Presidential transition web site… copyrighted!
Change.Gov, the "Office of the President Elect," is a .gov site, but it says "Content copyright © 2008 by Obama-Biden Transition Project, a 501c(4) organization. All rights reserved." So, is this an official government web site? Will it be captured by the transition crawl? Steven Clift has a few comments here. Continue reading
Using government information to encourage civic engagement
On Tuesday, I received several exhortations to vote – via e-mail, Facebook, and other social networking sites. I found it somewhat amusing – since I received most of these exhortations after I voted. I also found it somewhat frustrating, because while voting is arguably the most powerful tool citizens have to engage with their governments, I think people are often ignorant of other ways to be civically engaged. I should clarify that by "civic engagement," I'm referring to active dialogue with one's government. Political blogs such as DailyKos and Instapundit have hundreds of thousands of subscribers. I'm willing to bet that far more people read political news and blogs than read government publications like the Federal Register - and actually respond to its requests for comments. I've been thinking about U.S. government publications people can read and respond to in order to be more actively involved. Here's what I've come up with so far:
- The Congressional Record. A daily record of the debates, committee meetings, and other goings-on of Congress, the Congressional Record seems the best way to stay aware of both current legislative issues, and the actions of one's duly elected representatives. Although the Congressional Record itself does not solicit feedback, communicating with one's Senators and Representatives (or their offices) seems to be a popular way for people to participate in their government. This document can help citizens identify what they should be talking to their Senators and Representatives about.
- Congressional Calendars & Schedules. Like the Congressional Record, these calendars may be of use to people in helping citizens identify topics they may want to discuss with their Senators and Congresspersons.
- The Federal Register. I became intrigued with the Federal Register after listening to a presentation about it at this year's Interagency Depository Seminar. While many people might find this daily record of proposed regulations and policy dull, I think FGI's own James R. Jacobs put it best a few months ago - "Regulations and regulatory law are the implementation of legislated law and make all the difference in how laws are enforced and how activities of all citizens are, well..., regulated." I think the National Archives & Records Administration has also done a lot to make the Register more accessible to the average user - they've set up a separate site where a user can search the regulations and contribute comments on them, and they've also set up an RSS feed so people can receive updates to the Federal Register from the comfort of their own RSS readers.
- Government blogs. While many of the blogs on this list seem very specific and may not be of interest to the citizenry-at-large (sorry, Future Digital System, I'm looking at you), others seem to capture an active conversation between government agencies and citizens. For example, take a look at Evolution of Security, a blog written by several employees at the Transportation Security Administration. A recent entry about carrying liquids through security checkpoints received over 150 comments - some from the bloggers, some from citizens, and even some from Transportation Security Officers.
- Contact Your Government (By Topic). Another web page compiled by USA.gov, this page can help citizens locate contact information for government officials on the federal and state levels.
Obama’s Technological Promises
Ok, Mr. President...fulfill your technological promises! I am very excited about some of his proposals, especially in regards to government information transparency and access. Mashable.com posted "A Final Look at Presidential Technology Policy" earlier this week and they had this to say about Obama vs. McCain's plans:
Rather than focusing on anti-trust and and subsidies, as Barack Obama intends to do, what would be better would be focusing on creating an environment where corporate taxes were lowered, and other tax incentives were emphasized for start-ups who focus on better information infrastructure. Senator McCain’s tax plan is moderately favorable towards this theory, though it is likely simply a coincidence convenient to this argument rather than a well thought out technology policy. When it comes to the basics, both presidential candidates are generally on the right track, and are generally in agreement as well. I’ve outlined above where they differ, though, and I think history has shown that Barack Obama’s desired policy directions would be more detrimental to innovation and growth for the tech sector.Interesting that they believe Obama's desired policies may be detrimental to technology. I'm not well versed enough on the issues of Broadband/Anti-trust & subsidies to know whether or not I agree. What do you think? Mashable also has a great blog post on "Government 2.0: The Presidential Transition". I agree with the author's sentiment that the new President must look to the needs of the entire nation, and we need to giver our input too.
...citizens should be engaged in the transition process,...In an increasingly fragmented media and information society, that level of engagement requires more than a press release and newspaper coverage. It means full multimedia engagement using blogging, speeches, informal gatherings, mobile technologies, podcasts, online video, and widgets. The outreach should also use social tools that allow bidirectional conversation, increasing citizen participation and interest in government.Continue reading
Tag cloud of Obama’s victory speech
It was a moving victory speech from PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA! On this night, in this town, there are parties in the street, cars honking, a feeling like 11:59 on New Year's eve. Below is the tag cloud of President Obama's speech, courtesy of tag crowd. For those that weren't able to tune in, here's audio of his speech. Now the real work begins!
Promoting the FDLP
The GPO just released a new video promoting the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), a network of 1250 libraries across the US where the public can get access to government information in a variety of formats. This is a nicely done, succinct explanation of the FDLP. It's nice to see friends and fellow government documents librarians expounding on the FDLP! Thanks GPO!!