CRS Reports, E-government, Thomas, indexing of the government web, and more!
This hearing should be of professional interest to government information specialists!
- Hearing, U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. E-Government 2.0: Improving Innovation, Collaboration, and Access 12/11/07 10:00 AM (EST). [The hearing was broadcast live and will be available for viewing later here.]
In pre-hearing news coverage (Web Leaders Seek More Searchable Government, by Kim Hart, Washington Post, December 11, 2007; page D08), Hart quotes the witnesses as saying that, even though four out of five Web surfers use search engines to find information and bypass the agency's home page, basic government information often does not show up in results provided by search engines run by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask.com.
Witnesses Testimony is already available online as PDF documents:
- Karen S. Evans, Administrator, Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology , Office of Management and Budget
- John Lewis Needham, Manager, Public Sector Content Partnerships , Google, Inc.
- Ari Schwartz, Deputy Director , Center for Democracy and Technology
- Jimmy Wales, Founder , Wikipedia
The purpose of the hearing is to examine what progress the government has made in getting services and information online and available to the public; what new technologies can be used to enhance the government's ability to collaborate and share information; and what challenges remain five years since the passage of the E-Government Act.
In addition, Senator Lieberman will be announcing at the hearing that he'll be introducing legislation to make CRS reports available to the public, and an initiative to enhance the availability and format of legislative information through THOMAS.
Continue readingGreat DMCA presentation
This short but on-target slideshow about the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) really hits home about the DMCA's crazy anti-circumvention measures. It was made (and thankfully released under a Creative Commons by-nc license!) by Wellington Grey, who writes a great webcomic called Miscellanea about "science, religion, teaching, politics and the not-coming-soon-enough technological singularity." Thanks to the Infowarrior list for originally posting this. Inforwarrior includes "commentary and articles and occasional items of interest in the technology, security, policy, and current events areas." If you're not subscribed, you should get over there right now and sign up. Continue reading
New CRS Report on Senate Holds
We've written about how secret Senate holds have blocked transparency legislation that had wide bipartisan support. Last month the Congressional Research Service came out with this report on the subject of holds:
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Senate Policy on "Holds": Action in the 110th Congress
November 20, 2007
"When the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (S. 1, 110th Congress) was signed into law on September 14, 2007, Section 512 of that statute specifically addressed the issue of secret "holds." Holds are a longstanding custom of the Senate that enabled Members to provide notice to their party leader of their intent to object on the floor to taking up or passing a measure or matter. Their potency as a blocking, delaying, or bargaining device is linked to Senators' ability to conduct filibusters or object to unanimous consent agreements or requests. The new holds process outlined in Section 512 is designed to constrain the frequency of anonymous holds and promote more openness and transparency with respect to their use. Ultimately, it is up to the majority leader of the Senate -- who sets the chamber's agenda after consulting various people -- to decide whether, or for how long, he will honor a colleague's hold. This report will be updated if circumstances warrant a revision."
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So the next time there is a secret hold, the main chap to complain to will be:
Reid, Harry- (D - NV)
528 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3542
Web Form: reid.senate.gov/contact/email_form.cfm
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Thanks to the Open CRS project at http://opencrs.com for getting ahold of this report and making it available to the public. Their work is very important because Congress has prevented its research arm from making CRS reports available to the public, even though they are in the public domain and unclassified. Most of the arguments we've heard not releasing CRS reports apply equally well to the Government Accountability Office, which has released all of its non-classified information products for many years.
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Comparing the presidential candidates
The ONE Campaign has put together a nice little tool to compare the statements of all the presidential candidates:
Tens of thousands of ONE members asked the candidates to go "On The Record" with their plans to combat extreme poverty and global disease. “On the Record” is a project of ONE Action and provides information to help evaluate the candidates on ONE’s issues.
Learn more about the campaign.
Continue readingWhat’s worse than 18 1/2 minutes of deleted audio?
What could be worse for a President than 18 1/2 minutes of missing tape (Listen to Nixon's Watergate Tapes here)? How about 10 MILLION deleted emails? Yup, that's right, White House email from March of 2003 to October 2005 (which would include the start of the Iraq War right up through the aftermath of Katrina) have "mysteriously" gone missing. The National Security Archive filed a motion back in October to find out what e-mails are missing from the White House e-mail system or backup tapes. This could be huge because the Presidential Records Act of 1978 mandates that White House communications be preserved.
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