Microsoft Loses Vote on File Standards
Microsoft Loses Vote on File Standards by The Associated Press, New York Times (September 4, 2007) "Microsoft Corp. has failed in a first step to win enough support to make the data format behind its flagship Office software a global standard, the International Standards Organization said Tuesday."
There is an ongoing battle between the proprietary "open" format that Microsoft is proposing and the Open Document Format standard created by open source developers. The result of the battle will help determine how governments and libraries will archive digital documents.
See also: Open Document Standards (2007-08-10)
Continue readingYes, EIS’s matter! Hawaii Superferry
This is my first blog entry ever, and I can't think of a better topic than Environmental Impact Statements (EIS's). We govdocs-loving, tree-hugging types are quite attached to EIS's, as in this fine example of an EIS regarding Columbia River water management, plucked from my library's online catalog.
The Northwestern University Transportation Library has a lovely page defining EIS's and providing a guide to their own extensive collections in this area. My library has its own internal cheat sheet as well. And you may wish to check out this list of impact statement announcements appearing in the Federal Register since 1994, some of the past few years with linking out to full text documents (thank you, Environmental Protection Agency).
Why do I have EIS's on the brain? I was reading my local Tacoma News Tribune last Monday, when I saw on page A5 a stunning color photo of an enormous vessel emblazoned with the words Hawaii Superferry, along with a surfer catching a wave in the foreground! I am no stranger to ferries. I grew up on Lake Champlain, vacationed in Maine, and now live in Puget Sound, home to some of the hardest-working ferries on the planet (my personal favorite is the
Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay ferry in nearby British Columbia). But I am used to the thought that one must take an inter-island flight to get around in Hawaii, not board a big honking ferry to get from Oahu to Maui to Kauai.
The article's author, Jaymes Song, notes that the Superferry's first attempt to dock in Kauai was blocked by a dozen surfboarding protesters in the water. What a sight this must have been, as the ferry with 500 passengers and 150 cars had to turn back. The protestors, joined by hundreds more on the shore, say that the ferry company failed to perform a full environmental analysis before beginning operation. Think of it: no EIS published, and our surfers will block your dock -- that Is seeing the real power of government information. There are many twists and turns to this tale, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran an informative article on September 2.
The Superferry itself is maintaining a list of news articles about its own fate. Yes, people, EIS's matter.
Continue readingDorothea Lange and Censored Images of Japanese Internment
Dorothea Lange's pictures from the 1930s helped to create documentary photography. "Migrant Mother," her 1936 portrait of a 32-year-old stoop-laborer, which she shot on assignment for the federal Resettlement Administration, has become iconic, part of our collective memory of the Great Depression. The woman sits in a doorway with three of her seven children, staring into the distance, her expression an impossible combination of despair, dignity, and hallowed beauty. Over the decades and throughout the world, in countless exhibitions and publications, scores of people have seen this image and others by this major American artist. However, less than five years after she took "Migrant Mother," Lange shot another 1,000 photographs, also on commission from the US government, that are far less familiar. In fact, they were considered so revealing of this country's bias, brutality, and shame that they were immediately censored and confiscated by the same government agencies that had commissioned them. They were of Japanese internment camps in California during World War II.
Excerpt from Persons Of Japanese Ancestry by Marilyn Richardson, Women's Review of Books, Vol 24, Issue 3 (May/June 2007), a review of Impounded: Dorothea Lange and Censored Images of Japanese Internment Edited by Dorothea Lange and Gary Y. Okihiro.
Continue readingGPO’s FY 2008 Budget Request via CRS
Thanks to our friends at the Open House Project and Open CRS, we can bring the Congressional Research Service summary of GPO's FY 2008 budget request contained in the report:
RL34031
Legislative Branch: FY2008 Appropriations
June 05, 2007Government Printing Office (GPO). The agency’s FY2008 request of $181.98 million represents a 49% increase over the $122.1 million made available for FY2007. GPO’s budget authority is contained in three accounts: (1) congressional printing and binding, (2) Office of Superintendent of Documents (salaries and expenses), and (3) the revolving fund. FY2008 requests for these accounts are ! congressional printing and binding — $109.5 million; Office of Superintendent of Documents (salaries and expenses) — $45.6 million; and revolving fund — $26.8 million.
The congressional printing and binding account pays for expenses of printing and binding required for congressional use, and for statutorily authorized printing, binding, and distribution of government publications for specified recipients at no charge. Included within these publications are the Congressional Record; Congressional Directory; Senate and House Journals; memorial addresses of Members; nominations; U.S. Code and supplements; serial sets; publications printed without a document or report number, for example, laws and treaties; envelopes provided to Members of Congress for the mailing of documents; House and Senate business and committee calendars; bills, resolutions, and amendments; committee reports and prints; hearings; and other documents.
The Office of Superintendent of Documents account funds the mailing of government documents for Members of Congress and federal agencies, as statutorily authorized; the compilation of catalogs and indexes of government publications; and the cataloging, indexing, and distribution of government publications to the Federal Depository and International Exchange libraries, and to other individuals and entities, as authorized by law.
GPO requested $26.8 million for its revolving fund to support the agency’s acquisition of information technology infrastructure and security enhancements, workforce retraining and restructuring efforts, and facilities maintenance and repairs. This is an increase of $25.8 million over the $1 million provided in FY2007. Of the requested amount, $10.5 million was proposed for the completion of the development of GPO’s Future Digital System, while $9.4 million would cover the replacement of a 30-year-old automated composition system.20
Highlights of House and Senate Hearings on FY2008 Budget of the GPO.
Acting Public Printer William H. Turri, in his written testimony, discussed recent efforts to transform GPO’s operations for the digital age.21 GPO’s production of U.S. passports to meet new standards and increased demand has also been of
interest to appropriators.20 Testimony of William H. Turri, Acting Public Printer of the United States, U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, Legislative Branch Appropriations for 2008, hearings, 110th Cong., 1st sess., March 16, 2007 (not yet published).
We at FGI would welcome any comments that GPO staff would want to post here, along with any other interested party's comments.
Continue readingDaniel’s Docs Videos now at Internet Archive
As you should know by now, Free Government Information maintains a listing of video spots promoting government documents and government information. Most of these videos are available at YouTube and the Capitol Hill Broadcasting Network.
But we recognize that a number of organizations ban "commercial/consumer video" sites like YouTube. So I have posted the videos on the list that I personally created over at the Internet Archive, which most filters seem to treat as an educational site and often left unblocked:
- Air Force at Your Library (3 min) - US Air Force documents and other resources set to the official Air Force Song.
- Army at Your Library (1 min) - Selection of Army resources set to Army Song.
- Best Titles Ever! The Video - 13 titles from FGI's Best Titles Ever page set to electronic music.
- Documents on Parade: Criminal Edition - Web sites and Dept of Justice documents set to music familiar to boomers.
- FDLP - The Final Frontier (Approx 2 min) - Space. The final frontier. Available at your Federal Depository Library since the dawn of the space age. Music by Victor Stellar courtesy of Podsafe Audio.
- Marines Get Around! (approximately 1 min, posted 12/24/2006) - Roundup of documents showing how active Marines have been in our nation's history.
- Navy at Your Library (39 seconds) - Sampling of Navy documents and web sites set to music.
- Shield of Freedom (2 min, posted 12/30/2006) - USCG documents set to the tune Coast Guard's Chief Petty Officers March.
Placing these videos in the Internet Archive has another virtue. They can be downloaded, burned onto CD/DVD, remixed, whatever. These videos are under a noncommerical Creative Commons license, so free to use them in your own promotional materials. And if you create your own videos, we at FGI encourage you to upload them to the Internet Archive now that the IA has simplified the upload process. If you need a walkthrough or have other questions, just drop me a line at dnlcornwall AT alaska DOT net or leave a message here in comments.
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