Kudos for Qatar
Another note from abroad reminding us that the importance of accessing government information is recognized worldwide: Title: Promise of technology is for everybody (By HESSA AL JABER) Source: The Peninsula On-line: Qatar's leading English daily, 5/17/2008 http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/commentary/commentaryother.asp?file=maycommentary482008.xml In article otherwise on technology for the disabled, the head of Qatar's Information and Communications Technology had this to say about government information:
Because people with disabilities cannot participate in government processes or benefit from government services if they don’t know what government offers, ictQATAR looks forward to setting a timeframe in which all public government information is universally accessible. This will include information that the government provides through radio and television programming, kiosks, and websites. And I call upon other government entities to begin incorporating into their websites accessibility functions such as media players, specially designed web browsers, and other assistive technologies. In the near future, ictQATAR will work to establish a Fund to offset the costs of both individual and organisational adoption of ICT to benefit the disabled. Although the details have yet to be fully developed, we expect that disabled individuals will apply for grants or vouchers to help pay for technologies and/or services that will enable them to benefit from the same opportunities as everybody else. Similarly, government organisations, corporations, and other organisations will be entitled to grants to encourage the universal provision of services and employment of disabled individuals.To the extent the government's goals are in line with the desires of Qatar's people, we wish them well in their efforts to place government information online. For more information about Qatar, please see the US State Department's Background Notes for Qatar, last published in July 2007. Continue reading
Comic book rifle maintenance
In 1968, [w:Will Eisner], an acclaimed American comics writer who passed away in 2005, illustrated a US Army rifle maintenance booklet that instructs soldiers to treat their rifles like a woman. I just added it to our Best Titles Ever page, not because the title itself is particularly funny or odd, but because this was a comic book -- distributed to all US military personnel in Viet Nam -- whose illustrations were strange and sexist. M16A1 rifle : operation and preventive maintenance. DA Pam 750-30. Find in a library
Police State 2.0 is ready for export to a neighborhood near you
A new, in-depth story by Naomi Klein examines "Golden Shield," China's prototype for a high-tech police state. She says that China is building its systems with the help of U.S. defense contractors, that the global homeland-security business is bigger than Hollywood and the music industry combined, and that the U.S. Government is mining China's experiences for ideas for its own surveillance programs.
- China's All-Seeing Eye, by Naomi Klein, Rollingstone, May 29, 2008. "Like everything else assembled in China with American parts, Police State 2.0 is ready for export to a neighborhood near you."
Klein says that the United States is providing China's rulers with something even more valuable than surveillance technology: "...the ability to claim that they are just like us. Liu Zhengrong, a senior official dealing with China's Internet policy, has defended Golden Shield and other repressive measures by invoking the Patriot Act and the FBI's massive e-mail-mining operations." And, the Chinese rationalize surveillance of their own citizens the same way many do in the United States: "If you are a law-abiding citizen, you shouldn't be afraid... The criminals are the only ones who should be afraid." (See also: Privacy: "I have nothing to hide" and Privacy and the "Terrorist Surveillance Act.")
Klein notes that human-rights activists say that although the surveillance tools used by China and the U.S. are the same, the political contexts are radically different. "China has a government that uses its high-tech web to imprison and torture peaceful protesters, Tibetan monks and independent-minded journalists." But she also notes that Guantánamo Bay, the erosion of the Fourth Amendment prohibition against illegal searches and seizures, and the fact that the U.S. currently has more people behind bars than China despite a population less than a quarter of its size all mean that "the lines are getting awfully blurry."
What relevance does this have for government information specialists? As we at FGI have pointed out before, when the only "authentic" copy of government information is available from government-controlled computers rather than from privacy-protecting libraries, the freedom to read is eroded and the infrastructure for government spying on what you are reading is enabled. (See also: Will GPO guarantee user privacy? Can it?.)
See also: China's Golden Shield: Corporations and the Development of Surveillance Technology in the People's Republic of China, by Greg Walton, October 2001, Rights & Democracy.
Continue readingA New Website Devoted to Envisioning the Future of Libraries
A New Website Devoted to Envisioning the Future of Libraries, D-Lib Magazine, May/June 2008, Volume 14 Number 5/6. "What is the future of academic and research libraries? A recently launched web site from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) entitled Libraries of the Future (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/librariesofthefuture) addresses that question and others concerning how the libraries of today may evolve to address the needs of future information users." Continue reading
Senators Ask FBI to Explain Flawed ‘National Security Letter’ to Internet Archive
Senators Ask FBI to Explain Flawed 'National Security Letter' to Internet Archive, By Ryan Singel, Wired Blog, May 15, 2008.
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is asking FBI head Robert Mueller to explain why the feds sought records from the Internet Archive, a digital library, using a controversial administrative subpoena known as a National Security Letter, which is intended for a communications service providers.... Specifically, they asked Mueller if the FBI actually believed that the Internet Archive was an communications service provider. If it were, FBI agents could get subscriber records using an NSL under the auspices of the Electronic Communications Protection Act. But if the Internet Archive is a library, that subpoena would be inapplicable and possibly illegal. That would mean that the NSL should be reported to the Intelligence Oversight Board as a possible violation of law. The senators are asking Mueller if the Internet Archive subpoena actually was reported to the board.Continue reading