Open Source isn’t just for Governments — it’s for campuses and libraries too!
We at FGI are big proponents of free and open source software and open document formats for government information because we believe that using such software and formats is the best way to ensure long-term viability, usability, re-usability, and preservability of government information. But two FGI volunteers, James R. Jacobs and Shinjoung Yeo, are actively and successfully promoting open source where they work -- at the Stanford Libraries.
- Open source on campus: The Stanford Open Source Lab by Ruth Suehle, Red Hat Magazine (2/12/08).
Over the last few months, open source has gained momentum at Stanford University in the form of the Stanford Open Source Lab. Inspired by groups like the Free Software Foundation, Oregon State University's Open Source Lab, Drupal, Openflows Community Technology Lab, and MIT's Open Course Ware, a few people at Stanford decided to band together and dedicate their time and energies to the development of free/open/libre learning and knowledge resources. The vision of the Open Source Lab is to be a nexus on campus for the discussion, advocacy, and technical support of community-based technologies and information systems.
As James notes in the article, their promotion of open source is philosophical as well as technological. As he puts it, "The ideals of the Library intersect closely with those of the open source community. That is, the free flow of and access to information, support by and of a community of interest, open standards, and the necessity for a growing and vibrant public domain to further the goals and interests of the community. Those ideals as well as the example of OSU's Open Source Lab, led me to the idea of supporting open source at Stanford."
Continue readingAftergood says: The next president should open up the Bush Administration’s record
The next president should open up the Bush Administration's record, By Steven Aftergood, Nieman Watchdog February 07, 2008
The next President will have the authority to declassify and disclose any and all records that reflect the activities of executive branch agencies. Although internal White House records that document the activities of the outgoing President and his personal advisers will be exempt from disclosure for a dozen years or so, every Bush Administration decision that was actually translated into policy will have left a documentary trail in one or more of the agencies, and all such records could be disclosed at the discretion of the next President.
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Lunchtime Listen/Watch: danah boyd!
danah boyd has done some of the best and most creative research on social networking, particularly how teenagers are using technology. She is a PhD candidate at the School of Information (iSchool) at the University of California Berkeley. She describes her research this way:
My research focuses on how people negotiate a presentation of self to unknown audiences in mediated contexts. In particular, my dissertation examines how American teenagers socialize in networked publics like MySpace, Facebook, LiveJournal, Xanga and YouTube. I am interested in how the architectural differences between unmediated and mediated publics affect sociality, identity and culture.
She is a dynamic speaker, prolific blogger, and insightful, passionate researcher. If you have never heard danah speak, I recommend watching this brief video! It should be of interest to anyone who wants to understand how young people are using technology and that should be all librarians because that is affecting how they use (and expect to be able to use) the library and its services. (It starts off looking like it is going to be a beer ad, but stick with it; that's just showing where the interview was held.)
- Video Interview with danah boyd, Discover Magazine (Feb 12, 2008). 14 minutes. (here is an alternate link to the same video)
Army Blocks Public Access to Digital Library
Army Blocks Public Access to Digital Library by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News, Feb. 13, 2008.
Public access to the Reimer Digital Library, which is the largest online collection of U.S. Army doctrinal publications, has been blocked by the Army, which last week moved the collection behind a password-protected firewall.
But today the Federation of American Scientists filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking the Army to provide a copy of the entire unclassified Library so that it could be posted on the FAS web site.
The Army move on February 6 marks the latest step in an ongoing withdrawal of government records from the public domain....
The move came as a surprise since only unclassified and non-sensitive records had ever been made available at the Library site.
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Public Library Features Army Captain’s Blog
Cheryl Napsha, the director of the William P. Faust Public Library in Westland Michigan, persuaded an Army Captain who is stationed in Baghdad to write a blog about his experiences and features it on the library's Web site, westland.lib.mi.us. Captain Adrian Massey, who is from Michigan, posts to the blog about twice a week. Massey is the author of a book of poems titled "A Soldier's Poetic Response: A Slice of his Life." The blog itself is at poetadrianmassey.blogspot.com/.
- Library shows another side of war in Iraq, By Cecil Angel, Detroit Free Press, February 13, 2008.