From Public.Resource.org:
The Government Accountability Office released 10 DVDs of materials, containing 619,481 PDF files. This material has been placed on-line for the public to examine. Even a cursory examination shows how incredibly valuable the Federal Legislative Histories are and what a loss to the U.S. Congress, the legal profession, and the general public it would [...]
Archive of entries posted on June 2008
GAO Releases 10 DVDs of Federal Legislative Histories to Public.Resource.org
What We’ve Learned So Far – Review of Existing Resources
From the EPA:
As a backdrop to the National Dialogue, we conducted a review of existing reports to summarize what we have learned in the past about the needs of EPA’s audiences. Past focus groups, usability studies and general information about audience needs and preferences for environmental information can help inform current information collection and validate [...]
PPIC Statewide Survey: Californians & Information Technology
From the Public Policy Institute of California:
This survey is the first in a new five-year PPIC Statewide Survey series focusing on information technology issues, funded with grants from the California Emerging Technology Fund and from ZeroDivide. The series’ intent is to inform state policymakers, encourage discussion, and raise public awareness about a variety of information [...]
U.S. Copyright Renewal Records Available for Download
From the Inside Google Book Search blog:
For U.S. books published between 1923 and 1963, the rights holder needed to submit a form to the U.S. Copyright Office renewing the copyright 28 years after publication. In most cases, books that were never renewed are now in the public domain. Estimates of how many books were renewed [...]
Google Joins the “Internet for Everyone” Initiative
From Search Engine Watch:
Like a politician making campaign promises, Google has announced its involvement in the launch of the “Internet for Everyone” campaign. Unlike politicians, we actually know what the campaign is all about from the title and there’s a higher chance of Google carrying out this platform than politicians keeping their promises.
The “Internet for [...]
The Department of Forgetting
From Slate:
I got bad news from the FBI a few months ago. A file I’d requested under the Freedom of Information Act wasn’t going to be available. Ever.
And not for one of the reasons I already knew to expect—that the material was classified, that the file concerned a living person, or that no file existed [...]
Agencies get pushy with Web 2.0
From Federal Computer Week:
Having an effective presence on the Web is no longer as simple as putting up a home page and letting visitors do all the work to come to you. Many organizations now enhance their Web-based communications with various techniques to push news and fresh information out to interested recipients or seed links [...]
Public Records: An easy fix
From The Florida Times-Union:
Simple solutions can sometimes ward off sticky problems.
Exhibit A, in this case, is State Attorney Harry Shorstein’s good call to change his policy of giving uncopied files to outside agencies.
Twice in the last three years, public access to files involving investigations disappeared when either the FBI or the U.S. Attorney’s Office asked [...]
Senate nixes emergency census funding
From Federal Computer Week:
The Census Bureau might not get an additional $210 million as a result of a recent Senate vote.
The Senate voted 77-21 June 26 to remove the emergency spending designation from the funding, essentially dropping it from the fiscal 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Act.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez had requested additional money for this fiscal [...]
Web Sites Push For More Transparency and Accessibility In Government
From Information Week:
OpenCongress and MetaVid give citizens an open window into government activities
One unemployment bill before the U.S. Congress has generated more than 17,000 comments, thanks to one of many sites using technology to increase transparency, accountability, and participation in government.
OpenCongress aims to make everyone a political insider. It gives readers access to more detail [...]