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National Freedom of Information Coalition Conference
The National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) will hold a national conference, entitled, "2008 FOI Summit", May 9-10, 2008 in Philadelphia, PA. Here are some of the panels: FOI Reform Efforts: Rewriting your state's laws? FOI 2.0: Wikis and podcasts and blogs, oh my! Sunshine Week Roundtable Coalition Care and Feeding Continue reading
Google on Open Document Formats
"A document standards decision may not matter to you today, but as someone who relies on constant access to editable documents, spreadsheets and presentations, it may matter immensely in the near future."
So says a post this week on the Official Google blog.
- A renewed wish for open document standards, by Zaheda Bhorat, Google Open Source Programs Manager, Official Google Blog, Feb 25, 2008.
There is a battle going on over open document formats that can affect the long term accessibility of government information. The battle is being waged by Microsoft, which wants its OOXML format to be adopted as an international standard instead of the truly open ODF format.
This week Google weighed in on the issue and summed up the complex issues quite succinctly, noting that:
Google believes OOXML would be an insufficient and unnecessary standard, designed purely around the needs of Microsoft Office.
...We join the ODF Alliance and many other experts in our belief that OOXML doesn't meet the criteria required for a globally-accepted standard.
Why? because OOXML attempts to make the functionality of Microsoft Office into the "standard." That would be bad because it elevates the importance of the software over the importance of the document. Of course, the question about whether or not the government should release information in the form of "editable documents" at all is another question, but since it does, the issue of open formats for editiable documents is an important one for government information.
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Pending Transparency Legislation
Here’s a list of pending legislation relevant to government openness and transparency maintained by The Open House Project..
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Congressional Committees – Secrecy and Delayed Transparency
Perla Ni of VoterWatch says, "We just did a survey of what transcripts/audio/video is available from Congressional Committees. What we've found is pretty sad. Here's the state of available video/audio/transcript for House and Senate committees." (Transparency of committee hearings - transcript/audio/video , Perla Ni, Open House Project group, Sep 4, 2007)
- Congressional Committees - Secrecy and Delayed Transparency
"You'll notice how many committees for which there is no audio, no video nor transcript available. Including the Ethics committee, ironically. Also, for the ones that do post video, either it's not posted until months after or it's posted, but not archived so if you miss it, you've missed it."
And Paul Blumenthal says, "Check out this study I did last year on this very topic. These two blog posts contain all my research from the 109th Congress." (reply Sep 5, 8:00 am)
- House Version: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/1596
- Senate Version: http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/1617
Version control of Congress?
What a great idea! Karl Fogel, an open-source software developer, writer and activist for copyright reform had this to say in a recent New York Times article:
Karl Fogel, president of the Subversion Corporation, which produces open-source version control software, He sees its power to shape public behavior. Think of what version control software could mean for the Congress, he was quoted as saying recently at Tim O’Reilly’s blog . If bills were created under a system where strike-throughs and additions were carefully tracked, the public would know which legislator made which change to a proposed piece of legislation as it made its way through the Capitol. At last, there would be transparency in the legislative process. Best-case scenario, it would shame legislators from inserting language against the public interest and only meant to reward political contributors; at worst, it would make such insertions public and allow the voters to punish the politicians who made them."Crossing Out, for Emphasis" by Noam Cohen. NYT 7/23/07. Continue reading
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