Here is something you don’t see every day: talking NSA!
Oral History Interviews, National Security Agency. Continue reading
The Best Government Tech of the Bush Years
Wired has a list of "smart ways different federal agencies started using technology during the last eight years. It's not mind-blowing, but it's not terrible." Examples of Agencies Using Online Content and Technology to Achieve Mission and Goals (UNOFFICIAL DRAFT, November 26, 2008. Sent to Wired Magazine.) The Best Government Tech of the Bush Years, By Nicholas Thompson, Wired, January 23, 2009. Continue reading
Another example of a step backward
One of the things we worry about at FGI is how technology that could be opening up information access is too often used to reduce access. Amazon.com's Kindle e-book reader is a completely proprietary device. You can't buy a "Kindle" book and loan it or re-sell it or give it away or read it on any device except on one Kindle. Amazon even charges you to convert PDFs into the Kindle format (or so I have heard). It also has a nice feature that allows text to be vocalized -- great for the blind, but not a replacement for audiobook performances read by professionals. But the Author's Guild sees this as a threat and Amazon, while claiming (rightly, I think) that the feature is legal, is nevertheless willing to disable text-to-speech on a title-by-title basis at the rightsholder's request. More here: Caving into bullies (aka, here we go again), Lawrence Lessig, February 28, 2009. Continue reading
Welcome Brian Williams, guest blogger for March, 2009
March 1 means that spring is coming(!) and there's a new guest blogger over here at FGI. So let's welcome Brian Williams, research librarian for US Government, Criminology and Law & Society at UC Irvine (and a blogger in his own rights at justcrim.typepad.com). Take it away Brian! We'd also like to thank Shari Laster for being our guest in February. Shari's posts (below) were thoughtful and thorough. Thanks Shari!! As always, if you'd like to help us out and be a guest blogger, email us at admin AT freegovinfo DOT info and include your interests, and a writing sample. Thanks! Continue reading
Brian Williams: BOTM for March, 2009
Brian Williams, research librarian for US Government, Criminology and Law & Society at UC Irvine (and blogs at justcrim.typepad.com) in his own words: I've been using government information - local, regional, state, federal, tribal, foreign, international - throughout the course of my professional career. Whether working as Foreign/International Legal Research Specialist at the University of San Diego or as law librarian at a legal services office on the Navajo Nation, government information has played a significant role in my work. I believe unfettered access to government information is an important measure of democracy. "[G]overnment information needs to be free" -- We live in amazing times: I'm extraordinarily optimistic about the explosion of government information in digital formats and I'm terribly excited by preservation and access challenges in this fluid world we live in. Continue reading