Recommendations on Open Government from computer scientists and computing practitioners
The Washington policy committee of the Association for Computing Machinery, the professional association that represents computer scientists and computing practitioners, released its Policy Recommendations on Open Government today. The really important thing about these recommendations is that they reflect an understanding that there is a difference between "presenting" information, usually in the form of a web site, and providing the underlying data that anyone can then "present" or use or re-use. As David Robinson said in an earlier proposal, "[I]s a government monopoly on 'presentations' of the data the best way...? Probably not. If Congress orders the federal bureaucracy to provide a web site for end users, then we will all have to live with the one web site they cook up" (The (Ironic) Best Way to Make the Bailout Transparent, By David Robinson, Freedom to Tinker, January 27th, 2009) Among the recommendations:
- Data published by the government should be in formats and approaches that promote analysis and reuse of that data.
- Citizens should be able to download complete datasets of regulatory, legislative or other information, or appropriately chosen subsets of that information, when it is published by government.
- Citizens should be able to directly access government-published datasets using standard methods such as queries via an API (Application Programming Interface).
Today's statement puts the weight of America's computing professionals behind the push for machine-readable government data.Continue reading
GPO’s “Google”?
A Washington Times article about FDsys describes it as GPO's "Google" for Federal Documents:
Web users could just as easily use Google or other search engines to find government information, but FDsys assures access to the original, authentic versions of government documents.I am amused by the comments posted to this article so far:
Why would you call this "Google" for documents, unless you are simply try to get web hits by using the google name. I went to the site and it is not immediately clear where in tarnation to find anything. I'm 38, computer literate and immediately find the site unappealing, and definitely not user friendly. The genius of google is it's simplicity. The GPO site is just like the GPO building itself Old, archaic, and difficult to navigate. I suppose if I was in the business of publishing paper copies, I wouldn't want people finding things easily online either.Perhaps a government documents librarian could help you navigate it? ;-)
$20 million, five years, and it's still not as good as Google - classic government work. Why didn't they just give the docs to Google and let them do it?Because Google would mess it up even worse. Look at Google Books and how they block full access to public domain government documents! Sigh...why did the article have to mention Google?
I found the search engine very easy to use and very powerful -- apparently it's metadata-aware, so it can do much more sophisticated searches than Google allows. It also looks like they built in a nice drilldown feature that lets you find what you're looking for when you don't know what you're looking for.Glad this user noticed that. And my favorite quote:
It's a good start at providing information to interested citizens. The information overload will be intense.Yes, it is a good start. But the info overload is already intense! Continue reading
NASA Video Mashups
Thanks to BoingBoing.net for posting about NASA's "remixable videos", audio clips, and images, as well as a DIY Podcasts page.
You can mix and mash these video clips with NASA images and your own narration, original video, special effects and transitions. Preview the video and download the clips you want to use in your creative masterpiece.I hope the collection grows. It looks like the only remixable videos so far are about spacesuits. Anyway, I thought this would be fun for those of you who love mashups! I become more and more impressed with the NASA website and all the cool stuff it has to offer. I hope they continue to post more remixable videos and audio files for us to download and manipulate. Continue reading
Won’t Get Fooled Again: Day 14
The Obama administration is well into the civic wilderness of administration at the national level. Several nominations have faltered and failed. The extremely critical , and massive, economic recovery legislation is wallowing in the half-century long trench philosophical warfare between democrats and republicans. Obama attempts to include the republicans in the discussion, they continue to hold their approval. So far the age of bipartisan tranquility is still aborning. Though the election in November clearly pointed the way to a desired change, our political parties do not want to follow the suggestion. While the quick cannon shot of opportunity fades with time, the Government Printing Office announced today the first public release of FDsys. Described as "a one-stop site to authentic, published government information. FDsys allows GPO to receive information from federal agencies in all three branches of government and create a repository for permanent, public access. More than 154,000 documents are currently accessible, with additional documents being added daily. FDsys offers incredible search capabilities for users such as: searching by Congressional Committee, a Member of Congress, keyword and date. FDsys will replace GPOAccess in mid-2009 and releases with additional functionality will occur throughout the next several years." The upshot for this small milestone on the journey to ALA's summer conference -- the more things change, the more they stay the same. We have our work cut out for us. While the GPO continues to evolve in many good ways, and while we have a President whose rhetoric and policy perspective mirrors our own civic sensibilities, we should not be too surprised by the staying power of partisan muck to gum up the civic machinery of hope and change. See you on Day 15. Continue reading
Won’t Get Fooled Again: Day 13
Almost two weeks gone since Liberation Day. I got to say the signs are still thumbs up for the optimists who believe government, and its information infrastructure, can be a positive force in our country. Obama talks of upgrading the digital aspects of the health care system; parts of the economic recovery legislation moving through Congress want to throw billions of dollars at securing broadband access to areas and communities now without any easy access to the web. And the debacle regarding the switch to digital television by February 17 might be mitigated by a four month extension. So librarians, and their allies, still have reason to hope -- but there are some cautionary tales out there. In Slate magazine there is an article about the digital poverty in the National Archives. And the New York Times throws cold cautionary water on the hot possibilities the stimulus package would level the digital playing field. It is the old "if we build it they will come" debate. What I find more interesting is the intersection between this story and the delay in digital television switch over. The ostensible reason the broadcast TV grid is going digital is provide more of the public's broadcast spectrum to other information streams, like accessing the internet. So where are the dots connected here? Here is an interesting article that touches upon these nuances -- Broadband access for all: The economic and political implications of municipal wireless networks. See you on Day 14. Continue reading