Open Government Conference
"The Open Government & Innovations Conference (OGI) is an interactive event for discussion on technology’s role in President Obama’s call for social media as a conduit for transparency and public collaboration in the government." This conference will be held on July 21-22 in Washington D.C. You can see and vote on the proposed session at My.OGI.
Start the discussions that will continue throughout the OGI Conference and beyond through the interactive features at My.OGI. Suggest topics and speakers, submit session proposals, case studies and panel discussions.Continue reading
Cornell library removes all restrictions on use of public domain reproductions
In a "dramatic change of practice," Cornell University Library has decided it will no longer require its users to seek permission to publish public domain items duplicated from its collections. I congratulate Cornell and hope that other libraries will follow this precedent.
"The threat of legal action, however," noted Anne R. Kenney, Carl A. Kroch University Librarian, "does little to stop bad actors while at the same time limits the good uses that can be made of digital surrogates. We decided it was more important to encourage the use of the public domain materials in our holdings than to impose roadblocks." The immediate impetus for the new policy is Cornell's donation of more than 70,000 digitized public domain books to the Internet Archive (details at www.archive.org/details/cornell). "Imposing legally binding restrictions on these digital files would have been very difficult and in a way contrary to our broad support of open access principles," said Oya Y. Rieger, Associate University Librarian for Information Technologies. "It seemed better just to acknowledge their public domain status and make them freely usable for any purpose. And since it doesn't make sense to have different rules for material that is reproduced at the request of patrons, we have removed permission obligations from public domain works."[HT BoingBoing!] Continue reading
Losh’s “From the Crowd to the Cloud: Social Media in the Obama Administration”
Dr. Elizabeth Losh, digital rhetoric scholar at U.C. Irvine, presents her research on how government agencies are using social media and how their use impacts government information and the public record. Video of presentation (~68 minutes) Presentation Slides Continue reading
Interesting new web site from the Clerk of the House
The Clerk of the House has a fascinating web site devoted to the history of Florence Prag Kahn. "In 1925, Florence Prag Kahn succeeded her late husband Julius in a San Francisco-based U.S. House seat. Most early congressional widows served as temporary placeholders until party leaders chose long-term, male successors. But Kahn was no ordinary political widow. With an insider’s knowledge of House operations and a gift for turning a phrase, she set herself to 'attending to business' -- expanding the Bay Area’s infrastructure and military installations during her 12-year career, while blazing a trail for women seeking political office."
- Florence Kahn: Congressional Widow to Trailblazing Lawmaker, Office of History and Preservation, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, (May 07, 2009).
Team Digital Preservation saves the day!
Digital Preservation Europe is in the process of creating a series of short animations introducing and explaining digital preservation problems and solutions for the general public. Their first one is cute. Future ones will be released on their YouTube channel.