Tools of Change: BookServer
This is a presentation that is definitely worth seeing!
- Web of Books, Peter Brantley, Presentation at Tools of Change Frankfurt introducing the BookServer architecture. Brief description of history, motivations, and technical outline. "Creating a new architecture using common, open standards that permits people to ?nd, buy, acquire, and read books from any source, on any device, using many different ebook applications."
FEC makes data available in multiple formts
Disclosure Data Catalog, Federal Election Commission
"Each of the files listed here can be downloaded in either csv or xml formats. Each also has a metadata page that describes the information included and the structure of the file itself. There is a pdf version of each file if you need to print the information. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds for each of the files so you're notified whenever new data is available or a change is made."Also see the Commission's Disclosure Data Blog where the FEC will post information about the files and its future plans. And: they say that "you can get help with any questions about the data we're providing here." Continue reading
Can Proprietary Formats make Government More Open?
Three interesting comments!
- Adobe is Bad for Open Government, by Clay Johnson, Sunlight Labs
- Adobe is Bad for Open Government, comment, by kathy and ernie brandon, Open House Project mailing list, (10/28/2009). "Once private ownership is established in something like this we aren't getting it out again, not without another draining fight. Most people start out saying "I don't really have a problem with this" until I take them down the road this leads - private ownership means 'trade secrets', 'trade secrets' is the opposite of transparency."
- Adobe is Bad for Open Government, comment, by Josh Tauberer, Open House Project mailing list, (10/28/2009). "Government has a responsibility to issue print-ready documents in many cases, so PDFs are an important part of an open government. I would rather have PDFs over nothing electronic, over electronic image files, and over other formats suitable for printing --- PDF is an open standard (albeit proprietary). "I wouldn't want to get rid of PDFs. Docs need to either be published in a second format, or --- more interesting --- we could get Adobe to revise the PDF format so that it can encode the document in structured form as well. That means govt publishes a single file that makes everyone happy."
Comments sought for Berkman study on broadband around the world
Yochai Benkler (long-time commons defender and writer of "Wealth of Networks") and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard have produced for the FCC a report on broadband around the world. The report (PDF) is now open for public comment (FCC directions for public comment are here). Comments look to be due by November 16, 2009. In an interview on the Berkman site, Benkler stated:
I think there are two pieces of news that will be most salient for people as they look at this report. The first is a response to the question: 'how are we [the U.S.] doing?', and the answer is that we're overall middle-of-the-pack, no better. The second responds to the question: 'What policies and practices worked for countries that have done well?', and the answer to that is: there is good evidence to support the proposition that a family of policies called 'open access,' that encourage competition, played an important role.Here's the FCC's public notice:
On July 14, the Commission announced in a press release that Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society would conduct an expert review of existing literature and studies about broadband deployment and usage throughout the world to inform the Commission’s development of a National Broadband Plan. A draft of the study has now been completed. The Commission is seeking public comment on the study, and has posted the draft for public review at the following Internet address: http://www.fcc.gov/stage/pdf/Berkman_Center_Broadband_Study_13Oct09.pdf. Specifically, the Commission seeks comment on the following:Comments look to be due by November 16, 2009. [Thanks BoingBoing!] Continue reading
- Does the study accomplish its intended purposes?
- Does the study provide a complete and objective survey of the subject matter?
- How accurately and comprehensively does the study summarize the broadband experiences of other countries?
- How much weight should the Commission give to this study as it develops a National Broadband Plan?
- Are additional studies needed along the lines of the Berkman study?
- Please provide any other comments on the Berkman study that you deem relevant.
McCain’s “Internet Freedom Act” = dangerous oxymoron
[w:Net neutrality] is again in the news. John McCain has just come out with the oxymoronic S. 1836 "Internet Freedom Act" (as opposed to Representative Markey's H.R. 3458 "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009"). The bill's actual title is "A bill to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from further regulating the Internet." This is wrong for so many reasons. Net neutrality is the core tenet upon which the internet was built (all packets created equal!"). So in other words the FCC's proposed net neutrality regulations (and remember, the FCC has regulated every form of media communication in the 20th century!) will actually protect the non-regulation of internet traffic from telcos and ISPs who would like to turn the internet into a toll road. The Sunlight Foundation's Real Time Investigations points out that telecom companies worried about net neutrality have been spreading a lot of $$ around DC and the #1 recipient of their largesse is Senator McCain, the self-professed technological "illiterate", who, took in $894,379. But don't take my word for it, listen to Xeni Jardin and Jon Stewart describe the silliness of McCain's "Internet Freedom Act":
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