Making Government Information Digestible
Greetings all, I'm honored to be guest blogging this month here at FGI. I'm a web developer at Sunlight Labs, which involves the development of sites and projects that aim to enable citizens and journalists to more easily access government data. Those of us that spend our days wrestling with government data often spend a lot of time talking about the data that should be available but isn't. An issue of equal if not greater importance is how to make the already available data useful to a general audience. Anyone that has dealt with raw data from any government agency knows that simply passing government data along is typically not sufficient. One example of a project done here at Sunlight that emphasizes making some of the complex outputs of the federal government meaningful to the average citizen is Capitol Words - a site that provides a daily and monthly view of what the most commonly used word in the Congressional Record was. The Congressional Record is the official journal of the daily proceedings of Congress. It is mandated by Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, which emphasizes how essential it is for the people to know what their legislators are up to. It is even published today in a digital format. Unfortunately, today it is far too large to be of any real benefit to the general public. Capitol Words was born out of a suggestion that it would be interesting to see simply the "word of the day" as a way of getting a sense of what was on Congress' mind. By giving the average citizen a window into what Congress is doing, it is possible that they will become more engaged then they otherwise might have been. Some citizens may even be inspired to dig deeper and look at the Congressional Record. Simple presentations of government information such as the popular tag cloud, or even just a simple word, can provide access to data that may be freely available, but is still not accessible to the general public. As great as it is to see more and more government data being made available, hopefully people will also develop new and interesting ways to present government information in a manner useful to all citizens. Continue reading
Show Me the Spending Coalition
Show Me the Spending Coalition is working to bring user-friendly, state spending databases to a computer near you. Continue reading
Guide of the Week: Housing
Housing has been an issue both this year in general and as an election issue. So this week I'm highlighting another Bert Chapman guide that he allowed the ALA GODORT Handout Exchange Wiki to link to: * Housing (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 2001) Last updated 6/18/2008 In his introduction, Bert notes:
Housing affects our lives in many ways. We buy and sell homes, rent apartments, and invest in residential and commercial properties. Government agencies produce many publications on various aspects of housing. These publications can be found in various Purdue Libraries with the HSSE and MEL libraries having the largest collections. Examples of Library Catalog subject headings you can use to search for government documents on housing include:He then identifies a number of resources including:
- Government Sale of Real Property United States
- Home Ownership United States
- Housing Policy United States
- Housing Surveys United States
- Rental Housing Law and Legislation United States
- A Chronology of Housing Legislation & Selected Executive Actions 1892-2003 HSSE DOC Y 4.F 49/20:108-D
- American Housing Survey (various cities) HSSE DOC C 3.215:H-170/
- Census of Construction Industries MEL REF, MEL, & STOR C 3.245/
- Mortgage Insurance Companies of America/Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Reports MEL REF FR 1.63/
- Germany Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, & Housing (In German)
New international report on green jobs
We normally keep our focus on US government information, but this report on green jobs caught my eye coming through my feed reader (UN Pulse is a really good site to follow for UN-related news!). Since this issue is in the news and on the lips of our presidential candidates, I thought I'd give you the heads-up about "Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World", (press release / PDF). It was cooperatively published by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE). According to the press release, the study finds that "changing patterns of employment and investment resulting from efforts to reduce climate change and its effects are already generating new jobs in many sectors and economies, and could create millions more in both developed and developing countries. However, the report also finds that the process of climate change, already underway, will continue to have negative effects on workers and their families, especially those whose livelihoods depend on agriculture and tourism." Look for it soon in OCLC. Continue reading
The “Stop Open Access Act”
Peter Suber reports on H.R. 6845, which is officially called the "Fair Copyright in Research Works Act" but which Suber nicknames the "Stop Open Access Act" or the "Put Publishers First Act."
- A bill to overturn the NIH policy, by Peter Suber, SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #126m October 2, 2008.