Federal News Radio reports that the US General Services Administration (GSA) and Google have agreed on a standard, government-wide terms of use policy.
The 15 January 2009 article, GSA agrees with Google on 'terms of use' policy, also reports that GSA has drafted Web 2.0 guidance for agencies that is under OMB review and will eventually be open to public comment.
What happens when government agencies allow bulk access to their data in an open, standard file format? An article in the January/February 2009 issue of The Atlantic magazine explains.
iGov: how geeks are opening up government on the Web, by Douglas McGray, reports on the citizen-web developer phenomenon. The article quotes the web manager of San Francisco BART transit system as saying, "It's not 1995. A single Web site is not the endgame anymore."
A related DGI post:
UK and DC Government Data Mash-ups: Winning Ideas
The MLKDay.gov website promotes the Martin Luther King, Jr. US federal holiday as a national day of volunteer service. This year, King Day will be observed on Monday, 19 January 2009.
According the the site, which is sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service:
The MLKDay website has a database of volunteer opportunities, as does the new USAService.org site. Retired General Colin Powell announced the USAService.org website, which was created by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, on 9 January 2009.
The St. Louis Federal Reserve has launched a website featuring news, data, and web links related to the current financial crisis. The new site - The Financial Crisis: A Timeline of Events and Policy Actions [http://www.stlouisfed.org/timeline/] - is organized around a timeline starting in February 2007 with Freddie Mac's announcement that it would no longer buy the most risky subprime mortgages and mortgage-related securities. Each event on the timeline links to the related source document.
Also from the St. Louis Fed:
The research library has published the January 2009 issue [PDF] of their online Liber8 newsletter. This month's theme is "Season's Greetings and Seasonal Adjustments," explaining why and how economic data is seasonally adjusted.
Mark Drapeau, a fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy, recently wrote an article for PBS' MediaShift blog about using social networking tools to create a more transparent and accessible government. From "Government 2.0: How Social Media Could Transform Gov PR":
Behind every press release, web page, and social networking account is a person. But when people "hide" behind organizational brands, it reduces the authenticity and transparency that people -- citizens, customers, fans -- have become accustomed to seeing in the Web 2.0 world. New social tools and niche communications can empower people to connect with their audiences on a more personal level through what has been termed "ambient awareness" or ambient intimacy.
Examples of what Drapeau means can be found by looking at BearingPoint's GovTwit Directory, which was discussed at the DGI Blog last month.
Additional discussion of Drapeau's article can be found FCW Insider.
The Library of Congress legislative database THOMAS (http://thomas.loc.gov) just announced a change to search defaults on its homepage. The announcement:
The quick search feature on the homepage of THOMAS now searches the Bill Summary & Status (BSS) database. BSS contains information about bills and amendments. Whereas the Bill Text database searches the full text of legislation, the BSS feature searches everything but the actual text of the legislation. The BSS information includes: sponsor(s); cosponsor(s); official, short and popular titles; floor/executive actions; detailed legislative history; Congressional Record page references; bill summary; committee information; amendment information; subjects (indexing terms assigned to each bill); a link to the full text versions of the bill; and if the bill has been enacted into law, a link to the full text of the law on the Government Printing Office Web site.
Just below the quick search box on the homepage, users will now find a link to the BSS Advanced Search page. On the BSS Advanced Search page, BSS information is searchable by word/phrase, subject (index) term, bill/amendment number, stage in the legislative process, dates of introduction, sponsor/cosponsor, and committee.
The full bill text database can be accessed via the Bills, Resolutions link on the left side of most THOMAS pages.
A cooperative network of organizations called The Coalition for Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) has launched a U.S.-oriented effort called Year of Science 2009 (YoS09). The stated purpose of the project is "to engage the public and improve public understanding about how science works, why it matters, and who scientists are." It is a distributed effort, with volunteer participants organized in regional hubs for communication and networking. A major part of the effort is providing a national event calendar of science learning programs for the public. A handful of university and public libraries are among the list of participants, and U.S. agencies EPA and NOAA are among the sponsors.
COPUS has assigned a science theme - such as Energy Resources and Chemistry - to each month of the year. "Managing Science Information" is not one of the themes, but perhaps government science libraries and librarians will find a way to tie their mission into any or all of the months.
The project also has a blog, at www.yearofscience2009.org/blog/
Jean Bowers, the director of the US Labor Department's Wirtz Labor Library, has an article in the December 2008 issue of SLA's Information Outlook magazine (accessible to SLA members only). Transforming a Government Library describes how Bowers took a traditional 20th century government library (contractor-operated since 1988) and brought it, slowly, into the current day with the Wirtz Library Digital Library.
Login with your SLA member ID to view the issue, which is also mailed in print to SLA members.
The New York Times reports today (27 December 2008) on the challenge of archiving the electronic records of the George W. Bush Administration. Bush Data Threatens to Overload Archives, by Robert Pear and Scott Shane, states:
The new system the article references is the Archives' Electronic Records Archives. The Washington Post published a somewhat similar article, Bush E-mails May Be Secret a Bit Longer, on Sunday. (See related DGI blog post: Washington Post on White House Records Transfer.)
As reported on the Public Policy Connections blog, SLA has submitted a statement to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Team Leads at the Office of the President-Elect concerning EPA information management and dissemination. Titled Improved Information Access at the EPA, the statement says, in part:
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