From News.com:
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including “obscene” cartoons and drawings–or face fines of up to $300,000.
That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. [...]
Archive of entries posted on December 2007
House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites
Florida’s Governor Crist Announces New Initiatives for Open Government
Press Release:
Governor Crist today announced two new open government initiatives that will improve Floridians’ ability to access public documents and meetings. The first initiative involves a Bill of Rights for all Floridians trying to access public records. The list of rights was compiled by the Commission on Open Government, established by the Governor [...]
NY’s Project Sunlight
From the Sunlight Foundation:
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo today unveiled “Project Sunlight,” a powerful and easy-to-use website giving the public unprecedented access to the workings of state government and the information it keeps. . .
. . . New York’s Project Sunlight allows tracking, in as real time as the reports are available, seven different [...]
Citizen Journalists, Start Your Engines!
From The Huffington Post:
Bloggers and other citizen journalists have a new and exciting opportunity to find and shed light on stories the mainstream media are missing — by combing through transcripts of recent Congressional oversight hearings. Without any fanfare, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has started posting preliminary transcripts of many of its [...]
New Effort Afoot to Pass FOIA Bill
From the Associated Press:
Lawmakers are scrambling to align House and Senate versions of a bill to tighten freedom of information laws in time to pass it this year.
But with less than three weeks left before Congress recesses for the holidays, Democratic leaders say the chances of that happening are uncertain.
After talks to reconcile the bills [...]
Would you pay an Internet “tax” for music?
From The Globe & Mail:
As sales of CDs continue to plummet and music downloading continues to increase, record companies and artists alike are trying to think of ways to change the traditional business models of the music industry. Radiohead and other bands are giving their music away, Universal is bundling songs with Nokia cellphones, and [...]
More state Web sites will show up in searches with help from Google software
From the Mercury News:
Under a new partnership announced Monday by Gov. Charlie Crist, Google Inc. is providing free consulting and software that help make more files recognizable to most search engines.
Florida joins five other states – Arizona, California, Utah, Virginia and Michigan – already participating in Google’s effort. Google hopes to get local governments involved [...]
LOC Bib-Future Report Goes Live
From the Library of Congress blog:
The full draft report of the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control is now on the Web and the comments period is open until Dec. 15. Electronic comments are preferred.
Sunshine Week 2008 Hits the Campaign Trail: Candidates from President to Mayor to be Quizzed on Access Issues
From the Sunshine Week blog:
The Sunshine Week alliance has begun a yearlong Sunshine Campaign project to bring the discussion of open government issues to election campaigns from president to local city council. While the initiative expands the scope of Sunshine Week to cover the entire election season, specific events and coverage are still planned for [...]
EFF Wins Fast-Track Release of Telecom Lobbying Records
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Late Tuesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) won the speedy release of telecom lobbying records from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
The agency was ordered to comply with a new December 10 deadline — in time for the documents to play a role in the congressional debate over [...]