FCC has a blog
The Federal Communications Commission has a new blog, blogband ("The official blog of the national broadband plan"), that is part of the FCC's broadband.gov web site.
Blogband is part of the FCC’s commitment to an open and participatory process. Blogband will keep people up-to-date about the work the FCC is doing and the progress we’re making. But we want it to be a two-way conversation. The feedback, ideas, and discussions generated on this blog will be critical in developing the best possible National Broadband Plan. As this blog demonstrates, the Internet is changing and expanding the way Americans communicate, providing them with unparalleled access to information.Make a note: 2009 and the FCC says that their one and only blog demonstrates how the Internet is changing the way we communicate. Okay. I don't want to be petty, and I'm glad they have this blog, but did they really think that "Blog Band" was a good name? And, does the FCC logo, when you look at it out of the corner of your eye, look like a frog? Maybe I've been reading too much Pynchon and am just feeling snarky today. Sorry. Congratulations to the FCC for entering the twentieth (oops, I mean 21st!) century!
- FCC (finally) joins blogosphere, By Leslie Cauley, USA Today (August 18, 2009)
Steal This Idea, Please!
After reading the book Jacoby, Susan. 2008. The age of American unreason. New York: Pantheon Books. and reading this about our beloved Constitution:
“More than a third were unable to list any First Amendment rights; 42 percent think that the Constitution explicitly states that “the first language of the United States is English”; and 25 percent believe that Christianity was established by the Constitution as the official government religion. The young are even more ignorant than their parents and grandparents. About half of adults–but just 41 percent of teenagers–can name the three branches of government.”I decided to devote Mondays on my personal blog to exposing people to the Constitution one article at a time. I'm using official text from the National Archives and I'm trying not to do a lot of commentary. I think this might be a good thing to do for librarians around the country. If you do add commentary, try to customize it for your audience. Maybe if our nation understood its Constitution better, it would be more interested in defending it. Call me quixotic, but it is worth a try. If you decide to join me on Constitution Mondays, please leave a comment here or on my introductory post. Continue reading
Really? Free? As in — watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants?
In trying to decide where to start our blog, we have been discussing all the different topics that interest us related to government information, but that discussion leads us from one corner of the earth to another. Issues of information access are central to just about any aspect of governance, from the neighborhood watch to the United Nations. So we thought perhaps it would be best to start with a few personal reflections and opinions. Readers who know us, know that we are strong advocates for permanent public access to government information. It seems counterintuitive to those of us grew up in a time when, for the cost of a few good sneezes, we could dig up just about anything from the dusty bowels of our favorite research library. But permanent access is something we cannot take for granted in a time when a small agency that has little interaction with the public can press a button and delete a good chunk of its history without stirring up any notice -- yet it’s double-edged sword. The technology that makes it so easy for valuable information to disappear also empowers all of us to participate in a truly democratic process at a global scale like never before. In this modern information universe, of course, the only way to begin any inquiry is with a Google search. So let’s see what we get. "Free Government Information" returns 24,300 hits, topped off by ours truly. A quick scan down the list shows that the bulk of the hits are to sites discussing or linking to FGI, so it’s only somewhat enlightening. One thing that pops out to us is the fact that people are using the terms "open government," "transparency," and "free government information" interchangeably and differently depending on context. You see quotes like "open government leads to transparency," while others take transparency as an element of open government. Of course the bulk of them are political in nature, concentrating on government information policy, from the radicals at Radical Reference to pretty tame municipal government sites on open meetings. But some interesting snippets caught our eye. There’s a conspiracy website whose motto is "Those who are unaware are unaware that they are unaware." Our first inclination is to shrug it off, but it’s something to make note of. In the current public debate over health care reform, it’s fascinating to see how deeply these kinds of ideas affect -- at times it seems, even steer the public debate. Even if we can’t take these ideas themselves seriously, the fact that so many people take them very seriously and consider them the main point of connection between their lives and the government is sobering, and vital to a clear understanding of our political landscape. The fact that a search of "free government information" places this near the top of the list is telling. http://newsworldorder.tripod.com/ We are scanning for other weird, fun, and offbeat sites to cover in the next few posts. Until then … Continue reading
NARA blog
The National Archives has started a blog, NARAtions, because, "we are hoping to talk with you about online public access to the records held by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)." (Hat tip to Kate!) Continue reading
Twitter, Facebook, and Scholarly Communication
An article in Scholarly Kitchen does a good job of comparing and contrasting Twitter and Facebook and addressing the utility of Twitter for scholarly communication. As the article says, "...a network that is open and content-centric has advantages. This is particularly true, for example, for scholarly and scientific communications." I think there is a parallel here for government information providers.
- The Strength of Weak Ties: Why Twitter Matters in Scholarly Communication, by Michael Clarke, Society for Scholarly Publishing, Scholarly Kitchen. (Aug 12, 2009).