Congressional Recess and You
I don't have much time left as the August guest blogger, so I will use my current position of power here in the center column to point out the new post by James R. Jacobs over there in the side column: "Google for government spending" blocked by unknown Senator . This post from James concerns S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. My lunching lobbyist friend just let me know that the story is also covered in the August 28 Washington Times. (For those not familiar with the Washington Times, its editorial spin is somewhat different than that of, say, Mother Jones.) I have wanted to write a post about the power of August recess, and this breaking story gives me just the opportunity. Don't like what's happening? Talk to your Senators and Representatives in the U.S. Congress. They should be back home for August recess. For some of the flavor of a congressional recess, check out the article "Recess!" by Paul Jenks in the August issue of LLRX.com. Jenks is slightly more cynical than I am about your constituent power during recess, but he does observe that "in Washington [members of Congress] are isolated somewhat from their constituents and are at the beck and call of their national parties, interest groups and the administration. On recess, they are on their own amongst their own." And you certainly have more power than I do: I live and vote in DC. Whether the topic is the spending database, or net neutrality, or EPA Libraries, you can use what is left of August recess to make government information issues real to your elected representatives. But this is no endless summer. The Senate reconvenes on September 5, and the House reconvenes on September 6. Continue reading
“Google for government spending” blocked by unknown Senator
I just learned something new about the arcane rules that govern the US Senate. In an interesting story first posted on Cox News Service, an unidentified Senator put a "secret hold" on a bill, effectively blocking its passage until such time as that Senator decides to lift the hold. The irony is that the bill, introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, thereby creating increased govt transparency! Read more about it on Mother Jones. And check out Porkbusters to see where your senator stands on the issue.
In an ironic twist, legislation that would open up the murky world of government contracting to public scrutiny has been derailed by a secret parliamentary maneuver. An unidentified senator placed a "secret hold" on legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year. The database would bring transparency to federal spending and be as simple to use as conducting a Google search. The measure had been unanimously passed in a voice vote last month by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. It was on the fast track for floor action before Congress recessed Aug. 4 when someone put a hold on the measure. Now the bill is in political limbo. Under Senate rules, unless the senator who placed the hold decides to lift it, the bill will not be brought up for a vote.[Thanks Crooks and Liars!] Continue reading
Hardcore Non-Adopters: Another reason for tangible formats
While reading Bowling for Broadband 2: Toward Citizen-Centric, Broadband-Based E-Government, a ten page report issued by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, I was struck by this paragraph (emphasis mine):
Hardcore Non-Adopters Recent developments in the market place for Internet access threaten to render the old online vs. offline digital-divide debate a moot point. The nearly 30% of Americans who don’t have any type of Internet access can now be considered hardcore Internet non-adopters. The Internet has been a high-profile part of the nation’s culture for a decade and monthly dial-up access has been universally available for well under $10.00 per month for nearly as long. So, it is hard to make a case that these Americans have not made the intentional choice to stay off line or use someone else’s access. However, broadband providers are still optimistic they can persuade this demographic of the value of broadband. A recent study by Leichtman Research Group shows that the coaxial cable and DSL providers are not simply engaged in a zero-sum competition for each other’s customers. They are actively marketing to the 30% of offline Americans and the 28% who use dialup access with a wide range of packages and prices that are competitive even with “enhanced†dial-up services.Taking the Census Bureau's latest estimate, there are 299,566,801 American citizens. That means there are over 89,000,000 Americans who do not use the Internet at all, and more than 83,000,000 citizens who currently can't do better than a 56K modem. If you've got a 56K modem, HP estimates that it takes two minutes to download a 768K document. For a not untypical 5MB government document, our 83,000,000 dialup users will have to wait 15 minutes to see the file. That isn't real access. While Congress, the Government Printing Office and too many documents librarians can't wait for the totally electronic future, such a future will leave over a 170,000,000 million people behind simply because they do not have quick and easy access to broadband. Is that fair? If not, what can we do about it? Should we do anything. Should offline and underconnected people be excluded from knowing about their gov't if they underconnectedness is something under their control? Don't misunderstand me. I believe in digital government information as an important access tool. Just not the only access tool. Especially when it looks like it will be sole-source access through federal servers. Continue reading
Background on copyright of government documents
We've added a new page to the FGI Library, an excerpt from a Federal Judicial Center published book on copyright law explaining how copyright law has been applied to federal, state and local documents. So please have a look and have a discussion, either here or on the library page. Continue reading
What is this thing called “virtual depository”?
A recent post on govdoc-l regarding virtual depositories got me thinking about definitions and what exactly IS a virtual depository. So I decided to explore the etymology of the term. Please go to the FGI library and check out "Toward a definition of 'virtual depository'", my little thought piece on what it the term means and how I understand it. By all means, please post comments/ideas/suggestions/diatribes at the end of the page. Continue reading