Searching More Than 24K Pages of Email Messages From Sarah Palin Administration
The archived email messages were released earlier today and are now beginning to roll out into searchable databases and/or PDF files. Scanned pages are being added to databases as they become available. Many news organization are asking the public for assistance in reviewing all of the pages. Yet another example of crowdsourcing government records. Here are three of several source provin 1. NY Times Search NY Times: Palin E-Mail Search http://projects.nytimes.com/palin-emails/date/2008-08-01 2. MSNBC/Mother Jones/ProPublica Search: MSNBC/Mother Jones/ProPublica http://palinemail.msnbc.msn.com/ Updates at @openchannelblog and #palinemail MSNBC Live Blog With Additional Information as it Becomes Available. Also, info about documents being withheld. http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/10/6825771-heres-your-live-blog-for-the-palin-email-release-the-first-emails-are-online-now Background from Bill Dedman at MSNBC http://msnbc.msn.com/id/43281157/ns/politics-more_politics/ 3. Washington Post PDF Files of Raw Email Messages (#1) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/palin-emails/pdf/Dec42006-Feb202007.pdf Additional Material http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/sarah-palin-emails/post/for-micro-updates-check-atpalinemails-palinemails/2011/06/10/AGPwBuOH_blog.html#pagebreak Continue reading
Thomas Drake’s Plea Deal
Secrecy News has details and documents about the plea deal in the case of former National Security Agency official Thomas A. Drake who says he shared NSA information with The Baltimore Sun in an attempt to save taxpayers' money and strengthen national security:
- Settlement Reached in Thomas Drake “Leak” Case, by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News (June 10th, 2011).
- The Secret Sharer: Is Thomas Drake an enemy of the state?, by Jane Mayer New Yorker (May 23, 2011). Binney expressed terrible remorse over the way some of his algorithms were used after 9/11. ThinThread, the "little program" that he invented to track enemies outside the U.S., "got twisted," and was used for both foreign and domestic spying: "I should apologize to the American people. It's violated everyone's rights. It can be used to eavesdrop on the whole world." According to Binney, Drake took his side against the N.S.A.'s management and, as a result, became a political target within the agency.
Planning for a digital release of the Pentagon Papers
As noted here earlier "NARA is planning a digital/textual release of the Pentagon Papers for the week of June 13, 2011. This simultaneous release will be conducted by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library, and the National Declassification Center at College Park." We're waiting for details, but NARA says that they "are looking to host a digital version on the archives.gov website, and the three Presidential libraries (Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon) are planning their own access to the same digital version." NARA will maintain its own preservation copies of digital records but will not be sending copies to GPO. http://blogs.archives.gov/ndc/?p=126 Update The archives has announced that "The materials will also be available online at http://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers/ June 13, at 12 noon EDT." According to the New York Times NARA announced Tuesday that the 11 words, which it had said would be redacted on one page of the Papers, would be published after all. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/us/08pentagon.html Continue reading
Building a Civic Commons
Andrew McLaughlin who has been Director of Global Public Policy at Google, Deputy Chief Technology Officer for President Obama, Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, is now the Executive Director of Civic Commons and part of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. On his new blog at Stanford he introduces the Civic Commons:
- Building a Civic Commons, by Andrew McLaughlin, Stanford Law School, Center for Internet and Society (June 7, 2011). Civic Commons is a new non-profit initiative that helps governments build and use shared and open technologies to improve public services, transparency, accountability, citizen participation, and management effectiveness, all while saving money.