From an Article:

The Office of Management and Budget launched a Web site today that uses colorful pie charts, bar charts and raw data to share information with the public about how federal agencies are spending money on information technology, White House officials announced.
[Snip]
The dashboard’s homepage displays the federal government’s entire IT portfolio organized by agency in a bar chart. Users can click on the individual agencies on the chart to get more detailed financial and performance information.

Web links are associated with elements on the new Web site so the public can embed charts and other information onto their own Web sites, according to OMB. Agencies will update cost, schedule and performance figures monthly on the dashboard, according to OMB.

Direct to Federal IT Dashboard

Source: FCW

From a Summary:

The 2009 edition includes 60 articles and other submissions provided by more than 50 contributors from librarians in government agencies, courts, and the military, as well as from professional association leaders, LexisNexis Consultants, and more.

The document was compiled by Marie Kaddell from LN.

Direct to Full Text (181 pages; PDF)

Source: LexisNexis

FEC Seeks Public Comment on Improving Its Website and Internet Communications

At its Open Meeting Thursday, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced that it is seeking public suggestions on how to improve its website and Internet communications. The outreach effort is intended to ensure that the Commission website is a state-of-the-art resource for disclosure of information to the public, including campaign finance data, information on federal campaign finance laws and Commission actions. The Commission has continually engaged in ongoing efforts to improve all aspects of how it discloses information through its website.

The FEC seeks recommendations from all segments of the public, including representatives of political committees, federal candidates and officeholders, members of the media and other writers, members of the academic community and advocacy groups.

“This represents the first time the FEC has taken formal and comprehensive steps to look outside the Agency for suggestions, opinions, and ideas on improving our chief disclosure vehicle,” Commission Chairman Steven T. Walther said. “It is also the principal method of communication by the public to the Agency, and the way almost all financial disclosure reports are received. The best way to carry out this mission is to be in the forefront of leading technology. We believe this initiative will help people who are using our website and attract new users.”

Source: Federal Elections Commission

From the Announcement:

The Federal Election Commission has launched the final phase of a project to make its full archive of closed enforcement matters, called Matters Under Review, or MURs, available online. This will result in approximately 4,000 closed MURs – consisting of approximately 770,000 pages of documents covering the 24-year period from the inception of the Agency to 1999 – being accessible in digital form on the FEC web site. Upon completion, this project will be the largest expansion of the digitization of enforcement matters in the history of the Agency.

Documents related to all investigations closed January 1, 1999 or later are already available on the FEC web site.

Direct to Federal Enforcement Query System

Source: Federal Election Commission

A news item today from the U.S. Census is about how the world’s aging population (65 and over) will double by 2050.

Where do these stats come from? They arrive via the U.S. Census International Statistical Database that’s free to access and search.

It’s a very useful resource that offers tons of both current, historical, and projected stats for most countries around the globe. You’ll find:

+ Country Rankings

Largest countries for any year, 1950 to 2050.

+ World Population Information

Global population trends, links to historical population estimates, population clocks, and estimates of population, births, and deaths occurring each year, day, hour, or second.

You’ll also find access to tabular data for countries and regions as well as demographic indicators, population pyramids and source information for countries.

Well worth a look and bookmark (or whatever you use to save and share useful web tools).

Direct to U.S. Census International Database

Source: U.S. Census

Office of the Historian Announces New Website: www.history.state.gov

The Department of State is pleased to announce the official unveiling of the Office of the Historian’s new website: www.history.state.gov.

The new website boasts greater accessibility and searching within the Foreign Relations of the United States documentary series. It currently offers both textual and facsimile copies of Foreign Relations volumes from the Kennedy Administration through the Nixon-Ford administration. The Office plans to continue to digitize older volumes and eventually house all of the Foreign Relations volumes on its website. The website also contains updated sections on the history of the Department of State, biographies of notable diplomats, and an in-depth timeline of United States diplomatic milestones. The Office’s educational curriculum guides are also downloadable from the website. The Office hopes that through its enhanced presentation and organization, the new website will become the preeminent online resource for U.S. diplomatic history.

Source: U.S. Department of State

From the AMIA Newsbrief

“Rogue archivist Carl Malamud sez, ‘You may remember the FedFlix program from Public.Resource.Org. We got the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, to send a couple dozen videotapes every month. We digitized the tapes, and sent them back to the government with a DVD. No cost to .gov, and we got public domain data to post as high-res stock footage, plus great casual viewing on YouTube and the Internet Archive. The program went well for a year, the DC folks were happy, and I’m pleased to say we were able to renew the Joint Venture, but with a twist. They’re now sending a minimum of 100 tapes a month and we have rights to all 6,000 masters in their warehouse.’”

Direct to FedFlix (via Internet Archive) ||| Direct to FedFlix (YouTube)

Source: BoingBoing (via Association of Moving Images Archivists)

From an Article:

In an earlier era, “loose lips sink ships” was the military’s warning not to let even small details about military movements and operations slip in casual conversation. In contrast, social media Web sites today thrive on loose lips, making it even tougher to maintain operational security.

The problem is not so much people twittering away secrets as letting slip many smaller pieces of information that an adversary can piece together.

“There’s a tendency to think that if information is not classified, it’s OK to share,” said Jack Kiesler, chief of cyber counter intelligence at the Defense Intelligence Agency, in a presentation last month in Orlando, Fla., at the DODIIS Worldwide Conference for intelligence information systems professionals.

Source: Government Computing News

See Also: Read About NASA’s New Social Networking Service, Spacebook

From an Introductory Article:

Dartmouth’s atlas of health care costs demonstrates a vexing issue facing policymakers: Medicare spends vastly different amounts to care for its enrollees depending on where they live.

Direct to Interactive Map

Source: MSNBC, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Dartmouth Atlas Project

From the News Announcement:

The migration of information from GPO Access into FDsys will be complete in 2009. The migration is occurring on a collection-by-collection basis. If you are searching for information other than what is listed above, use GPO Access. Conference Reports are available on both FDsys and GPO Access.

Collections currently available on FDsys are:

+ Budget of the United States Government (Fiscal Year 2010)

+ Compilation of Presidential Documents (1993 to Present)

+ Congressional Bills (103rd Congress to Present)

+ Congressional Calendars (104th Congress to Present)

+ Congressional Committee Prints (105th Congress to Present)

+ Congressional Documents (104th Congress to Present)

+ Congressional Hearings (105th Congress to Present)

+ Congressional Record (1994 to Present)

+ Congressional Reports (104th Congress to Present)

+ Economic Indicators (1995 to Present)

+ Federal Register (1994 to Present)

+ List of CFR Sections Affected (1997 to Present)

+ Public and Private Laws (104th Congress to Present)

Source: Government Printing Office

U.S. Relations with the Muslim World

On June 4, 2009, President Barack Obama delivered a speech in Cairo, Egypt aimed at launching an initiative to improve U.S. relations with the Muslim world. The address sought to enhance American credibility, promote tolerance and pluralism, and to articulate American interests on key issues of concern in the Muslim and Arab worlds. The President claimed responsibility to use his power to “fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear,” and urged Muslims to reject the “crude stereotype” of America as a “self-interested empire.”

This page brings together a collection of resources examining the evolution of U.S. policy towards the Muslim world since September 2001. It features a collection of statements from the Obama Administration, along with key statements from the Bush Administration covering America’s reactions in the wake of 9/11 and the launch of the Global War on Terrorism. Also included are key Congressional hearings and major reports from the Government Accountability Office, Congressional Research Service, and the State Department. Research & Analysis and Additional Resources spotlights critical articles and reports from think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and academic centers that specialize in the analysis of America’s engagement with the Muslim world.

Source: National Defense University Library

National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis Opens Civilian Personnel Records to the Public

The National Archives’ National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) opened more than 6 million individual personnel files of former Federal civilian employees from the mid-1800s through 1951. These records will be of special interest to genealogists, family members, researchers, sociologists, and historians.

Among the records are the files of prominent individuals who worked for the federal government, such as Walt Disney, Ansel Adams, Eliot Ness, Calvin Coolidge, J. Edgar Hoover, Gifford Pinchot, Walker Evans, and Albert Einstein.

Ronald L. Hindman, Director of NPRC characterized these records “as a veritable treasure-trove of information for researchers and genealogists.” He continued, “There are records from more than one hundred government agencies now available for discovery. They showcase the careers of government employees who investigated bootleggers; taught at Indian schools; worked in Japanese-American interment camps, in prisons, and on anti-prostitution boards, and created and implemented initiatives in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal agencies, among others.”

Source: National Archives

Resource of the Week: Database — Significant Features of the Property Tax
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

Quick ROTW for you this week, since we are at SLA.

This online database presents data on the property tax in all 50 states. Because accurate data provide the critical foundation for sound governmental decision-making, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the George Washington Institute of Public Policy joined in a partnership to provide information and support public policy concerning the property tax, probably the most controversial tax in the United States.

The term “Significant Features” pays tribute to the work of the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, which was established by Congress in 1959 to study the relationships among local, state, and national levels of government. Until its termination in 1996, ACIR provided a wealth of research on the functioning of the federal system, particularly through its flagship publication, Significant Features of Fiscal Federalism.

This new site provides data sets and links relating to the property tax and its role in state and local finance in all 50 states. The interface allows users to access property tax and data online in a variety of forms, including tables of the most frequently sought figures, a query system for creating new tables, and a downloadable database. This data will be of value to a wide variety of users, including journalists, public officials, and researchers.

+ User guide (PDF; 29 KB)
+ Tables
+ State summaries
+ Census of governments data
+ Glossary

From a Blog Post:.

…a non-partisan, fully-referenced, open-source and crowd-sourced wiki project that lists every candidate running in every U.S. Senate, House and governor’s race.

The project, dubbed RaceTracker, was coordinated by the folks at the Swing State Project as they completed a nationwide survey of the candidates in each race. As we move into the 2010 congressional races, the site will use crowd-sourced participation to keep it current.

Direct to RaceTracker

Source: Swing State Project (via Sunlight Foundation)

From a UN Pulse Blog Post:

The United Nations Office for Drug and Crime (UNODC) has created a comprehensive database containing counter-terrorism conventions, national criminal laws and case laws relevant to terrorism (press release). National authorities can access model laws, legislative guides and other legal tools to assist in adopting the legislation necessary to implement the global legal framework against terrorism. The database has 3 main components:

+ An international legal resources section includes full texts of the universal instruments against terrorism, action by the Security Council and General Assembly on terrorism, regional instruments against terrorism, and jurisprudence of international courts on terrorism.

+ The core segment of the database is composed of national legal resources which includes legislation from more than 190 countries.

+ The third component is the section on additional legal resources that provides links to other databases, model laws, treaties and practical guides developed by United Nations bodies and other international organizations.

Source: United Nations Office for Drug and Crime (via UN Pulse)