New site: DigitalLiteracy.gov
Digital Literacy, National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The site has links to resources including "educator tools," job skills, success stories, and a central space where practitioners can share ideas and interact through discussion forums.
The Digital Literacy portal is an initiative of the Obama Administration to serve as a valuable resource to practitioners who are delivering digital literacy training and services in their communities. As more and more jobs and educational offerings are available online, the ability to navigate the Internet is critical to participate more fully in the economy. Jumpstarted by a federal interagency working group dedicated to spurring the advancement of digital literacy across all age groups and stages of learning, the Digital Literacy portal organizes content conveniently, enables valuable discussion and collaboration among users and elevates best practices to improve the quality of digital literacy offerings. We invite users to share their content and their ideas to make the portal more robust and to fulfill its role as a destination for practitioners devoted to enhancing digital opportunity for all Americans.Continue reading
Open government requires accessibility, not just data
Open government requires accessibility, not just data, specialists say, By Joseph Marks, NextGov (05/11/2011).
The State Department website, for example, doesn't have a link for passport information on its homepage, even though the largest share of people visiting the site are there for that reason.... About a quarter of the Agriculture Department's home page is taken up by a graphic celebrating the 50th anniversary of the department's Economic Research Service ... even though that's likely not a major reason people visit the site.Continue reading
Pentagon Papers to be Officially Released
Pentagon Papers to be Officially Released, by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News (May 11, 2011).
The National Archives announced this week that it “has identified, inventoried, and prepared for public access the Vietnam Task Force study, United States-Vietnam Relations 1945-1967, informally known as ‘the Pentagon Papers’.” As a result, 3.7 cubic feet of previously restricted textual materials will be made officially available at the Nixon Library on June 13, the Archives said in a May 10 Federal Register notice.Nixon Presidential Historical Materials: Opening of Materials Federal Register Volume 76, Issue 90 (76 FR 27092) (May 10, 2011).
Previously restricted textual materials. Volume: 3.7 cubic feet. A number of textual materials previously withheld from public access have been reviewed for release and/or declassified under the systematic declassification review provisions and under the mandatory review provisions of Executive Order 13526, or in accordance with 36 CFR 1275.56 (Public Access regulations). The materials are from National Security Council (NSC Files), Presidential Acquisition Files, Pentagon Papers.Continue reading
National Jukebox at LoC
Library of Congress Launches, with Sony Music Content, the National Jukebox, an Online Destination for Historical Sound Recordings, News from the Library of Congress, (May 10, 2011).
Largest Collection of Historical Recordings Ever Made Publically Available Online The Library of Congress and Sony Music Entertainment today unveiled a new website of over 10,000 rare historic sound recordings available to the public for the first time digitally. The site is called the "National Jukebox" (www.loc.gov/jukebox/). Developed by the Library of Congress, with assets provided by Sony Music Entertainment, the National Jukebox offers free online access to a vast selection of music and spoken-word recordings produced in the U.S. between the years 1901 and 1925.Continue reading
Future of CRS
Sunshine advocates say Congressional Research Service reports should be posted online, By Joseph Marks, NextGov (05/09/2011). Speaking at a panel discussion on the Future of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation, Mike Stern, a former House senior counsel, said that the legal justification for long-standing statutory language prohibiting CRS from making its reports available outside the halls of Congress has been effectively superseded by the Internet Age.
Project on Government Secrecy Director Steve Aftergood told Nextgov Monday that putting nonconfidential CRS reports online wouldn't just increase government transparency, but also might press CRS analysts to take advantage of hyperlinks, Web graphics, embedded video and other innovative Web-based features. "I think they haven't quite figured out how to cope with the Internet Age," Aftergood said of the organization referred to as Congress' think tank. "In many respects they're really stuck in the 1990s."The panels' moderator, Daniel Schuman, noted that the CRS 2009 annual report described a pilot program that would allow some congressional committees to automatically post CRS reports containing certain search terms on their websites, but that the plan did was not adopted and the report has since been removed from the CRS website. The entire 1.5 hour panel can be seen at http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ResearchS Continue reading