Change.gov back online
The website of the "office of the president-elect" is back online after apparently going down because of overloaded servers.
- Technology We (Want to) Believe In, By Allan Holmes, Tech Insider, November 6, 2008.
73 Days to Government Information Liberation
You can imagine how much the Chicago metropolitan culture and political scene is just all abuzz at the realizationn that one of their own is about to move into the White House. Richard Daley is just beaming. Cook County pols look just a bit more polished and respectable -- and our governor, who enjoys a lower estimation among Illinois residents than President Bush, appears to savor the political opportunities during the next few weeks. Though I have only lived in the area for 15 years, there is much about Chicago politics that is visceral, atavastic, and so profoundly grounded in neighborhoods in a way that the old U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Tip O'Neil captured with his classic observation that "All politics is local." This elemental truth was hammered home again with an announcement from the Illinois Library Association that all nine library referendums and/or ballot mesaures voted on throughout the state Tuesday went down to defeat. National, even state level, politics may be charged by a renewed sense of energy or purpose, but in the local trenches, the struggle still wins or loses on voters deciding on "how much will it cost me?" Further, for many of other Illinois libraries (private and public academic, special, law, etc.)funds are being cut for collections, staff, and services. If a new season of government information services in libraries is to come about, these local institutions need to put their civic values back on top of the agenda. Here's a thought -- day three discussion point -- how about if each state wide library association makes a commitment to hold a "government information summit during the Spring or Fall of 2009 to discuss exactly this point. It can be separate meeting, or part of their annual state wide library association meetings. Further, each state, if not each region that crosses state lines, has a few government information librarians who were involved with earlier revolutionary changes in the how and why of government information services (changes in depository library practices, technology, public education, and teaching future government information professionals.) And what if they organizers of these statewide summits brought their deliberations and agendas to a nation wide meeting -- perhaps to Chicago at the ALA conference in July 2009? Something informal, I am sure, could be arranged that embraces the new technologies and be less bound by the rigidities of ALA scheduling. In a way, it would close the circle. What began to unravel in Chicago during the the Democratic National Convention, in Grant Park, during the summer of 1968 can be reclaimed... The hometown of Saul Alinsky and so many other community organizers would be an outstanding place to begin the next information revolution. So, as the Grahm Nash song goes: Won't you please come to Chicago For the help that we can bring. We can change the World. Rearrange the World. It's dying to get better. Continue reading
Guide of the Week: Presidential Papers
Kudos to John for counting down the days to "Government Information Liberation!" In support of this great concept, I will try to focus our "Guide of the Week" series on subjects related to the Presidential transition until the week of January 20th, 2009. I'll highlight guides related to subjects from the GAO transition page and the Agenda page at change.gov once it returns. This week tho, I'd like to highlight two guides from the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki concerning Presidents and their documents:
- POTUS: Presidents of the United States (Bob Summers, University of Michigan, Internet Public Library, 2008)
- Presidential Papers (University of California, Berkeley, 2006)
- About Presidential Papers
- Biographical Information
- Guides
- Elections
- Vetoes
- Executive Orders & Proclamations
- Official Papers and Speeches
- Personal papers and correspondence
- Declassified Documents
- Selected Internet Resources
74 Days to Government Information Liberation
When I first thought of this particular blog thread -- driving home on Wednesday from work, my government information librarian brain still snapping and sparking from the electoral charge of Tuesday's events -- it felt as if I rediscovered some long lost sensibility. For so long, at least since the late 1990s, my research and public service seemed burdened with such struggle and cynicism when talked to students and faculty about government information sources. I had to temper my remarks with observations that understanding the import and impact of government information was never going to be easy; they would have to wade through a ocean of muck, obscurity, and partisanship. The partisanship drumbeats (from both major political parties) of "government is not the solution, it is the problem", quite frankly took the joy out of the whole civic engagement story. So, for my second koan I suggest we ride this wave of civic renewal and put our libraries back into the center when people want to wrestle with the social, economic, and political issues of the day. Lets not wear the mantle of disengagement out some percieved notion we would no longer be neutral. We should argue on behalf of civic engagement and debate in our buildings as passionately as we defend the right to shelve all those books other people want to ban or keep out of the hands of those they perceive to need protection. What better mechanism to reconnect with our communities than through a spirited discussion of what our future governments might promise in the coming months. The bitter political partisanship over the last forty years (sparked, I think after the 1966 congressional elections if I read the history rightly) drained the civic ecosystem of any sense of good will or trust. As a valued institution, I think libraries can begin to restore that trust and engagement. There you are, a new slogan for an old value -- libraries the original social software.... See you at the forum for tomorrow's thought of day. And James, thanks for the connective tissue among the different blog posts trying to weave these many threads into a more complete picture. 74 days and counting. Continue reading
The Transition: Information, Technology, and Information-Technology
There is a lot going on during the current transition to a new Administration with regard to information policy, technology policy, and information-technology (IT) policy. Sometimes these overlap, but not always. I wanted to take this opportunity to bring together some resources relevant to government information and technology policies during this transition period. John Shuler has begun some comments here on FGI, which I hope will spark comments and discussion.
The Environmental Protection Agency has had an ongoing National Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information since April, and they have issued a draft report:- Draft Information Access Strategy (PDF) (22pp, 682K)