Sunshine Week 2010 shines light on government transparency
[UPDATE: Scroll down for list of library happenings for Sunshine Week]
Spring has sprung with a vengeance here in SF. And that could only mean one thing: Sunshine Week!! Yes it's time once again to feel the warm FOIA on your cheek, to discuss and raise awareness of the importance of free and open government information, transparency and the [w:Freedom of Information Act]. Be on the lookout for editorials in your local newspaper (like this one in the Cleveland Plain Dealer), discuss FOIA with your friends and family (you'll be glad you did :-)) and highlight it in your libraries -- perhaps by having a public showing of the OpenTheGovernment Webcast!
OpenTheGovernment.org is having a Sunshine Week Webcast 12-2PM EST on Friday March 19 entitled "Building Transparency." The Webcast will include a host of great speakers including Norm Eisen, Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform, Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, John Wonderlich, Policy Director at the Sunlight Foundation, Kevin Goldberg, American Society of News Editors (ASNE) counsel, Miriam Nisbet, Director of the new Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), Melanie Sloan, Executive Director, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Melanie Pustay, Director of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Information Policy (OIP), Eric Gundersen, President and co-founder of Development Seed and Sean Moulton, Director of Federal Information Policy at OMB Watch. It should be a great discussion so hope you can tune in.
What libraries and others are doing for Sunshine Week:
- Northern CA Association of Law Libraries (NOCALL), in association with the Special Library Association Sierra Nevada Chapter, is sponsoring 2 Sunshine Week events; one in Sacramento and one in San Francisco. Both have interesting lists of speakers and require registration for a small fee ($20 for Sacramento event and $15 for SF event). In addition, the SF event immediately precedes the NOCALL Spring Institute on information piracy, "Piracy on the Barbary Coast" which NOCALL and SLA members can attend at the NOCALL member rate, and later in the evening, a celebration of NOCALL's 30th anniversary.
- Freedom of Information Day at the New York Public Library. Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 10:30 - noon. Conference Room 18 on the lower level of New York Public Library (188 Madison Ave. @ 34th St.). This year's guest speaker is Heather Joseph, Executive Director, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, (SPARC), an international alliance of academic and research libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communications. FOIA day has been held at NYPL annually since 1993.
- California State University San Bernardino Pfau Library has partnered with the San Bernardino League of Women Voters to be a site for the OpenTheGovernment.org webinar on government transparency. This is the second year that Pfau Library has participated. You can see video of last year.
- The web site www.TalkStandards.com will focus on open government during its monthly online forum. The forum will take place on Thursday March 18th from 8-12 Pacific / 11-3 EST / 4-8pm GMT. TalkStandards is an active online community where ICT developers, researchers, policymakers and other interested parties can share ideas and collaborate on the global standards system. Each month, a timely topic is chosen (last month, it was eHealth, for example).
FCC launches consumer tools for broadband
The Federal Communications Commission announced last week two new consumer tools on its broadband.gov website, The Consumer Broadband Test, which measures broadband quality indicators such as speed and latency, and The Broadband Dead Zone Report, which enables Americans to submit the street address location of a broadband “Dead Zone” where broadband is unavailable for purchase. Both test
- FCC Launches Broadband Consumer Tools (press release) March 11, 2010 (PDF).
- Broadband Test. Also available as the FCC’s first mobile app at the Apple and Android app stores.
- Dead Zone Report.
Statistical Atlas of the 9th US Census (1870) now online in lots of places
The folks over at radicalcartography.net have just made available the Statistical Atlas of the 9th US Census (1870) as a bulk download. It's great that this amazing government publication is finding interest by the public -- and that the radical cartographers are doing lots of cool projects like Census Demographics. However, it should be noted that it's been available online for a while from both the Library of Congress and the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (FRASER). And of course it's also available in paper from Federal Depository Libraries across the US. I'd recommend that all you radical cartographers, cartographer wanna be's, history buffs, data geeks etc get thee to your local Federal Depository Library to see what the Federal govt has published over the last 200+ years and also check out what your libraries are digitizing and putting online. You'll be glad you did.
Presented here are all of the maps and charts from the first statistical atlas of the US Census, widely praised in its time and still a wonderful example of sophisticated graphics, the out-of-date racial/psychological nomenclature notwithstanding. The atlas is available page-by-page from the Library of Congress, but you can download it in bulk here.[Thanks BoingBoing!] Continue reading
Cycle of life … er … transparency
Our pals over at the Sunlight Foundation have just posted a great infographic showing the cycle of transparency. There's just one thing missing and it fits in all parts of the cycle: policy, technology, reporting, engagement. That piece is libraries. But who's quibbling, it's a great graphic of the entire government ecosystem. Thanks sunlight!
With data being made easily accessible, journalists and bloggers can begin to dig into it, mix it up, identify relevant information and give the data context. As that critical context is provided, citizens absorb it and spread the information to others – both online and face-to-face – and make the data actionable. Ultimately, informed citizen action creates greater public awareness; citizens become more effective, responsible advocates; holding government accountable becomes informed by data rather than inside-the-Beltway pundits, and better decisions can be made for our democracy. As each element of the Cycle of Transparency moves forward concurrently, bringing about the changes we need to create a more transparent government, we also identify new needs. At the end of the day, the process that the Cycle of Transparency describes is about creating a government more deserving of our trust, and ultimately, a government that allows its citizens to fully participate and hold government accountable as our Founders intended.
Free, online Gov 2.0 conference this Thursday
Gov 2.0 International: Global Innovation Meeting Local Challenges, "The O'Reilly Gov 2.0 Online Conference." Thursday, March 11th. Cost: Free. 9:00am - 11:15am US-PST 12:00pm - 2:15pm US-EST
Gov 2.0 is a worldwide revolution—from the United States to Australia and everywhere in between. Members of government are interacting with citizens via social media and open data efforts are spreading from city to city. At this Gov 2.0 Online Conference, you'll hear about open government efforts in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Israel. The speakers will share stories and lessons learned, and answer your questions. Learn about some of the Gov 2.0 best practices that have helped effect important change in other countries, and discuss effective ways to use specific tools and processes in other settings.Continue reading