California Gov. Jerry Brown has eliminated 44 percent of all state-issued cell phones in what Government Technology’s Brian Heaton describes as “just the first round of cuts.” It’s part of Brown’s plan to reduce the number of state-issued phones in California by half, to lower costs for the budget-strapped state. Evan Westrup, a spokesman forRead… Read more »
Sean Martin McDonald, Esq., of Frontline SMS and Frontline SMS: Legal, has published The Case for mLegal, Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, 6(1), 41-62 (2011), doi: 10.1162/INOV_a_00057. (Click here for an open access version of the article.) Here is a summary: While there are a number of obstacles [facing citizens of developing countries] to accessing legalRead… Read more »
This is a collection of links that I’ve come across recently related to technology, transparency, and government. Not all of them came out this past week, but they haven’t been included in former Friday posts like this. Know of any that should be included? Add them to the comments below! “Illinois, New York City moveRead… Read more »
Gadi Ben-Yehuda Open Government doesn’t want to go on the cart! With the immiment departure of Vivek Kundra, journalists and Gov20 advocates are pondering the future of Open Government. Some are bearish. Some are bullish. It’s like YouFace, but real. Ever heard of FaceTweeting? It’s the model the EPA uses to help distribute information throughRead… Read more »
Register to ‘The Really Useful – Data Discovery Workshop’ NOW and vote for the open data challenges Download the ‘Data Discovery Workshop’ Agenda A. Its one of a kind The LDG Community in conjunction with the Transparency team at DCLG and the LG group are planning a series of events and activities over a 6-monthRead… Read more »
To register for the Really Useful event of 1st of July go to http://reallyuseful2011.eventbrite.com and vote for the challenges at http://ru11.ideascale.com Ever since the launch of open data here in the UK by Sir Tim Bernes-Lee in January 2010 with data.gov.uk (who ReadWriteWeb says actually put the US version Data.gov to shame due to theRead… Read more »
The 2011 Best Practices for Government Libraries: e-Initiatives and e-Efforts: Expanding Our Horizons is now available: 2011 Best Practices for Government Libraries in PDF. Best Practices for Government Libraries for 2011 and prior years are all available from the right sidebar here on the Government Info Pro. Best Practices is a collaborative document that isRead… Read more »
Last week, the White House announced a new initiative to get a handle on the rampant proliferation of government websites. They put a 90-day freeze on granting any new top level domains (e.g., www.hud.gov), and they are requiring all agencies to review their websites and determine those that can be abolished, consolidated, and/or improved. AgenciesRead… Read more »
Happy Friday, everyone! You know what time it is. It’s time for the… Friday Fab 5! We’ve had some great blogs and discussions going on this week here on GovLoop so let’s take a look back and highlight a few of them! The information in these posts are great to reread and even use asRead… Read more »
A UK-based non-profit, mySociety released publicly last week evaluation reports for two of their major open government initiatives: TheyWorkForYou (report here) and WriteToThem (report here). TheyWorkForYou attempts to “make it easier to find out what your MP [Member of Parliament] has been doing in Parliament,” and WriteToThem tries to “make it easier to find outRead… Read more »