GovTrack Announces New Features for the New Congress
GovTrack Announces New Features for the New Congress, Sabrina I. Pacifici, BeSpacific, January 15, 2007. Sabrina summarizes some excellent new features of the excellent remix of government information at GovTrack. Track committee meetings with iCal, see changes in bills in HTML, voting history, an ideology meter on the people pages, and more... Continue reading
NARA for adults only at .com partner
National Archives Announces New "Service" According to this posting, the contract between the National Archives and a private contractor for digitization of materials at NARA has terms of service that limits access to adults-only. "You have to be 18 to get an account and under no circumstances may anybody under 13 be allowed to look at archival documents." Also, access to the images at http://www.footnote.com/nara.php requires a paid membership or you can purchase documents at $1.99 per page.
The National Archives receives a copy of all the digital media for their archives, but the contract prohibits the Internet Archive (or anybody else for that matter) from having a copy of that data. It is amazing to me how often the government goes down the road of trying to privatize public information.Also see: Press Release January 10, 2007 National Archives and Footnote Launch Project to Digitize Historic Documents. Continue reading
The Web Curator Tool Project
The Web Curator Tool (WCT) is a tool for managing the selective web harvesting process. It is designed for use in libraries and other collecting organisations, and supports collection by non-technical users while still allowing complete control of the web harvesting process. The WCT Project is a collaborative effort by the National Library of New Zealand and the British Library, initiated by the International Internet Preservation Consortium. The WCT software was developed by Sytec Resources Ltd and is now available under the terms of the Apache Public License.Continue reading
Two seats for bloggers at Scooter Libby trial
After negotiating with judicial officials, the Media Bloggers Association succeeded in gaining 2 seats for bloggers at Lewis "Scooter" Libbey trial next week. This is the first time bloggers have received press seats in a federal court . Washington Post (Jan 11, 2007) reports:
bloggers can bring a depth of reporting that some traditional media organizations aren't able to achieve because of space and time limitations," said Sheldon Snook, administrative assistant to Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan. Snook added that some bloggers also bring expertise that is welcome in courtContinue reading
National Conference for Media Reform
The 2007 National Conference for Media Reform kicked off on Friday. Thousands of media reformers - grassroots activists,journalists, and scholars got together in Memphis, TN to address issues including net neutrality, public broadcasting, ethnic media, global media policy and more. Bill Moyers, the keynote speaker, opened the conference, talking about Martin Luther King Jr. and said, “the bullet killed him but it couldn’t kill the story.†You can now watch or listen to Moyers' entire speech:
It looks like the agenda is filled with the discussion of many important media issues, but notably, there are several sessions about women in media highlighting a gender analysis and women's participation in cutting edge media production. It's great to see focus on women media which was absent at past conferences. Audio for all sessions is available on the program page. Continue reading