Open Data Sites: State, Local, International
Looking for open data at the state, city, agency, or international level? The U.S. Data.gov site has a page of links:
It lists 29 states, 11 cities, 172 agencies and sub-agencies, and 21 countries with open data web sites. Continue readingPublic Printer Boarman Appears On News Program
From GPO Press Release announcing Boarman's appearance on a Washington D.C. television news show:
Public Printer Boarman Appears On NBC 4 News Program FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 27, 2011 No. 11-55 PUBLIC PRINTER BOARMAN APPEARS ON NBC 4 NEWS PROGRAM WASHINGTON-Public Printer Bill Boarman was a guest on NBC 4's Viewpoint program. Boarman discussed a variety of issues about the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) with NBC 4's anchor Jim Handly. The half-hour news program focused on GPO's role in meeting the information needs of Congress, the White House, and Federal agencies. Boarman and Handly also discussed GPO's 150th anniversary and transformation into the digital information platform for the Federal Government.
State Agency Databases Activity Report: 9/25/2011
This has been an exciting week at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases. On Wednesday, Daniel Cornwall gave a talk as part of the North Carolina Library Association Government Documents section's Accidental Government Information Librarian series. You can find the recording to his presenation at http://www.nclaonline.org/government-resources/grs-past-events along with other webinars that the NCLA's Lynda Kellam has coordinated. One of the attendees was Lynn McClelland, who has created our first subject-based list of databases since 2008. Her page on healthcare practioner databases can be found at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/Healthcare_practitioners_databases. It currently features a number of resources from three states and will be under heavy construction for the next month or so. ORPHAN NEWS Another attendee of the NCLA webinar is considering adopting Texas. While we let them ponder that choice, our last official orphan is Rhode Island. If you're interested in adopting Rhode Island, check out our volunteer guide at http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/SADATFS_Volunteer_Guide and then send me an e-mail if you'd like to adopt it. If you adopt Rhode Island, be prepared to put your name and contact information on the main project page AND your state page within two weeks of receiving your wiki login. See the Volunteer guide for more details. WIKI ACTIVITY See our last seven days of activity at http://tinyurl.com/statedbs for a blow by blow description of changes to the page. Here are a few highlights: DATABASES ADDED ALASKA (Daniel Cornwall) Tobacco Endorsements - Search for licenses to sell tobacco by business license number, business name, street name or number or city. DELAWARE (John Stevenson) Vanity Plate Search and Reservation This Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles site helps one visualize and reserve vanity plates. MICHIGAN (Michael McDonnell) Bureaus of Health Professions and Health Systems license verification Continue reading
FCC Rules: Preserving the Open Internet
The Federal Communications Commission has published its Final Rule on Preserving the Open Internet. Hat tip to Benton's Communications-Related Headlines:
- Preserving the Open Internet. AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule. 47 CFR Parts 0 and 8 [GN Docket No. 09–191; WC Docket No. 07–52; FCC 10–201] 59192 Federal Register Vol. 76, No. 185/Friday, September 23, 2011, Rules and Regulations. This Report and Order establishes protections for broadband service to preserve and reinforce Internet freedom and openness. The Commission adopts three basic protections that are grounded in broadly accepted Internet norms, as well as our own prior decisions. First, transparency: fixed and mobile broadband providers must disclose the network management practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms of their broadband services. Second, no blocking: fixed broadband providers may not block lawful content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices; mobile broadband providers may not block lawful Web sites, or block applications that compete with their voice or video telephony services. Third, no unreasonable discrimination: fixed broadband providers may not unreasonably discriminate in transmitting lawful network traffic.
NASA ringtones
Need I say more?
- Download NASA Sounds Here's a collection of NASA sounds from historic spaceflights and current missions. You can hear the roar of a space shuttle launch or Neil Armstrong's "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind" every time you get a phone call. Or, you can hear the memorable words "Houston, we've had a problem," every time you make an error on your computer. We have included both MP3 and M4R (iPhone) sound files to download.