GPO’s Future Digital System has a blog
As previously announced here and on govdoc-l by GPO staff, the Requirements Document and other documents related to the new Future Digital System have been posted to the GPO web site. Checking out where the documents were posted, I was impressed to find a blog linked off the main FDSys page. Good work GPO! At least your new Office of Innovation and New Technology is using communication tools of the 21st Century. Hopefully it will stay updated. I didn't see any content dated later than May 23, 2005. I'm surprised they didn't announce the blog at the time they announced the availability of the FDSys documents. But since they've announced the page that has a link to their blog, I don't feel bad about drawing attention to it. So, if you want to see what GPO has planned for the future, cruise on over to http://fdsys.blogspot.com/ and start reading and commenting! Continue reading
IRS Package X Soon to Be Obsolete
IRS Package X Soon to Be Obsolete. WebCPA, June 2, 2005.
Continue reading"To reduce the $1.8 million in printing and mailing costs associated with Package X and to support the agency's transition to electronic media and communications, the IRS said that Package X will become obsolete in the summer of 2005....
"Individual tax products are available online at http://www.irs.gov and from other commercial and government sources. Publication 1796, IRS Tax Products (a CD-ROM equivalent to Package X) is sold by both the Superintendent of Documents under the Government Printing Office and the National Technical Information System under the U .S. Department of Commerce."
Not a “myth” — an unanswered question
One of the major concerns I have about the future of free access to fully-functional digital government information is that GPO's strategic planning document and the documents outlining its future digital system raise many questions which GPO has not addressed. These include questions about user privacy, long-term funding, use of digital rights management technologies, and deposit of digital files with depository libraries. One major underlying problem that GPO has not addressed is that its Strategic Vision document has conflicting missions: to provide "free and ready public access" to electronic documents and to distribute electronic documents "on a cost recovery basis." How can GPO provide electronic documents for free and for fee at the same time? I was encouraged for a moment when I saw it was addressing this very issue in its handout, FDLP Myths and Monsters (included in the April/May Admin Notes). The very last item in this list is: Continue reading
Chronology of Disappearing Government Information, 1998-2002
This document was compiled by Barbara Miller for ALA/GODORT Education Committee With special assistance of Karrie Peterson and includes data collected through May 8, 2002. Chronology of Disappearing Government Information (May 8, 2002), Compiled by Barbara Miller for ALA/GODORT Education Committee With special assistance of Karrie Peterson. [UPDATE May 7, 2015: I’ve upload a copy […]
Digital divide has not disappeared
June 3, 2005 / Leave a comment
Digital divide has not disappeared By Paul Lamb, CNET News.com, Jun 03, 2005
Consultant Paul Lamb, who is a fellow with the Community Technology Foundation of California writes that "If you read only the big picture statistics, you might be fooled into believing that the digital divide has indeed been bridged" but "if you read in more detail about Internet and technology use in America, you will find a much different story." He points to new studies and suggests specific approaches to identifying the scope of the "knowledge divide" and identifying solutions.
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