Best Titles Ever Flickr group – Now with friendly URL!
I'm pleased to announce that the Best. Titles. Ever. photo group on Flickr now has a more memorable URL. Instead of: http://www.flickr.com/groups/65313271@N00/ We now have: http://www.flickr.com/groups/besttitlesever/. Please visit, bookmark and publicize the group. We now have Open WorldCat info for every picture where it is available, plus we have now have links to our access, privacy and preservation pages on every photo. It is the hope of all of us at FGI that at least some people will make the transition from laughing at documents to learning more about government information. If you have any ideas on how to publicize this group or FGI in general, please either make a comment or send an email to admin "AT" freegovinfo.info. Continue reading
Open Government Guide – New Edition Posted
A new version of The Open Government Guide is now available online at The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press website. The guide to state open records and meetings laws was formerly titled "Tapping Officials' Secrets." Thanks to Law Librarian Blog for the tip. Continue reading
Telecom industry sponsors astro-turf lobbying
According to Common Cause, the telecom industry is actively engaged in "Astroturf lobbying" -- creating front groups and "think tanks" that try to mimic true grassroots, but that are funded by corporate money, not citizen power. They are sponsoring fake anti-net neutrality groups -- with names like "Hands Off the Internet", "TV4US", "NetCompetition.org", and the "Video Access Alliance" -- in an effort deliberately mislead and sway public perception. We've written before about Net neutrality, why net neutrality is absolutely essential for the internet and why the telcos are being extremely shortsighted and will end up destroying the very infrastructure they helped to set up. Wolves in Sheeps' Clothing (pt 1) [PDF] Wolves in Sheeps' Clothing (pt 2) [PDF] Continue reading
Tell National Archives, Congress that working people need access too!
Thanks to LISNews for reporting on a proposed reduction in hours at the main National Archives reading room:
Our research center and Central Research Room in the National Archives Building and the research rooms at the National Archives at College Park facility are currently open for research Monday through Friday from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.; on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.; and Saturdays from 8:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. This interim final rule would eliminate Saturday hours and change the research room hours to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, more closely reflecting NARA official business hours in those facilities. The new research room hours are specified in §§ 1253.1(a) and 1253.2(b). We are also amending § 1253.8 since we no longer will have Saturday hours.According to the LISNews article, President Richard Pearce-Moses of the Society of American Archivists offered testimony in favor of some extended hours:
NARA held a public hearing last Thursday, 3 August. I spoke on behalf of the Society of American Archivists, expressing concern that this was a serious barrier to public access. Restricting reading room hours to business hours requires that many, maybe most, members of the public must take time off from work to use the collections. The effect is that they may have to pay for access in terms of lost wages. While I'm sure all archivists appreciate the challenges of budgets and the costs of extended hours, I believe it is essential for NARA to find some means to retain some extended hours. One option would be to remain open evenings or weekends, rather than both. Archivist Weinstein commented that he was committed to the principle of access to records. In other comments, the Archivist noted that public input would be a factor in the final determination of hours.In support of their rule change, NARA notes the small percentage of researchers who use NARA facilities after normal business hours. But thanks to the vast number of people who come to NARA for research purposes, this still impacts thousands of researchers. By NARA's own figures, 18,719 people did in-person research either at NARA's main building or at their Park Facility either on Saturdays or during evening hours in 2005. It's probably a fair assumption that most of these people came during these extended hours because that's when they were able to. Why should we exclude thousands of working people from access to government records? We shouldn't be. Why should we force thousands of people to choose between wages and researching the records their tax dollars helped collect and process? We shouldn't be. In the LISNews article, Richard Pearce-Moses offers these ways to comment:
You can help make the case for the importance of public access to public records by submitting comments online at http://www.regulations.gov. For the agency, select National Archives and Records Administration all. In the Keyword, type hours. Click submit, and you'll see an icon for adding comments. You can also send comments by fax (301-837-0319) or by mail to Regulations Comments Desk (NPOL), Room 4100, Policy and Planning Staff, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001.In addition to Richard's suggestions, I'd like to suggest that you copy your Congressional delegation on any comments made to NARA, plus suggest an increase for the National Archives budget. Try to suggest a decrease somewhere else. For ideas, try the Citizens Against Government Waste web site, or the US Budget on GPO Access. Continue reading
Not Just Blogs: Issues – Authenticity
Last week we began a tour of the Free Government Information web site. Today we stop at our authenticity page, which can be found by clicking on issues near the top of the main FGI page:
Then by clicking on Authenticity:
This page is an essay by James A. Jacobs which suggests that the problem of authenticity is more of a social problem than a technological problem. In part he says:
Trust is the social part of the solution But this technological check does not solve the authentication problem by itself. The check against the hash is only as reliable as the trusted third party. The software just gives us a technical means of shifting who we trust -- instead of trusting the party that delivered the document to us, for example, we trust a third party that tells us that the hash is correct and authentic. If the hash isn't authentic and unchanged, the check against the hash is worthless. This concept of a trusted third party is, therefore, an essential component of the authentication chain. That should lead us to an important question: who will we choose as our trusted third parties? This is important because the tools only work if we can trust the third party to do its job. In the case of government information essential to our democracy, this trust has to last forever.For the complete essay, along with supporting links, please see the Authenticity issue page. If you do read the essay, would you come back and comment? Especially on the basic concept that we need a "trusted third party" whose survival is not at the whim of the Government? Next week we'll continue our web site tour with an examination of our issues "preservation" page. Continue reading