Holiday gift idea: a piece of the public domain
Carl Malamud's FedFlix project is a joint venture with the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) whereby he takes NTIS videos, digitizes them and uploads them to the Internet Archive. Well now he's expanding FedFlix to include public domain videos from the National Archives. He's released 41 videos into the public domain in this way, but has put together an Amazon Wish List in order to expand public access to public domain video content from the National Archives. If you see anything you'd like to buy the public domain, they'll take your DVD and upload the video to YouTube, the Internet Archive, and to public.resource.org's own rsync/ftp public domain stock footage library. So why not add a gift of the public domain to your favorite person's/people's stockings this year? We'll all be glad we did! UPDATE 12/25/09: The wish list has been fulfilled. You can watch all of the donated NARA videos on YouTube, Internet Archive, or public.resource.org's bulk server. Thanks Carl! [HT BoingBoing!] Continue reading
WSJ Tracks the Nation’s Bank Failures
The Wall Street Journal has a very nice visualization tool Tracking the Nation's Bank Failures. I wish they cited their sources and said something about their methodology and made the data they used available. For some odd reason, that is just not part of what newspapers regularly do yet. Continue reading
FOIA
Gabriela Schneider, the Communications Director of the Sunlight Foundation, writes:
David Brisson marked the completion of his fall internship at Sunlight today by posting a recap of his independent research project. Since it digs into FOIA, I thought you all would appreciate it: http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2009/12/18/can-the-internet-save-foia/Continue reading
Party like it’s 2009!
Ever wonder why Prince (or "the artist formerly known as") was so hyped up about 1999. Everyone has a theory...Y2K bug, end of the world...NAY, I say...NAY! He was excited because it meant that he was that much closer to the 2000 Census. Yes, much like Big Foot or the beloved Nessie, the Census emerges only every decade to come and count the people in the U.S. And guess what time it is now, boys and girls! That's right, the mighty Census is rearing its head again, hungry for your information. But don't worry--it's confidential. In fact, your personal information on that Census form can't even be divulged to the big man himself. That's right, Santa Claus. Oh, and President Obama can't get it, either. Nope, your information is safe from public (or private, devious) consumption for almost a century...by that time, you'll most likely be dead or living somewhere else. So feed the hungry Census in March! And party like it's 2009...because it's CENSUS TIME! Yes, that was also the original title to the M.C. Hammer hit, but that's a story for another time... Sonnet Because government information needs to be free...free as the wind blows. Continue reading
State Department redesigned web site
The U.S. Department of State announced a redesign of its web site and its blog, DipNote. You might want to check your bookmarks and OPACs for broken links. See also: Another New Site, By Aliya Sternstein, TechInsider (12/17/09). Continue reading