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What the Next President Needs to Do for the Internet
There is a great blog post over at the Center for Democracy & Technology's Policy Beta Blog: "Innovation, the Open Internet, and the Next President". It gives an overview of what our new President should do (or not do!) in regards to encouraging innovation and openness of the internet. Some points include:
One of the new president’s first tasks will be to select top officials for executive branch positions. The FCC, the FTC, DoJ, NTIA, and the new Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (created by recently passed legislation) all will have a hand in policies with potentially significant impact on the Internet...
The president also should avoid new copyright policies that fail to protect emerging forms of free expression in the digital realm...
If the next president wants to encourage innovation, preserving the open character of the broadband Internet should be a top priority, right up there with the commonly cited goal of continuing to improve the nation’s broadband infrastructure.I would also add that our new President needs to support digital preservation technologies and standards, as well as digital authentication of documents online. Here is another post on a similar vein: "Next President Has 'Open' Opportunity". The Center for Democracy & Technology also has a page entitled "The Internet in Transition" with a blueprint for keeping the internet open, innovative, and free. Continue reading
Government & Social Media @ USA.gov
Your opinions are needed! Head on over to USA.gov's Gov Gab Blog and read their latest post on Government and Social Media. They want you to take this survey and let them know what you like in regards to social media (web 2.0) and the government. USA.gov is working on a "strategy to use social media tools to better engage in conversation with the public and to deliver information and services the way you want to get it". So give them feedback and spread the word! Continue reading
CRS Reports to the People!
Now that a new administration will be coming into office soon, it is more important than ever to encourage our Government to make Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports publicly accessible online. Here at FGI, the topic of CRS Reports has been written about often, but I was inspired to create this blog post and take action after seeing Starr Hoffman’s DLC conference presentation last week (click on "Search Document" and enter "Starr Hoffman". Her PowerPoint, "Encouraging An Informed Citizenry" will come up as a PDF to download). Starr is responsible for maintaining University of North Texas's Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports Archive. In her presentation, she gives tips for writing to Congressmen and lists some past legislative efforts (Bills that never passed both houses of Congress) to make CRS Reports publicly accessible. I have gathered some other Bills, as well as all the contact information for the sponsoring Congressmen and have included them in my Delicious.com "CRS" tag as well as in this list: 1998 H.R. 3131, S. 1578 1999 H.R. 654, S. 393 2000 H.R. 4582 2001 S. Res. 21 2003 H.R. 3630, S. Res. 54 2007 H.R. 2545, S. Res. 401 Senator John McCain Introduced S. 1578, S. 393, S.Res. 21, S. Res. 54, & co-sponsored S. Res. 401 Senator Mike Enzi Co-sponsored S. 393 Senator Leahy Co-sponsored S. 393, S. Res. 21, S. Res. 54, and S. Res. 401. Senator Tom Coburn H.R. 4582 co-sponsor when he was in the House. Senator Jim DeMint Introduced H.R. 4582 when he was in the House. Senator Joe Lieberman Introduced S. Res. 401 and co-sponsored S. Res. 21 and S. Res. 54 Senator Tom Harkin Co-sponsored S. Res. 54 and S. Res. 401 Senator Susan M. Collins Co-sponsored S. Res. 401 Senator John Cornyn Co-sponsored S. Res. 401 Congressman David Price Co-sponsor for H.R. 3131, H.R. 654, H.R. 3630, and H.R. 2545 Congressman John Campbell Co-sponsored H.R. 654 Congressman Jay Inslee Co-sponsored H.R. 3630 and H.R. 2545 And you can find and contact your local Senator and your Representatives too. James A. Jacobs did a Google search this past June for "Received through the CRS Web" OR "CRS Report for Congress" combined with site:house.gov and then again for site:senate.gov and got around 600 hits with each. For example, here are some domains he found that you can search within for CRS Reports or to search for those in Congress who may support public access to CRS Reports: bartlett.house.gov, holt.house.gov, radanovich.house.gov, weldon.house.gov, bennelson.senate.gov, carper.senate.gov, lugar.senate.gov, murray.senate.gov, etc. For more information on CRS Report legislation efforts, visit this site which contains a "Campaign for Online Access" section. Spread the word about this post and good luck in writing to your Congressmen! If you have other ideas, please share them in the comments. Continue reading
Government Widgets for Your Webpages
I've caught the widget bug, thanks to Daniel Cornwall, who mentioned on Twitter that he found some nifty EPA Widgets. So, out of curiosity, I did a search for other Government Agency widgets and widgets that use government information (such as those found on Govtrack.us or the Sunlight Foundation website). I found quite a few but I know there must be more out there. I've compiled a "government widget guide" at my Gov Docs 2.0 wiki page. Please feel free to suggest others by commenting here or on the wiki page. I thought it would be nice to have a guide so you can quickly browse widgets that you may want to add to your blog or library webpages. For example, see my Environmental Law guide (a work in progress, mind you) for ideas! Continue reading
Gov Data Mashups: Apps for Democracy Contest
Are you a techie who has a passion for government information, transparency, coding, mashups, and/or web 2.0 tools? Then sign up for the Apps for Democracy contest! In conjunction with the DC Government’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, the contest is offering $20,000 in prizes to be given to 60 different creators. The goal of the contest is "to reward technology developers with cash prizes and public recognition for creating applications that are useful for the DC government and the citizens, visitors and businesses of Washington, DC." For more information, visit the Apps for Democracy website, and you can follow the contest on Twitter or through their Facebook Group. Dang...if only I was better at coding... Continue reading
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