How a Public Law becomes a U.S. Code
What happens after a bill becomes a law, by Daniel Schuman, Open House Project, May 14th, 2009.
Many people remember from middle school the movie on how a bill becomes a law, but few civics courses teach about what happens afterward. On Monday, John, Josh, and I sat down with members of the Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Their job, in short, is to consolidate and codify laws passed by Congress based upon their subject matter — without making any substantive changes to the law — and to prepare the revised code for enactment into “positive law.”Continue reading
“Chat with GPO” Session on Authentication
Today I attended the "Chat with GPO" OPAL session, which focused on authentication and authentication for FDLP partners.Ted Priebe, GPO's Director of Library Planning & Development (LPD) and Lisa Russell, the Manager of LPD's Content Management unit presented material and answered questions. Basically, LSCM wants to partner with Federal Depository Libraries and find ways to authenticate content hosted by the FDL partners. The digital signatures of authentication will indicate partnership with the FDL institution and the contact information for that institution. This is great news, especially for those FDLs also interested in hosting digital content in partnership with GPO. The authentication session is archived on the GPO OPAL site. Continue reading
GovLoop.com: Facebook for federal employees
GovLoop says it is the "premier social network connecting the government community." It is intended for anyone who is a: "gov't employee (fed/state/local/intl), public policy student/professor, good gov't organization, or gov't contractor with good intentions." TechInsider reports that it has 10,000 members. A press release from GovLoop says,
GovLoop (http://govloop.com), an online community created for and by government employees, announced today it has signed up its 10,000th member less than a year after launching. Dubbed by some as a “Facebook for Feds,” GovLoop brings together government employees from the U.S. and other nations to discuss ideas, share best practices and create a community dedicated to the betterment of government.Continue reading
Where’s Hillary?
The U.S. Department of State has a web page with an interactive map showing travel by the Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The site is an example of a hybrid site using Google maps, Yahoo APIs, and services from Thermopylae Sciences and Technology in addition to .gov hosting. Continue readingDOD withdraws embarrassing report
The Defense Department has withdrawn from its web site a report that had exonerated it from using retired generals for propaganda.
- Inspector at Pentagon Says Report Was Flawed, By David Barstow, New York Times, May 5, 2009.
In a highly unusual reversal, the Defense Department’s inspector general’s office has withdrawn a report it issued in January exonerating a Pentagon public relations program that made extensive use of retired officers who worked as military analysts for television and radio networks. ...In addition to repudiating its own report, the inspector general’s office took the additional step of removing the report from its Web site.The DOD memo withdrawing the report:
- Withdrawal Memo for IE-2009-004 "Examination of Allegations Involving DoD Public Affairs Outreach Program" (.pdf 262 kb), Memo from Donald M. Horstman, Deputy Inspector General for Policy and Oversight, Inspector General Department Of Defense, "Subject: Inspector General of the Department of Defense Report No. IE-2009-004, "Examination of Allegations Involving DoD Office of Public Affairs Outreach Program," January 14,2009" (05/05/09).
- New York Times Reporter David Barstow Wins Pulitzer Prize for Exposing Military’s Pro-War Propaganda Media Campaign, Democracy Now!, May 08, 2009.