Bush Signs FOIA Reform Bill Benefitting Bloggers
David ArdiaDavid Ardia
1:15 PM | bio | Comments: 1
In one of his last executive actions of the year, President Bush signed into law the "OPEN Government Act of 2007" on December 31, 2007. The Senate unanimously passed the reform bill earlier in December, and it passed the House of Representatives by voice vote on December 18. The Associated Press is reporting that Bush signed the bill without comment.
As I explained in a post on the Citizen Media Law Project's blog two weeks ago, the legislation substantially reforms the Freedom of Information Act and expands the definition of who is a "representative of the news media" under FOIA. This change would significantly benefit bloggers and non-traditional journalists by making them eligible for reduced processing and duplication fees that are available to "representatives of the news media." The new law accomplishes this by adding the following language to FOIA:
[T]he term 'a representative of the news media' means any person or entity that gathers information of potential interest to a segment of the public, uses its editorial skills to turn the raw materials into a distinct work, and distributes that work to an audience. In this clause, the term 'news' means information that is about current events or that would be of current interest to the public. Examples of news-media entities are television or radio stations broadcasting to the public at large and publishers of periodicals (but only if such entities qualify as disseminators of 'news') who make their products available for purchase by or subscription by or free distribution to the general public. These examples are not all-inclusive. Moreover, as methods of news delivery evolve (for example, the adoption of the electronic dissemination of newspapers through telecommunications services), such alternative media shall be considered to be news-media entities.
Other important reforms include:
* Broadening the scope of information that can be requested by including government contracting information held by private contractors;
* Assigning public tracking numbers to all requests;
* Denying agencies that exceed the 20-day deadline for responses the right to charge requesters for search or copying costs;
* Making it easier to collect attorneys' fees for those who must sue to force compliance with their FOIA requests; and
* Establishing an office at the National Archives to accept citizen complaints, issue opinions on requests, and foster best practices within the government.
The full text of the OPEN Government Act of 2007 is available here. The press release announcing the President's signing is available on the White House website.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Boston Public Library To Put Historical Documents Online
Boston Public Library To Put Historical Documents Online
Several nonprofit library and archival organizations begin to make accessible U.S. historical documents, including President John Adams' entire library.
By W. David Gardner
InformationWeek
December 27, 2007 05:45 PM
In his wildest dreams, John Adams, the second president of the United States, couldn't have predicted the fate of his 3,700-volume personal library. In two years, it will be made available for viewing online for all to see without any commercial encumbrances.
Adams' library is just a small part of an effort by nonprofit library and archival organizations to place the historical record of the United States online now under way at the Boston Public Library.
"It's full speed ahead," said Maura Marx, manager of digital services at the Boston Public Library, in an interview Thursday. "We have two shifts [of people working on the project] -- 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. to midnight." Books and historical documents from the 19-member Boston Library Consortium are being scanned under the auspices of the project.
Several individuals and organizations are contributing to the effort, which eschews the commercial hindrances leveled by companies likeGoogle (NSDQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) that are scanning books and documents for use in their search engines. Google and Microsoft plan generally to offer the material they scan to the public, but various libraries and nonprofits want to provide the historical materials in a universal digital archive for the general public, researchers, and scholars without compromise.
Different organizations and benefactors are supporting various projects that will see materials scanned into a modern scanning center that was established recently at the Boston library. Among the sponsors of the nonprofit efforts are Public.Resource.Org, the Internet Archive, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Open Content Alliance. Several benefactors have contributed to the efforts, including Mary Austin, Brewster Kahle, Carl Malamud, and Pierre Omidyar.
"Unlike corporate backed efforts by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, et al, which all impose different, albeit understandable, levels of restriction to protect their investment the [Boston Library Consortium] has shown libraries all across the country the right way to take institutional responsibility and manage this historic transition to a universal digital archive that serves the needs of scholars, researchers, and the general public without compromise," said the Sloan Foundation's Doron Weber in a recent statement.
Public.Resource.Org and the Internet Archive are sponsoring an effort at the Boston library to scan government papers into the system. The digitizing project is scheduled to get under way by scanning the 1950s U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings, according to a report in The New York Times. The newspaper report stated that a series of digitization projects supported by Malamud and Kahle will likely take two years and cost $6 million.
The nonprofit efforts are in addition to efforts by commercial search engines to scan books that would be available to the general public through their search engines. Google's highly publicized project involves participation by the New York Public Library and university libraries at Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and the University of Michigan.
The Boston Library Consortium has partnered with the Open Content Alliance in establishing the Northeast Regional Scanning Center at the Boston library; it's hosted by Kahle's Internet Archive, and its scanned material will be available to be indexed by any search engine. University members of the consortium include Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Brown University, the University of Massachusetts, Wellesley College, and Williams College.
The Boston Pubic Library's Marx noted that the library has many documents of historical value. The Adams library, for instance, is unique because it is complete and intact. The libraries and writings of other U.S. founding fathers were destroyed by fire or dispersed by succeeding family members, for instance.
"There's nothing quite like the Adams library," she said. "We're scanning flat pages and objects. Adams made notes in the margins of his books, and they will be available for all to see."
Several nonprofit library and archival organizations begin to make accessible U.S. historical documents, including President John Adams' entire library.
By W. David Gardner
InformationWeek
December 27, 2007 05:45 PM
In his wildest dreams, John Adams, the second president of the United States, couldn't have predicted the fate of his 3,700-volume personal library. In two years, it will be made available for viewing online for all to see without any commercial encumbrances.
Adams' library is just a small part of an effort by nonprofit library and archival organizations to place the historical record of the United States online now under way at the Boston Public Library.
"It's full speed ahead," said Maura Marx, manager of digital services at the Boston Public Library, in an interview Thursday. "We have two shifts [of people working on the project] -- 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. to midnight." Books and historical documents from the 19-member Boston Library Consortium are being scanned under the auspices of the project.
Several individuals and organizations are contributing to the effort, which eschews the commercial hindrances leveled by companies likeGoogle (NSDQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) that are scanning books and documents for use in their search engines. Google and Microsoft plan generally to offer the material they scan to the public, but various libraries and nonprofits want to provide the historical materials in a universal digital archive for the general public, researchers, and scholars without compromise.
Different organizations and benefactors are supporting various projects that will see materials scanned into a modern scanning center that was established recently at the Boston library. Among the sponsors of the nonprofit efforts are Public.Resource.Org, the Internet Archive, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Open Content Alliance. Several benefactors have contributed to the efforts, including Mary Austin, Brewster Kahle, Carl Malamud, and Pierre Omidyar.
"Unlike corporate backed efforts by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, et al, which all impose different, albeit understandable, levels of restriction to protect their investment the [Boston Library Consortium] has shown libraries all across the country the right way to take institutional responsibility and manage this historic transition to a universal digital archive that serves the needs of scholars, researchers, and the general public without compromise," said the Sloan Foundation's Doron Weber in a recent statement.
Public.Resource.Org and the Internet Archive are sponsoring an effort at the Boston library to scan government papers into the system. The digitizing project is scheduled to get under way by scanning the 1950s U.S. House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings, according to a report in The New York Times. The newspaper report stated that a series of digitization projects supported by Malamud and Kahle will likely take two years and cost $6 million.
The nonprofit efforts are in addition to efforts by commercial search engines to scan books that would be available to the general public through their search engines. Google's highly publicized project involves participation by the New York Public Library and university libraries at Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and the University of Michigan.
The Boston Library Consortium has partnered with the Open Content Alliance in establishing the Northeast Regional Scanning Center at the Boston library; it's hosted by Kahle's Internet Archive, and its scanned material will be available to be indexed by any search engine. University members of the consortium include Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, Brown University, the University of Massachusetts, Wellesley College, and Williams College.
The Boston Pubic Library's Marx noted that the library has many documents of historical value. The Adams library, for instance, is unique because it is complete and intact. The libraries and writings of other U.S. founding fathers were destroyed by fire or dispersed by succeeding family members, for instance.
"There's nothing quite like the Adams library," she said. "We're scanning flat pages and objects. Adams made notes in the margins of his books, and they will be available for all to see."
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Human Rights Group Turns To Satellite Images To Save Lives In Darfur
Human Rights Group Turns To Satellite Images To Save Lives In Darfur
The Eyes on Darfur Web site has been set up to display an ongoing series of satellite images of 12 villages deemed to be a risk from the Janjaweed militias backed by the Sudanese government.
By Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek
June 6, 2007
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199901436
Human rights may soon be better protected thanks to the ability of satellites to focus human attention. Amnesty International on Wednesday plans to announce a new initiative to monitor 12 villages in Darfur, Sudan, using commercial satellite imagery.
Representatives of Amnesty International USA intend to introduce the project, Eyes on Darfur, at the International Digital Earth Symposium on Wednesday at the University of California, Berkeley.
The Eyes on Darfur Web site has been set up to display an ongoing series of satellite images of 12 villages deemed to be a risk from the Janjaweed militias backed by the Sudanese government. The images will be updated every 12 to 72 hours, allowing observers to track events on the ground and, if necessary, alert humanitarian officials.
Amnesty International developed with project with help from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Save Darfur Coalition funded the project.
Ariela Blätter, director of the Crisis Prevention and Response Center for AIUSA, led the development of Eyes on Darfur. She said that satellite imagery has already proven invaluable for human rights work. "The use of satellite imagery for documenting past atrocities has changed the behavior of the Sudanese government," she said, pointing to a diminishment of scorched-earth practices that can be easily identified from satellite imagery.
While "the Khartoum government has been resistant to traditional forms of advocacy," Blätter believes that satellite technology, in conjunction with personnel on the ground and modern communications, can curb the violence in the Darfur.
Amnesty International was involved in another recent effort to use geospatial imagery to focus world attention on Darfur: In April, Google Earth added a default multimedia layer to better inform its users about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Google Earth and Amnesty International get their satellite images from commercial satellite imagery companies like DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, ImageSat International, and Spot Image. Amnesty is getting a "significant price break" because of the nature of its work, according to Blätter, who said that ordering up-to-date satellite imagery typically costs about $1,800 to $2,500 per picture.
In a statement, Larry Cox, executive director of AIUSA, said "Darfur needs peacekeepers to stop the killing. In the meantime, we are taking advantage of satellite technology to tell President al-Bashir that we will be watching closely to expose any new violations."
The satellite surveillance with which Cox threatens the Sudanese president comes at time when U.S. government prosecutors also see danger in aerial pictures.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Department of Justice said that it had charged four individuals with conspiring to attack New York's JFK airport by blowing up its jet-fuel supply tanks and pipeline. According to the government's legal filing in the case, the alleged conspirators used Google Earth images of JFK airport to plan their attack.
In the face of such revelations, the possibility that commercial satellite imagery might be subject to censorship is again at play in the press. Last month, The Associated Press reported that Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, said, "I could certainly foresee circumstances in which we would not want imagery to be openly disseminated of a sensitive site of any type, whether it is here or overseas."
Privacy advocate Lauren Weinstein argues against such action in a message posted to computer science professor David Farber's Interesting People mailing list. "While there are admittedly a very limited number of extremely highly sensitive locations for which censorship of satellite imagery at Google Earth resolutions can be justified, attempts to extend such imagery blocking to broadly cover possible terrorist targets would not only be ineffective at its stated purpose, but actually a potential disaster for public safety," he said.
Indeed, while satellite imagery may be helpful to those trying to kill people, it's also helpful to those trying to help people. John Hanke, director of Google Earth & Maps, said in a blog post earlier this year that Google had received calls of thanks from government agencies for "for the role Google Earth played in guiding rescuers to stranded victims" of Hurricane Katrina.
The Eyes on Darfur Web site has been set up to display an ongoing series of satellite images of 12 villages deemed to be a risk from the Janjaweed militias backed by the Sudanese government.
By Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek
June 6, 2007
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199901436
Human rights may soon be better protected thanks to the ability of satellites to focus human attention. Amnesty International on Wednesday plans to announce a new initiative to monitor 12 villages in Darfur, Sudan, using commercial satellite imagery.
Representatives of Amnesty International USA intend to introduce the project, Eyes on Darfur, at the International Digital Earth Symposium on Wednesday at the University of California, Berkeley.
The Eyes on Darfur Web site has been set up to display an ongoing series of satellite images of 12 villages deemed to be a risk from the Janjaweed militias backed by the Sudanese government. The images will be updated every 12 to 72 hours, allowing observers to track events on the ground and, if necessary, alert humanitarian officials.
Amnesty International developed with project with help from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Save Darfur Coalition funded the project.
Ariela Blätter, director of the Crisis Prevention and Response Center for AIUSA, led the development of Eyes on Darfur. She said that satellite imagery has already proven invaluable for human rights work. "The use of satellite imagery for documenting past atrocities has changed the behavior of the Sudanese government," she said, pointing to a diminishment of scorched-earth practices that can be easily identified from satellite imagery.
While "the Khartoum government has been resistant to traditional forms of advocacy," Blätter believes that satellite technology, in conjunction with personnel on the ground and modern communications, can curb the violence in the Darfur.
Amnesty International was involved in another recent effort to use geospatial imagery to focus world attention on Darfur: In April, Google Earth added a default multimedia layer to better inform its users about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Google Earth and Amnesty International get their satellite images from commercial satellite imagery companies like DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, ImageSat International, and Spot Image. Amnesty is getting a "significant price break" because of the nature of its work, according to Blätter, who said that ordering up-to-date satellite imagery typically costs about $1,800 to $2,500 per picture.
In a statement, Larry Cox, executive director of AIUSA, said "Darfur needs peacekeepers to stop the killing. In the meantime, we are taking advantage of satellite technology to tell President al-Bashir that we will be watching closely to expose any new violations."
The satellite surveillance with which Cox threatens the Sudanese president comes at time when U.S. government prosecutors also see danger in aerial pictures.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Department of Justice said that it had charged four individuals with conspiring to attack New York's JFK airport by blowing up its jet-fuel supply tanks and pipeline. According to the government's legal filing in the case, the alleged conspirators used Google Earth images of JFK airport to plan their attack.
In the face of such revelations, the possibility that commercial satellite imagery might be subject to censorship is again at play in the press. Last month, The Associated Press reported that Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, said, "I could certainly foresee circumstances in which we would not want imagery to be openly disseminated of a sensitive site of any type, whether it is here or overseas."
Privacy advocate Lauren Weinstein argues against such action in a message posted to computer science professor David Farber's Interesting People mailing list. "While there are admittedly a very limited number of extremely highly sensitive locations for which censorship of satellite imagery at Google Earth resolutions can be justified, attempts to extend such imagery blocking to broadly cover possible terrorist targets would not only be ineffective at its stated purpose, but actually a potential disaster for public safety," he said.
Indeed, while satellite imagery may be helpful to those trying to kill people, it's also helpful to those trying to help people. John Hanke, director of Google Earth & Maps, said in a blog post earlier this year that Google had received calls of thanks from government agencies for "for the role Google Earth played in guiding rescuers to stranded victims" of Hurricane Katrina.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Google.org To Fund $25 Million In Philanthropic Projects
Google.org To Fund $25 Million In Philanthropic Projects
The foundation announces three new philanthropic initiatives designed to combat climate change, poverty, and diseases as an add-on to two other ventures.
By Michael Singer, InformationWeek
Jan. 17, 2008
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205900528
Google's fledgling philanthropic organization on Thursday announced it will fund more than $25 million for three different projects designed to fight climate change, poverty, and global diseases.
The initiative adds to two previous endeavors announced by Google.org. One to build up renewable energy sources that are less expensive than coal and the other to develop solar-powered cars, especially ones that could plug back into and contribute to a power grid.
The money comes from a commitment by Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to devote approximately 1% of the company's equity plus 1% of the company's annual profits to goodwill projects, as well as employee time. The funds are expected to be implemented over the next five to ten years.
Larry Brilliant, executive director of the non-profit group, said while it hasn't done anything yet, the group is hoping to use the power of Google to make a contribution such as identifying "hot spots" for pandemics and enabling health organizations to respond quickly.
"How different the world would have been if we could have found the first person who contracted AIDS from a monkey and been able to respond to stopping the disease," Brilliant said during a news conference.
The funding has been chopped up into larger categories such as Predict and Prevent; Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services; and Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Brilliant said he was most eager to start on fighting disease, which he hoped would compliment other international groups such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
For example, Google.org said it would give $5 million to InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters) to improve early detection, preparedness, and response capabilities for global health threats and humanitarian crises in Southeast Asia and tropical Africa.
The group said it will grant $2.5 million to the Global Health and Security Initiative (GHSI), which was originally established by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, with a goal to prevent, detect, and respond to biological threats. The funds would be used for sub-regional disease surveillance systems through workforce training and better laboratory capacity in the Mekong Basin area, which includes Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Yunnan province in China.
More than $600,000 has been earmarked to Clark University, with equal funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Google.org said. The money for Clark Labs will go to develop a system to improve monitoring, analysis and prediction of the impacts of climate variability and change on ecosystems, food, and health in Africa and the Amazon.
In the area of improving public services, Google.org said $2 million of the funding will go to Pratham, a non-governmental organization in India, to create an independent institute that will conduct the Nationwide Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) as well as large scale assessments in the education sector.
Some $765,000 will be granted to the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies. The Bangalore-based analysis group aims to create a Budget Information Service for local governments to improve district- and municipal-level level planning.
The Center for Policy Research, an action-oriented think tank based in India, will get $660,000, Google.org said, to increase the debate and discourse on issues of urban local governance and urban service delivery.
Brilliant also noted that Google.org wanted to help fill in the gaps that smaller enterprises fall into. As part of a plan to empower what he called "the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker," Google's goodwill arm will grant $4.7 million grant to TechnoServe to support enterprises, spur job creation, and strengthen poverty alleviation programs globally, and to develop and implement a business plan competition to support entrepreneurs in Ghana and Tanzania. The investment model is similar to venture capital funding, protecting the businesses from some of the pitfalls of debt.
The foundation announces three new philanthropic initiatives designed to combat climate change, poverty, and diseases as an add-on to two other ventures.
By Michael Singer, InformationWeek
Jan. 17, 2008
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205900528
Google's fledgling philanthropic organization on Thursday announced it will fund more than $25 million for three different projects designed to fight climate change, poverty, and global diseases.
The initiative adds to two previous endeavors announced by Google.org. One to build up renewable energy sources that are less expensive than coal and the other to develop solar-powered cars, especially ones that could plug back into and contribute to a power grid.
The money comes from a commitment by Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to devote approximately 1% of the company's equity plus 1% of the company's annual profits to goodwill projects, as well as employee time. The funds are expected to be implemented over the next five to ten years.
Larry Brilliant, executive director of the non-profit group, said while it hasn't done anything yet, the group is hoping to use the power of Google to make a contribution such as identifying "hot spots" for pandemics and enabling health organizations to respond quickly.
"How different the world would have been if we could have found the first person who contracted AIDS from a monkey and been able to respond to stopping the disease," Brilliant said during a news conference.
The funding has been chopped up into larger categories such as Predict and Prevent; Inform and Empower to Improve Public Services; and Fuel the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Brilliant said he was most eager to start on fighting disease, which he hoped would compliment other international groups such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
For example, Google.org said it would give $5 million to InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters) to improve early detection, preparedness, and response capabilities for global health threats and humanitarian crises in Southeast Asia and tropical Africa.
The group said it will grant $2.5 million to the Global Health and Security Initiative (GHSI), which was originally established by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, with a goal to prevent, detect, and respond to biological threats. The funds would be used for sub-regional disease surveillance systems through workforce training and better laboratory capacity in the Mekong Basin area, which includes Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Yunnan province in China.
More than $600,000 has been earmarked to Clark University, with equal funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Google.org said. The money for Clark Labs will go to develop a system to improve monitoring, analysis and prediction of the impacts of climate variability and change on ecosystems, food, and health in Africa and the Amazon.
In the area of improving public services, Google.org said $2 million of the funding will go to Pratham, a non-governmental organization in India, to create an independent institute that will conduct the Nationwide Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) as well as large scale assessments in the education sector.
Some $765,000 will be granted to the Centre for Budget and Policy Studies. The Bangalore-based analysis group aims to create a Budget Information Service for local governments to improve district- and municipal-level level planning.
The Center for Policy Research, an action-oriented think tank based in India, will get $660,000, Google.org said, to increase the debate and discourse on issues of urban local governance and urban service delivery.
Brilliant also noted that Google.org wanted to help fill in the gaps that smaller enterprises fall into. As part of a plan to empower what he called "the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker," Google's goodwill arm will grant $4.7 million grant to TechnoServe to support enterprises, spur job creation, and strengthen poverty alleviation programs globally, and to develop and implement a business plan competition to support entrepreneurs in Ghana and Tanzania. The investment model is similar to venture capital funding, protecting the businesses from some of the pitfalls of debt.
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