2 Million Pages of legal documents made available free online
Creative Commons has announced that in partnership with Public.Resource.Org and with legal representation from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, it has purchased and has now made available at no charge the equivalent of nearly two million pages of legal documents. If printed and piled on top of each other, the documents would make a stack of books 348 feet tall. Included are all U.S. Supreme Court decisions and all Courts of Appeals decisions from 1950 on.
"Though these texts have always technically been in the public domain, the organizations had to purchase the electronic version from a private company that had compiled it. Now available at this link, they have also been converted to XHMTL so that anyone can develop user interfaces and search engines against the information."
Democratic Caucus: America at Risk
There is a new report from the Democratic Caucus, U.S. House of Representatives, entitled "America At Risk: Despite Continued Warnings... America's readiness continues to slide." The 7-page pdf summarizes how the cost of the war in Iraq is straining the budget and affecting the preparedness of the military to protect the country from domestic attack. It includes reports about how budget cutbacks are affecting the National Guards of individual states. hat tip: beSpacific! Continue reading
Anniversary of Open Source and the start of Decade One
Happy Anniversary to Open Source! W00t!! Bruce Perens has just published "State of Open Source Message: A New Decade For Open Source." The concept of open source has also hit the mainstream of the library world (although there have been many long-time proponents in the oss4lib, web4lib, code4lib communities!) with vendors like LibLime on the exhibits floor and talks about Drupal, Koha, Evergreen, VuFind etc and at ALA's 2008 midwinter conference. You owe it to yourselves, your libraries and your communities to find out about open source!
On February 9, 1998, I published the Open Source Definition and the public announcement of the Open Source Initiative that Eric Raymond and I were starting. This was the first time that the general public heard what Open Source was about. Friday, February 8 is the last day of Decade Zero of Open Source. Saturday, February 9 is the anniversary of Open Source and the start of Decade One. It's a computer scientist thing. We always start counting from zero :-) ... ...Most Open Source today is software being produced by its users, for its users ... By participating in Open Source development, users distribute the cost and risk of the development of enabling technology and infrastructure for their businesses. Their profit centers are not tied to software sales, but to some other business. To find them, look to the communities rather than the companies.Continue reading
OMBWatch survey due tomorrow (2/12)
Here's a reminder (first posted by Susanna last week!) to take the OMB Watch survey to choose your 5 (and only 5) favorite questions on government openness and transparency for congressional and presidential candidates! OMB Watch Survey OMB Watch is a nonprofit government watchdog organization whose mission is to promote open government, accountability and citizen participation. Continue reading
FISA debate coverage
For those of you *trying* to follow the debate raging in D.C. about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the extension of the "Protect America Act of 2007", please go on over to EmptyWheel and Crooks and Liars. Both have extensive coverage about it -- with video! -- and can help to wrap your heads around telco amnesty, basket warrants or reverse targeting, sequestration of illegally harvested evidence and other arcane but vitally important issues that can make or break the future of civil rights in the US. Continue reading