Health Indicators from HHS Community Health Data Initiative
"The Health Indicators Warehouse (HIW) is a new resource serving as the data hub for the HHS Community Health Data Initiative. It contains standardized health outcome and health determinant indicators along with associated evidence-based interventions, which can be easily displayed, and will benefit a broad variety of users."
- Health Indicators Warehouse (healthindicators.gov). The HIW is a collaboration of many Agencies and Offices within the Department of Health and Human Services. The HIW is maintained by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. Data, support and funding are provided by the following: * Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services * Department of Health and Human Services: o Office of the Deputy Secretary o Office of Adolescent Health o Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion o Office of Minority Health o Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation * Health Resources and Services Administration. New partners are expected to be added over time.
- "Health Indicators Warehouse Provides Data Accessibility." In: COSSA Washington Update, Consortium of Social Science Associations, Volume 30, Issue 3 (February 7, 2011) [NHS's Linda] Bilheimer noted that the Health Indicator Warehouse includes Healthy People 2010, a new set of Medicare indicators, national and state indicators. She emphasized that this is the first time that these indicators have been put in the public domain. She noted that HIW has extensive metadata. HIW is oriented toward large scale developers who want to use the data. [NHS's Amy] Bernstein reported that there are 1,130 indicators listed from 170 data sources
A History of the Internet and the Digital Future
Interesting new book about The Internet:
- A History of the Internet and the Digital Future, by Johnny Ryan. A History of the Internet and the Digital Future tells the story of the development of the Internet from the 1950s to the present, and examines how the balance of power has shifted between the individual and the state in the areas of censorship, copyright infringement, intellectual freedom and terrorism and warfare. Johnny Ryan explains how the Internet has revolutionized political campaigns; how the development of the World Wide Web enfranchised a new online population of assertive, niche consumers; and how the dot-com bust taught smarter firms to capitalize on the power of digital artisans. In the coming years, platforms such as the iPhone and Android rise or fall depending on their treading the line between proprietary control and open innovation. The trends of the past may hold out hope for the record and newspaper industry. From the government-controlled systems of the ColdWar to today’s move towards cloud computing, user-driven content and the new global commons, this book reveals the trends that are shaping the businesses, politics, and media of the digital future.
- How the atom bomb helped give birth to the Internet, By Johnny Ryan, ars technica. Ars Technica is proud to present three chapters from the book, condensed and adapted for our readers. This first installment is adapted from Chapter 1, "A Concept Born in the Shadow of the Nuke," and it looks at the role that the prospect of nuclear war played in the technical and policy decisions that gave rise to the Internet.
Wikileaks panel discussion at ACRL
Unfortunately, I won't be going to ACRL 2011 in Philadelphia next month. But I'd recommend that folks go to this session on Wikileaks and libraries. If anyone is going, we'd love it if you'd volunteer to send us a summary of the panel (which is confusingly listed under "Roundtables".
Session Title: Wikileaks, war, and the web: where do academic libraries fit? When Wikileaks released the Iraq and Afghan War Diaries it raised ethical questions for academic libraries. Join the discussion and help provide guidance to such questions as: What are libraries' responsibilities regarding leaked classified information? Should libraries link to leaked classified materials? How might Wikileaks be used in an instruction session? Date: 04/01/2011 Time: 8:30AM - 9:30AM Location: Roundtable 3 (Exhibit Hall A, Pennsylvania Convention Center)Continue reading
Commerce Department unveils a national broadband inventory map
The National Broadband Map is a tool to search, analyze and map broadband availability across the United States. Created and maintained by the NTIA, in collaboration with the FCC, and in partnership with 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia. See also: Are You Being Served? National Broadband Map Going Live Today, By Chloe Albanesius, PC Magazine (February 17, 2011).
Users can search by address, view data on a map, or use other interactive tools to compare broadband across various geographies, such as states, counties or congressional districts. ..."The National Broadband Map shows there are still too many people and community institutions lacking the level of broadband service needed to fully participate in the Internet economy. We are pleased to see the increase in broadband adoption last year, particularly in light of the difficult economic environment, but a digital divide remains," [Larry] Strickling [assistant secretary of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)] said in a statement.Continue reading
GPO and LoC to collaborate on two projects to enhance digital access
Here's some good news on this stormy day (at least in NorCal). GPO and the Library of Congress are set to work together on better digital access for the historic [w:United States Statutes at Large] and the [w:United States Constitution]. Anyone want to add this to the the [w:Conan the Librarian] wikipedia page?
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Library of Congress (LOC) recently received approval from the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) to proceed on two collaborative efforts. One project involves the digitization of some of our nation's most important legal and legislative documents and the other involves enhanced public online access to the Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation (CONAN). The digitization project will include the public and private laws, and proposed constitutional amendments passed by Congress as published in the official Statutes at Large from 1951-2002. GPO and LOC will also work on digitizing official debates of Congress from the permanent volumes of the Congressional Record from 1873-1998. These laws and documents will be authenticated and available to the public on GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) and the Library of Congress’s THOMAS legislative information system. The other project will provide enhanced public online access to the Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation (CONAN), a Senate Document that analyzes Supreme Court cases relevant to the Constitution. The project involves creating an enhanced version of CONAN, where updates to the publication will be made available on FDsys as soon as they are prepared. In addition to more timely access to these updates, new online features will also be added, including greater ease of searching and authentication. GPO authenticates the documents on FDsys by digital signature and these authenticated documents are also available on the Library’s THOMAS system. This signature assures the public that the document has not been changed or altered since receipt by GPO. This digital signature, viewed through the GPO Seal of Authenticity, verifies the document’s integrity and authenticity.Continue reading