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Data Catalog – District of Columbia
The District of Columbia is providing RSS feeds as well as mashups of “city operational data,” such as crime reports, building permits, purchase orders, and much more. This seems like a great example of using new media/web 2.0 technologies to increase government transparency.
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For years the District of Columbia has provided public access to city operational data through the Internet. Now the District provides real-time data from multiple agencies to citizens, a catalyst ensuring agencies operate as more responsive, better performing organizations. Use the data catalog below to subscribe to a live data feed in Atom format and access data in XML, Text/CSV, KML or ESRI Shapefile formats.
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Secretary of Army encourages MilBloggers
I had signed up to go to the 2008 MilBlog Conference but ended up, for various reasons, not going at the last minute. Sounds like there were some important interactions and developments at this year’s meeting.
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Geren went on to say that the rise of bloggers who were able to influence news and make headlines made him take a closer look. And over the past year, in particular, he has looked for ways to increase the Army’s knowledge of blogs and new media, and has participated in two roundtables with on-line journalists, in addition to encouraging other leaders within the Army.
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Geren acknowledged that the Army’s increased awareness of blogs is critical as it looks to reach out to 17-25 year-olds – “the heart and soul of our Army.”
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The Secretary also offered that as young people increasingly find their news online, the need to be in that space is crucial to educating and informing the American people.
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Bergner offered his perspective on what bloggers bring to the table that makes their perspective so critical.
“It’s the personal aspect of what bloggers are able to convey,” said Bergner. “No one can do it with the same personal insights, the perspective, and the texture that comes with those dialogues. That is what is so meaningful for the American people and so important for the Army because all of us want Soldiers to be able to tell their story, like only a Soldier can do.”
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Bergner also offered a roadmap toward the future, stating that the Army has and will continue to evolve its practices with the growth of new media and on-line communications.
“We really do have some cultural challenges, and it really is all about getting some new ideas into the Army, but also getting some of the old ideas out of the Army,” said Bergner. “And that’s going to be a bit of a generational challenge.”
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A survey of blogs will be starting soon …
An Army officer, who is currently a student at the Air Command and Staff College, is doing research on milblogging. As part of that work, he is conducting what is essential a “content analysis” of milblogs. I’m glad to see this work being done. However, I’d like to see more rigorous methodology for choosing the blogs to analyze. A random sample of sites as indexed by milblogging.com would probably be best.
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Over the coming week or so, I will be looking at a large number of milblogs for the following:
- reasons for blogs (update friends, tell good stories, correct the record, tell another side, etc)
- purpose of blog (journal, “war stories”, opinion on current events, etc)
- any evident bias (pro-war, anti-war, any other possible “agenda”, etc)
- any trends that I identify (changes over time, etc)
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DARPA BAA News Feed Being Removed
DARPA is taking a step backwards with this move. Just as most other government websites are beginning to take advantage of RSS feeds and Web 2.0 technologies, DARPA has removed their RSS feeds for Broad Agency Announcements, instead reverting to Web 1.0-style email alerts. Newsflash: People don’t want to get more email! People want to use email for…well…MAIL! They want to receive news via news feeds in a feed reader.
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Beginning Saturday, November 15, there will no longer be a DARPA BAA
Announcements news feed. -
In lieu of a DARPA feed, you can register with FedBizOpps to receive
notifications when they post new DARPA-related content. Once you
have registered and logged in, you can set up a “Saved Search†that
will periodically review all newly posted information and send an
email notification.