the Director of Government Relations for the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), a nonprofit educational organization that serves the information needs of the legal community. Baish has worked closely with Congressional committees, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Federal agencies and the Administration in developing policies and legislation that promote the needs of libraries, the legal community and the American public. She is among the founding members of OpenTheGovernment.org (OTG.org), an organization created to promote democracy and end Government secrecy. She has worked with OTG.org, the White House and Office of Management and Budget in implementing President Obama’s Open Government Directive and with auditing agency Open Government Plans. She has written and spoken extensively about e-government information policy and is a past member of the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer. She is a resident of Fairfax Station, VA, and holds a master's degree in Library and Information Studies from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and an Ed.M. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. GPO is the Federal Government’s primary centralized resource for gathering, cataloging, producing, providing, authenticating, and preserving published U.S. Government information in all its forms. GPO is responsible for the production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the Federal Government. In addition to publication sales, GPO makes Government information available at no cost to the public through GPO’s Federal Digital System (www.fdsys.gov) and through partnerships with approximately 1,220 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library Program. For more information, please visit www.gpo.gov. Follow GPO on Twitter http://twitter.com/USGPO and on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/gpoprinter.Continue reading
Martin Luther King Jr.: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”*
Today the US celebrates the life of Dr [w:Martin Luther King, Jr.] one of the leaders of the civil rights movement in the 1960s and one of the greatest orators in US history. King was a champion for civil rights for African Americans as well as economic justice for all poor people and organized the [w:Poor People’s Campaign]. He spoke out against all injustice including against the Vietnam War. King received the [w:Nobel Peace Prize] on December 10, 1964 for his work for civil rights and economic justice. He was assassinated at the age of 39 on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, TN. Martin Luther King Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986. *The quote in the title of this post is from "Letter from Birmingham Jail" an open letter written on April 16, 1963 in response to a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen on April 12, 1963, titled "A Call For Unity."
Public comments on Ithaka S+R draft findings document
January 24, 2011 / Leave a comment
Attached for your reading "pleasure" are our collaborative comments on the Ithaka S+R draft findings report released on 1/14/11. Once again, we've done a collective stream of consciousness, inserting comments, suggestions, citations etc within the draft text of the Findings report. Please forward to those individuals, groups and listservs for which the FDLP modeling project has import. And by all means, please contact the Ithaka S+R project team at FDLP-modeling@ithaka.org as soon as possible with your own comments, ideas, suggestions etc. We'd appreciate if any comments sent to Ithaka S+R be posted here in the comments section so that the FDLP community can be informed. Continue reading →
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