Free Government Information (FGI)

I guess this is the day of big thoughts :-) “How secure is our civilization’s accumulated knowledge?” This is the question mulled over by Richard Heinberg in his essay Our Evanescent Culture and the Awesome Duty of Librarians. “Ult...

The Edge Foundation promotes "inquiry into and discussion of intellectual, philosophical, artistic, and literary issues, as well as to work for the intellectual and social achievement of society." Here's a video of Frank Schirrmacher, German journalist, essayist and author and co-publisher of the...

Following up on Can Proprietary Formats make Government More Open? : Josh Tauberer of govtrack.us, points us to The good and the bad of PDFs (OpenGovData.org wiki) in which Kevin Lyons, who works for the Nebraska legislature, wrote up some guidelines for PDF in government...

PlainLanguage.gov. World Usability Day. Thanks and a tip of the hat to Promoting Plain Language, By Melanie Bender (11/03/09).

Each year the Center for Digital Government takes a survey of U.S. cities to evaluate how municipalities are integrating information technology into operations to better serve their citizens. Digital Cities Survey...

The Washington Post has a story today about "a little-known database on the Department of Education's Web site" -- the Private School Universe Survey (PSS): Mining the Web for public data on private schools, by Michael Birnbaum, Washington Post (November 2, 2009)...

As Jim mentioned, GPO has posted presentation materials from the recently concluded Depository Library Conference...

The Government Domain: A Handful of Classics, By Peggy Garvin, LLRX (October 31, 2009) This is an update by Peggy Garvin of her tracking of federal web sites for her book, e-Government and Web Directory: U.S. Federal Government Online (formerly: United States Government Internet Manual)...

Law student, Robb Shecter, who has created the OregonLaws.Org web site, wrote us recently about the fact that California Codes have accessibility issues: The California Codes are published online (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html) with crucial information absent (removed?) that renders them...

Oregon once again claims that law is copyrighted, by Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing, October 30, 2009. The Oregon Attorney General has asserted ownership over the "Attorney General's Public Record" and "Public Meeting Manual." See also:

Library of Congress stands by report on Honduras coup, By LESLEY CLARK, McClatchy Newspapers (October 29, 2009)...

The National Association of State CIOs has issued a brief on state government transparency that describes and defines a vision of open government information...