U.S. Government use of dot-com social media sites
The General Services Administration (GSA) has been negotiating terms of service agreements with social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube so that federal agencies can use of these social media tools without violating federal regulations. See news coverage here:
- GSA signs deals for agencies to use social networking sites, by Jill R. Aitoro, NextGov, 03/25/2009.
- GSA Signs Facebook Agreement, by Gautham Nagesh, TechInsider, 04/29/09.
- GSA social media TOS review, Joshua Tauberer’s Blog, May 29th, 2009.
While I am encouraged by the GSA’s forward thinking to make use of the latest technologies developed in the private sector, I believe that working with the private sector poses a number of risks to government data, to the public’s privacy and free speech rights, and to good governance. These risks can be minimized and some useful provisions have been included in the negotiated TOS’s along these lines, but far more careful thinking is necessary. While several of the TOS addressed accessibility and privacy concerns, none of the TOS addressed security, nondiscrimination, archival access to media, the TOS the public are required to enter into to access government content through these services, and web media data formats.Continue reading
Governments using Twitter – not a gimmick anymore
Air Force Calls In Twitter Air Strike, by Mitch Wagner, Information Week, May 22, 2009.
I thought the use of Twitter was a gimmick, but now it's starting to look like a real communications channel. It's tough to get a nuanced idea across in a 140-character message, but the service's ubiquity and ease of use makes up for its other shortcomings. It's easy to use Twitter to send a message, and easy for people to find that message. Social media allows government to take its message directly to the people, bypassing journalists.Continue reading
More on Government Youtube Channel
Last week, we posted a note about the government Youtube channel, youtube.com/usgovernment. Today, the American Historical Association describes the playlist section of the site. (Ask not what YouTube can do for you..., By Elisabeth Grant, AHA Today, May 26, 2009). These channels bring together videos on a particular topic from different agencies. For example, the Health and Nutrition channel has videos from the CDC, the Senate, the State Department, and the FDA. This is a very nice and appropriate service and we like that the government is using popular sites like Youtube to reach Americans with its information. But we also know that a short-term service is not the same as long-term preservation. Preservation of multimedia is still a big issue. When videos are hosted only on .com sites, it is not always clear that the material can be easily identified and downloaded. (The YouTube Terms of Service says, in part, "You shall not copy or download any User Submission unless you see a “download” or similar link displayed by YouTube on the YouTube Website for that User Submission.") The proprietary formats of streaming videos can make it more complex to preserve them in an open format that will guarantee their long-term usability. Some videos may have been created under contracts that allow the content to be copyrighted or may contain "poison pill" copyright content that makes it difficult or impossible to legally preserve or reuse the whole video. The government has yet to develop a comprehensive policy for depositing digital government information into libraries and archives. Many Federal Depository libraries have been reluctant to accept digital content and the Government Printing Office has been actively arrogating to itself the job of being the sole repository of government information. This is dangerous because every digital depository is vulnerable to technological, social, budgetary, and economic problems and the best solution is to have multiple repositories. A digital Federal Depository Library program could help solve many of these issues. See also: Citizens in the Dark? Government Information in the Digital Age. SAA 2008 and our library of articles. Continue reading
Obama Adviser Eyes Government-Built Broadband System
Susan Crawford, special assistant to the President Obama for science, technology and innovation policy and a member of the National Economic Council, said she is "intrigued" by the Australian model.
- Obama Adviser Eyes Government-Built Broadband System, Congressdaily's Techcentral Issue Of The Week, May 26, 2009.
[Australian] Officials have released an historic government plan to spend tens of billions of dollars constructing a nationwide, state-of-the-art broadband network featuring speeds 100 times faster than today's technology. The new infrastructure would reach every citizen, delivering affordable connections at taxpayer-subsidized rates... ...Despite Crawford's interest, skeptics abound.Continue reading
Guide of the Week: Administrative Law
A fair amount of news coverage has revolved around the regulatory activity of the Obama Administration -- whether it is to keep Bush era regulations or to propose new regulatory schemes. Today's Guide of the Week from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki will help you keep the process straight and help you find regulations past and present: Administrative Law: The Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations (Hui Hua Chua, Michigan State University, 2008) Hui Hua's excellent guide starts out at the beginning, by explaining what a regulation is. Then she links people to four separate places that explain the complex federal regulatory process. Chances are at least one will make sense to you. Then she moves on to provide tips on searching for regulations online (1996-present) and in print. I've worked with documents for well over a decade, but this guide taught me something new (or helped me to remember). You can get from the US Code to the Code of Federal Regulations(CFR) by using the index volume of the CFR, labeled "CFR Index and Finding Aids." The "Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules" to link a US Code Section to a section of the CFR. She also tells us what I did know, that sections of the CFR will state their statutory authority, linking us back to the US Code. Hui Hua concludes her guide with ways to keep with proposed regulations. If your work or study touches on federal regulation in any way, you'll want to take a close look at this guide. And if you're a librarian with a guide or handout of your own, please link it to the Handout Exchange. Continue reading