I was pleasantly surprised to see an article about the wonders of the Statistical Abstract in the Jan. 18, 2010 issue of Newsweek, entitled "Suicide, Sex, and SUVs: This book covers them all—and more." The author, Robert J. Samuelson, states:

I confess to being an avid fan of the Statistical Abstract, published annually by the Census Bureau, because it tells so much so quickly. The just-published 2010 edition, as always, bulges with information. For me, the Stat Abstract is often the first go-to source for a story, because it substitutes evidence for speculation.

Of course, in the print version of the magazine's article, the author doesn't mention where you can find this document at your local library and/or Federal Depository Library and he doesn't mention that it is also available online for free via the federal government, and the online article links to a copy of the Statistical Abstract that you can purchase at Amazon. Huh?! I made a comment with the link to the free online version and provided a link to the FDLP Directory for those that want to look at a print copy of the document at their local FDL.

But it is good to see government documents in the news!

Even with this year's introduction of S.Res. 118 and H.R. 3762, it is still important to encourage our Government to make Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports publicly accessible online!

Thus, I finally updated the latest list of Bills and contact information for the sponsoring Congressmen in the Delicious.com "CRS" tag Delicious.com "CRS" tag.

See also: CRS Reports to the People! Part 1 and Part 2 for more information on how to contact/write to your Congressmen.

Looks like the UK version of data.gov, developed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, is going to be released soon. It is "language-based" where "linkages are based on human language, rather than hard-coded hyperlinks", a.k.a. the Semantic Web concept that Berners-Lee has been touting for years.

I like the way Nancy Scola of Personal Democracy Forum describes the Semantic Web:

[Berners-Lee] vision is of a web that understands the connections between disparate bits of information in a way similar to how the human mind might effortlessly connect an address on London's Whitehall with the events of World War II that Winston Churchill directed from an underground bunker there. Data woven through with more human ways of interpretation might, just might, make the gap between making government information public and making it useful a little smaller.

The BBC reports that "Data.gov.uk is built with semantic web technology, which will enable the data it offers to be drawn together into links and threads as the user searches...we will also be able to look for patterns...visitors to data.gov.uk will want to make their own mash-ups from the information available."

Yes, and we should be making mashups from our country's data.gov for our library patrons too! Let's get to it! I'll be working on mine and will show you how it can be done.

Check out DataTO.org, which is similar to data.gov, but users request data sets from the Toronto municipal government. The first phase of the website will allow one to:

...publish a request for data to the community, where members can comment and rate the request. In future iterations of this site, publishers and others will be able to post details of known and existing data sources so that community members can rate them for prioritization. Users will then be able to find data sources that have been published.

Kudos to O'Reilly Radar.

The Sunlight Foundation has announced three finalists for their Apps for America 2 Contest. Sign up for a free account and Vote for the winner!

The finalists include:

GovPulse.usis a "Federal Register browser" allowing you to browse the by agency, category or date. The visualizations are pretty cool too.

ThisWeKnow.org allows you to explore government data about your community. I did a search for my city, and it gave me a summary, but I also can look at how many people in my county were diagnosed with Cancer. Dang!

DataMasher lets you mashup two different data sources and you can share/comment on others. Sunlight Foundation really likes this mashup: High School Graduation vs Guns in Household.

Thank goodness for data.gov and the opening up of more government data so we can make cool applications like these!

If you are going to the ALA Annual 2009 Conference in Chicago next week, please come to the "ALA Unconference" where I will be leading a broad discussion on Friday, July 10th from 11:10-12:00 on the library's role in current & emerging trends of civic engagement, transparency, preservation and access to Government information. The supporting materials and presentation will be linked in the Unconference wiki.

Also, please come to the LITA BIGWIG Social Software Showcase to discuss and learn about Government Information Mashups! I will be presenting on this topic and would love to have you help out and/or join in on the conversation! The presentation will be posted on their website but the face to face portion of the BIGWIG Showcase presentations will take place Monday, July 13th from 10:30am - 12:30pm in the McCormick Convention Center West, Room W-184.

The Law Library of Congress's Global Legal Monitor has added more than 300 topic and jurisdictional RSS feeds.

Topics include the Census, Freedom of Information, Government Publications, Intellectual Property, Libraries, and Secrecy!

There is also an RSS for all articles in the Global Legal Monitor too.

Tip o' the hate to Resource Shelf.

The Library of Congress announced via their Twitter account, that:

LOC will capture tweets on #sotomayor for its web archives on the Sotomayor nomination. http://www.loc.gov/webcapture/

Here is a list of some of the latest web capture projects they are working on:

Supreme Court Nominations 2009

The Supreme Court Nominations 2009 Web Archive will be a selective collection of Web sites archived between June 2009 through the completion of the hearings process. Web sites collected will include materials produced by watchdog, public policy, and political advocacy groups, blogs and tweets, community and religious organizations, foreign and domestic news sources, educational and research institutions, and independent websites.
Collection dates: June 2009 through confirmation hearings.

Indian General Elections

The Library's Delhi Overseas Operations Office is documenting the ongoing process of India general election in 2009.

Presidential Transition During a Time of Crises Web Archive

Presidential Transition During a Time of Crises Web Archive will be a selective collection of Web sites archived between January 2009 and June 2009. Web sites collected will include materials produced by domestic and foreign political groups, community and religious organizations, advocacy groups, foreign and domestic news sources, and independent websites.
Collection dates: January 2009 - June 2009. The collection will be evaluated prior to completion and may be extended.

I would suggest they start archiving the tweets about the #iranelection (see earlier blog post) by James R. Jacobs.

Data.gov is now live and ready for you to explore!

The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

You have a say in the future of Data.gov by suggesting datasets to include and suggest improvements/enhancements to the website.

Data.gov has a searchable data catalog that gives access to data through the "raw" data catalog and by using tools. "The Raw Data Catalog provides an instant download of machine readable, platform-independent datasets while the Tools Catalog provides hyperlinks to tools that allow you to mine datasets."

Please note that by accessing datasets or tools offered on Data.gov, you agree to the Data Policy, which you should read before accessing any dataset or tool.

Here is an excerpt from the policy that we need to read closely:

Secondary Use
Data accessed through Data.gov do not, and should not, include controls over its end use. However, as the data owner or authoritative source for the data, the submitting Department or Agency must retain version control of datasets accessed. Once the data have been downloaded from the agency's site, the government cannot vouch for their quality and timeliness. Furthermore, the US Government cannot vouch for any analyses conducted with data retrieved from Data.gov.

Citing Data
The agency's preferred citation for each dataset is included in its metadata. Users should also cite the date that data were accessed or retrieved from Data.gov. Finally, users must clearly state that "Data.gov and the Federal Government cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from Data.gov."

What do you think? Is the policy fair? Any suggestions for improvement we could make to Data.gov?

For more information, visit their FAQ and Tutorial.

Also, check out Sunlight Lab's "Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge"!

Just as the federal government begins to provide data in Web developer-friendly formats, we're organizing Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge to demonstrate that when government makes data available it makes itself more accountable and creates more trust and opportunity in its actions. The contest submissions will also show the creativity of developers in designing compelling applications that provide easy access and understanding for the public while also showing how open data can save the government tens of millions of dollars by engaging the development community in application development at far cheaper rates that traditional government contractors.

Now, let's go play around with this new site and make suggestions, shall we?

Today I attended the "Chat with GPO" OPAL session, which focused on authentication and authentication for FDLP partners.Ted Priebe, GPO's Director of Library Planning & Development (LPD) and Lisa Russell, the Manager of LPD's Content Management unit presented material and answered questions.

Basically, LSCM wants to partner with Federal Depository Libraries and find ways to authenticate content hosted by the FDL partners. The digital signatures of authentication will indicate partnership with the FDL institution and the contact information for that institution. This is great news, especially for those FDLs also interested in hosting digital content in partnership with GPO.

The authentication session is archived on the GPO OPAL site.

In perfect timing with Lieberman's recent resolution, The New York Times published an article today about CRS Reports entitled "Group Seeks Public Access to Congressional Research" by Stephanie Strom (print version appears on page A20 on May 5, 2009).

The article focuses on the efforts of the Center for Democracy and Technology and other non-profit organizations such as the Sunlight Foundation and OpenCRS, to fight for free public access to the CRS Reports. I wish the article had mentioned the efforts of the University of North Texas Library, but I'll give them kudos here to make up for the NY Times oversight. ;-)

GovFresh.com was launched today and it is a live feed of official news from U.S. Government RSS and social media accounts (including Twitter, YouTube, RSS, Facebook, Flickr and more) all in one convenient place.

So far, live feeds are from the White House, Supreme Court, House, Senate, DNC, RNC, and the following Departments and Agencies: Agriculture, Defense, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Labor, State, CDC, CIA, EPA, FBI, FDA, and NASA. You can also suggest a feed.

GovFresh also has their own FriendFeed and Twitter account for you to follow.

Senator Joe Lieberman, long time advocate of "CRS Reports to the People!" recently introduced S.Res.118 as seen in the Congressional Record, from April 29, 2009.

You can read more about the resolution at PolicyBeta's post. The resolution would allow congressmen

to provide access to CRS Reports to the public on an official website. Rather than creating a new tool for public access, the resolution would let Members and Committees share reports with the public using the same online services that are available on Congress’ internal CRS website...the new resolution also requires that an index of CRS issue briefs and reports to be made public.

NPR.org has a brief article and audiocast entitled "21st Century Crowbars Help Pry Open Government" by Andrea Seabrook. It is the second of a two-part series, of which the first part is entitled "Follow the Money: Web Site Tracks Stimulus Dollars".

Both stories highlight several "watchdog" websites such as OpenCongress.org, OpenSecrets.org, Filibusted.us, and Legistalker.org. Filibusted.us recently won the "Apps for America" contest hosted by the Sunlight Foundation.

Clay Johnson, described by NPR as a 21st century government watchdog, of Sunlight Labs states:

We live in a society now where if it's not on the Internet, it doesn't exist. The more transparent we make government, the more people can participate in it. And when people participate in it, they're no longer apathetic about it. So transparency kills apathy.