Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us
Web2.0 beautifully explained. Mashups and remixes, XML, repurposing information, connecting people to ideas, images, data etc. This is exactly why we here at FGI are so passionate about demanding digital govt information that is freely accessible, not tied down by DRM, and is preserved in a distributed fashion and in open, non-proprietary formats. Let us know what you think in the comments! Continue reading
President Bush’s library debate expands
We posted a story a few days ago about the controversy surrounding George W. Bush's presidential library. Here is a follow-up story in Inside Higher ED. While faculty members at Southern Methodist University (SMU) are mobilizing to challenge the university's plans to build President Bush's library, scholars have begun a campaign against Bush's executive order 13233 that extends the power that former presidents and their families have over their presidential papers, asking SMU to turn down the library as long as the executive order stays in place.
"I think this is very significant," said Benjamin Hufbauer, an associate professor of art history at the University of Louisville and author of Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory (University Press of Kansas). "They are raising the profile of an issue that gets to the heart of the profession." With the executive order in place, Hufbauer said, it isn't fair for SMU to argue that a great scholarly resource will be placed on its campus. "People say that the archive is the most valuable part of it. That's where you can hopefully get to historical truth," Hufbauer. "But if you don't have all the papers, instead you have just a museum of political propaganda."Continue reading
PEW report analyzes the impact of Web 2.0 on 2006 election
The Pew Internet Project released a report on how the public used the Internet and other media during the 2006 election.
Twice as many Americans used the internet as their primary source of news about the 2006 campaign compared with the most recent mid-term election in 2002. Some 15% of all American adults say the internet was the place where they got most of their campaign news during the election, up from 7% in the mid-term election of 2002. A post-election survey shows that the 2006 race also produced a notable class of online political activists. Some 23% of those who used the internet for political purposes – the people we call campaign internet users – actually created or forwarded online original political commentary or politically-related videos.Continue reading
GAO report on EPA proposal to change TRI threshold
Hi all, I'm Chris and, as mentioned, I am FGI's BOTM for February. Since I've admitted to being a Government Accountability Office (GAO) fan, I thought I'd kick things off with a pertinent GAO report. The GAO released a preliminary report today critical of how the EPA handled a proposal to change the threshold of toxic chemical releases that must be reported for inclusion in the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Currently, if a facility releases annually 500 pounds or less of toxic chemicals, it can fill out the short Form A instead of the long Form R. The information in Form R is included in the TRI, which is available to the public. In January, the EPA proposed changing the minimum amount of releases that require the use of Form R to 2,000 pounds. In its initial findings, the GAO found that the EPA "did not adhere to its own rulemaking guidelines in all respects when developing the proposal to change TRI reporting requirements." It found that EPA management essentially forced the threshold change into the decision-making process of the work group that was analyzing changes to the TRI reporting guidelines, then gave the internal and regional offices little time to review the change. PDFs of the full report and its highlights is available on the report's abstract page. Continue reading
Why are EPA Libraries Closing?
FGI has been tracking on the issue of the closings of Environmental Protection Agency libraries around the country for some time now. I reported on the many meetings that EPA officials had with librarians of the Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) at last month's ALA conference in Seattle. Much of the talk revolved around esoteria like digitization, preservation and public service numbers -- terms that **yawn** don't necessarily resonate with the general public. I think the elephant in the living room that was missing from the ALA meetings was a discussion about the obvious political aspects of the Bush administration's overt attack on federal environmental protection laws and regulation. Now here's an article that explains the political attack on EPA libraries in a way that will resonate with the public. Christopher Moraff's article in In These Times (2/1/07) is filled with budget slashing, EPA doublespeak and the shift in the political winds that may save the rest of the EPA libraries from the fate of EPA’s Region 5 facility in Chicago. Please read and distribute.
In February 2006, when President Bush unveiled his budget proposal for FY 2007, the EPA Library Network learned that its annual disbursement would be slashed 80 percent from 2006 funding levels—from $2.5 million to just $500,000. A month later, administrators at the EPA’s Region 5 facility in Chicago circulated an e-mail announcing it would be the first to close. By October, two other regional libraries were gone. Together, the three facilities had served the entire middle United States.Continue reading