Conflict of interest at DARPA being investigated by Department of Defense Inspector General (IG)
This is a fascinating look into conflict of interest within the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). According to the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) -- which always reminds me of Pogo the comic: "we have met the enemy and he is us" :-) -- they sent a letter to DARPA which prompted an investigation into DARPA Director Regina Dugan's possible conflict of interest in awarding contracts to a company she used to own and which is now run by her father:
The Department of Defense Inspector General (IG) is auditing the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and looking into financial ties of DARPA Director Regina Dugan after POGO called for an investigation into potential conflicts of interest at the agency. The audits will cover two areas: all of DARPA's contracts and grants from the last two years and a special look at the contracts awarded to RedXDefense, a bomb detection firm founded by Dugan and currently run by Dugan’s father. The Pentagon IG explained the audits in a letter to POGO sent on Friday. In addition to having family ties to the company, Dugan still has a financial relationship with RedXDefense. “RedXDefense owes Dugan $250,000 for a “loan/note” and additionally details that she has between $151,000 and $305,000 in assets and income from RedXDefense,” we said in a May 9, 2011, letter to the Department of Defense Inspector General.here's more explanation from Wired's Spencer Ackerman, who tracks these types of issues via the Wired Danger Room blog.
Monthly Roundup: 11 New U.S. Government Mobile Apps Added to USA.gov Directory
During the past month we've posted about 11 new apps (all free) posted in the USA.gov directory. Several apps are iPhone only while others are available for Android devices. A couple are web apps that should be accessible using any mobile web browser. 1. Three New Mobile Apps from U.S. Government Organizations Apps from the FBI, NPS, and GSA. 2. Two New Mobile Apps from U.S. Gov Organizations Includes apps from the NSF and Smithsonian. 3. Six New Apps (Including A Few To Help With Relaxation) Apps from NOAA and the National Center for Telehealth and Technology Continue reading
State Agency Databases Activity Report: 8/14/2011
ORPHAN NEWS This week was relatively quiet at the State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States project. Our list of orphan pages in need of adoption is unchanged from last week:
If you're interested in one of the above states, check out our volunteer guide and then send me an e-mail if you'd like to adopt one of the above states. If you adopt a state, 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 Looking at our last seven days of activity at http://tinyurl.com/statedbs, you can see that Adrienne Walker, our volunteer for New Mexico, was primarily responsible for what activity we had this week. DATABASES ADDED NEW MEXICO (Adrienne Walker) Sex Offender Registry - This sex offender registry has been designed to provide information to the public concerning the location of sex offenders residing in the State of New Mexico. The Department of Public Safety (DPS) hopes this site will increase and promote public awareness. ---- Quiet isn't all bad. A lot of link fixing by many volunteers has been done in the past month or so. If things are quiet this week, it's probably a sign that if a page has a volunteer, you can count on the freshness of the links. For pages without a volunteer, like Mississippi, we have some broken links, like this one: Opinions Databases - Searchable database of Attorney General opinions back to 1979. Check out the Expert Search if you want a lot of searching options, including date limitations and subject searching. If you know where the AG Opinions database for Mississippi can be found, please let me know. Or better yet, adopt Mississippi and flesh out its database list. Continue readingLinks to USGS Publications Changing
Richard Huffine, Director of USGS Libraries Program, announced on govdoc-l this week that direct links to USGS publications will be changing by September 1, 2011.
- Direct Links to USGS Publications Changing by September 1, 2011, Richard L Huffine, Discussion of Government Document Issues, (11 Aug 2011). The U.S. Geological Survey's Publications Warehouse (pubs.usgs.gov) will complete a process to migrate all of its' on-line publications into Portable Document Format (PDF) files by September 1, 2011. At that time, the USGS will no longer support the previous DJVU format for its on-line publications. Libraries and Web site managers should link to the publications citation page for USGS publications. At sometime after September 1, 2011, direct links to DJVU files will stop working and there will be no automatic redirect to the PDF version of those materials. A direct link to a USGS DVJU file currently looks like: http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/djvu/B/bull_1967.djvu Once loaded in PDF, individual publications will have a link like this: http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1967/report.pdf However, the preferred link to this publication is: http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/b1967 The citation link is the preferred link because it may include links to plates, maps, appendices, etc. as well as links to the USGS Store to purchase paper copies if they are available. This migration has been sought by members of the research community for some time. The DJVU format offered many benefits at a time when bandwidth was a challenge. The PDF format offers a consistent format for both historical and current publications and it allows users to download and use information from USGS publications in the same way that they use research journal articles and other scientific research products. Over 70% of all USGS-published reports are available in an on-line format from the USGS Publications Warehouse. The system currently includes citations to over 100,000 research articles, reports, and products produced by the USGS over the last 130 years. The system also offers an RSS feed to keep users of earth and natural science research informed about the products of the USGS. Richard Huffine, Director USGS Libraries Program
Dueling Reports on NSF and the Social Sciences
Here are two reports from the Senate that have been in the news, but may not be preserved by GPO or any library. As noted here earlier, "GPO does not typically catalog majority or minority reports unless it is a joint effort within a committee." Back in April, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) released a report that he called "the first comprehensive overview of NSF."
- The National Science Foundation: Under The Microscope. "A report by Tom A. Coburn, M.D., U.S. Senator, Oklahoma." (April 2011).
- Out of Focus: A Critical Assessment of the Senate Report, "The National Science Foundation: Under the Microscope". A Staff Report By The Democratic Staff Of The House Committee On Science, Space, And Technology July 5, 2011 v. 1.1.
- Social Science, Spared Again, by Ken Prewitt, Ken Prewitt, President of The Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), and professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, Science Magazine (August 5, 2011).