Agencies used social media to manage salmonella outbreak
Do you remember not that long ago when, if you said "blog" to a colleague, you had to explain that a blog was a tool and not all blogs were done by teenage girls putting their diaries online? That was my experience anyway. It takes a while for people to figure out the difference between the tool and the media's depiction of one popular way the tool is used. The buzzword of the day is no longer "blogs" -- now everyone knows that everyone from the CBO to NASA has blogs. Today the tool we have to make sure people understand is "social media" -- an all-encompassing fuzzy term that covers everything from wikis to FaceBook, collaboration tools, communication tools, multimedia tools, and more. See the nice overview at Wikipedia. Now that these tools are being used by government agencies, it is important for us to understand them as another group of channels of information dissemination. The recent outbreak of salmonella tainted peanut butter, gave agencies an opportunity to demonstrate the use of social media tools and gives us an opportunity to see this in action.
- Agencies used social media to manage salmonella outbreak, By Gautham Nagesh, NextGov 02/09/2009.
The agencies started by brainstorming ideas via conference call on how social media could be used, said Dick Stapleton, deputy director of the Web communications and the new media division at HHS. He said the calls were "very rewarding." HHS, FDA and CDC officials decided how to build on each other's social media experiences. "We tried to use every available form of media," Stapleton said.Continue reading
Cloud Computing In Government
Cloud Computing In Government: From Google Apps To Nuclear Warfare, by John Foley, InformationWeek, Feb, 9, 2009.
Jackson says interest in cloud computing is high among government agencies, which see it as a way to cut costs and speed time to deployment. "There are requests for quotations and RFIs coming out, and we're responding to a lot of them," he says.Continue reading
Compare Stimulous Bills Side-by-Side
GovTrack has set up a page where you can find comparisons of the text of H.R. 1, the stimulus bill, at different stages in its legislative life --- including the House version (as passed) and the current Senate version (amendment 570). Thanks Josh Tauberer!
See also The main page on GovTrack for HR 1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Continue readingCRS reports released on WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks has release 6,780 Congressional Research Service reports. The oldest report released goes back to 1990, but WikiLeaks says that the release of these reports "represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices." WikiLeaks has merged its report collection with the reports into OpenCRS, has set up mirror sites, and made the collection downloadable in compressed form and via Torrent. There is an alphabetical list of reports and a Chronological list.
- Change you can download: a billion in secret Congressional reports, EDITORIAL, WikiLeaks, February 8, 2009.
OMB Watch has RSS feeds
OMB Watch "exists to increase government transparency and accountability; to ensure sound, equitable regulatory and budgetary processes and policies; and to protect and promote active citizen participation in our democracy." They have been around form more than 25 years and are an excellent source for information about government openness and transparency and information policy. Their redesigned web site has a page listing their RSS feeds including one on Government Openness. They also have a blog, The Fine Print. Continue reading