Census to replace “approaching obsolescence” American FactFinder
The Census Bureau is soliciting proposals for a new Data Access and Dissemination System (DADS) in preparation for the 2010 Decennial Census to replace the existing systems. "The government recognizes that DADS systems are approaching obsolescence," Census said in its solicitation. (Census Acquisition Information. DATA ACCESS AND DISSEMINATION SYSTEM (DADS II))
"DADS is made up of the American FactFinder system for dissemination of data, the Data Product Production System for Census 2000 product tabulations and the American FactFinder Advanced Query system for Census 2000. IBM Corp. is the incumbent, having provided DADS since 1997." (Census to modernize data distribution systems, by Mary Mosquera, GCN, 01/09/07)
Continue readingNews from abroad: UK open statutes & RFID in Canadian coins
I know we usually focus on US documents, but it's good to look at what's happening in other countries once in a while. BoingBoing, one of my favorite blogs, frequently posts information of interest to libraries, and today was a banner day. The first post of interest was a story about the UK's new *free* statutes database. The UK Department for Constitutional Affairs, after 13 years in the works, has launched the Statute Law Database project. Before this, access to consolidated versions of the law of the UK wasn’t possible without paying lots of money to a private publisher. While the writer mentioned that the situation in the US was similar with access dominated by Westlaw and LexisNexis, a kind commenter pointed out that West and Lexis indeed dominate case law access, but US code could be freely accessible via GPOAccess, Thomas and Cornell's Legal Information Institute. A little closer to home, The US counter-intelligence office of the U.S. Department of Defense recently related that Canadian coins containing tiny transmitters have mysteriously turned up in the pockets of at least three American contractors who visited Canada. Evidently, this is one way that foreign agents use to illicitly acquire military technology. Continue reading
Bipartisan Data-Mining Bill
Senators Feingold and Sununu have introduced a bill seeking disclosure of federal data-mining activities. The legislation:
...requires all federal agencies to report to Congress, in classified form if need be, within 180 days and every year thereafter on certain data mining programs and how these programs impact the civil liberties and privacy of Americans.While we at FGI would prefer a public report, or at least one that included all 435 Members of Congress, this is a good start towards better oversight of the administrations many reported surveillance programs. This bill is similar to legislation that died in the last Congress, but will hopefully have a better chance with a Democratic majority in both houses. Of course if it passes, the President may well try to void the reporting requirements with a Presidential Signing Statement. If that happens, perhaps it will finally provoke judicial scrutiny of such statements. Continue reading
Apple’s iPhone brings multi-touch interface to the masses?
As we all know, computing technology affects what users can do and how they do it and it has major impacts on libraries. We don't usually cover technology as such on FGI because it is well covered on so many other sites on the web.
But one technological breakthrough that we've been watching in development for more than a year, "multi-touch" screens, definitely deserves mention today. See Another video of next generation computer interface for some links. WATCH THE VIDEO and you'll understand why we think this technology "will likely have the same impact on the way we interact with information today as the web had on the way we used to interact with text-based databases: more use, more users, easier use, more options, less instruction..."
So, why mention this today? Because Apple is using this technology on its new "iPhone." I thought the breakthrough would happen when we had really large screens with this technology, but between Apple's design sense and high visibility, this is probably the consumer device that will spur the development of this technology into other areas.
Check out the demonstrations on the Apple site to get a feel for the small screen version of multi-touch technology!
Continue readingHHS to post comparison of hospitals’ heart attack and heart failure death rates
USA TODAY reports that " the government plans to post a consumer-friendly comparison of hospitals' heart attack and heart failure death rates on the Internet."
- Government to list hospitals that falter in heart attack care, By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY (1/10/2007)
Consumers will gain access to the results of the analysis in June, when the agency posts data from July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006 on a Medicare website called Hospital Compare, hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. Rather than directly posting hospitals' death rates, the site will simply report whether a hospital performs better, worse or on par with the national average. Hospital Compare now offers a rundown of hospitals' diligence in providing the best therapies for heart disease and other conditions, based on the available scientific evidence.Continue reading