From the Washington Post:
A longtime critic of the Smithsonian Institution introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate this week that would wipe out the national museum complex’s exemption from the Freedom of Information Act and the Sunshine Act.
The legislation, co-sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Finance Committee, and Sen. Arlen Specter [...]
Archive of entries posted on July 2008
Bill Would End FOIA Shield for Smithsonian
New GPO White Paper Digital Preservation at the U.S. Government Printing Office
New GPO White Paper – Digital Preservation at the U.S. Government Printing Office:
This paper provides a non-technical introduction to digital preservation, particularly to the challenges for keeping digital content available and accessible into the future. Then the focus shifts to the digital preservation activities of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and highlights of GPO’s [...]
“In their own words”: political videos meet Google speech-to-text technology
From the Google blog:
In this U.S. election year, what information could be more important than the candidates’ own words to describe their views, actions and platforms? . . .
. . Today, the Google speech team (part of Google Research) is launching the Google Elections Video Search gadget, our modest contribution to the electoral process. With [...]
News by Agency
Thanks to Free Government Information for pointing out the new Government Executive magazine feature that allows you to easily track their stories about many individual government agencies.
Controlled Unclassified Info May Be Classified, US-Czech Doc Says
From Secrecy News:
Government agencies may redesignate “controlled unclassified information” (CUI) as classified information in order to prevent its disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, according to an agreement signed last week between the United States and the Czech Republic.
The July 8 agreement (pdf) on establishment of a U.S. missile defense radar in the Czech [...]
Foreign Relations Series Still Fails to Meet Legal Deadline
From Secrecy News:
The “Foreign Relations of the United States” (FRUS) series, which is the official documentary history of U.S. foreign policy, remains unlikely to meet the legal requirement that it be published no later than 30 years after the events that it describes, an official advisory committee has told the Secretary of State.
“Despite many and [...]
Foreign donations suspended, Bush library says
From the Dallas Morning News:
Faced Monday with a report that a rogue lobbyist urged an exiled Central Asian leader to support the Bush library to curry favor in Washington, library officials promised that no foreign money will be accepted until President Bush leaves office. On Tuesday, it became clear the public will have to take [...]
Public has right to see most government e-mails, but what if they get erased first?
From the LA Times:
Laws in all but a handful of states give the public access to government e-mail. But what if that e-mail was intentionally deleted or routinely purged?In Hawaii, Gov. Linda Lingle’s office allowed e-mails of her top aide to be purged. In North Carolina, Gov. Mike Easley’s administration allegedly ordered state workers to [...]
Library of Congress: Laws Need Revision to Encourage Digital Preservation
From the Chronicle of Higher Education:
Countries should change their laws and policies to encourage digital preservation of copyrighted works, according to a report released today by the Library of Congress. It drafted the report with organizations in Australia, Britain, and the Netherlands.
Full report: “International Study on the Impact of Copyright Law on Digital Preservation”
Viacom agrees to YouTube privacy deal
From Information World Review:
Google and Viacom have reached an agreement to omit user information from a YouTube log which the search giant has been forced to hand over.
The agreement means that Viacom will not be able to see precisely which videos have been accessed by each viewer, nor will it be able to see a [...]