Archive for Govt.

The Unmaking of a Senator: How Bloggers Pulled It Off

TIME.com: The Unmaking of a Senator: How Bloggers Pulled It Off — Page 1

The much-hyped Internet activists of the Howard Dean presidential campaign, liberal blogs like Daily Kos and activist groups like MoveOn.org had generated lots of buzz, but few results at the ballot box until now. But in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, the bloggers didn’t just get a win, but a victory no one could have expected even four months ago. Joe Lieberman wasn’t just a three-term Connecticut Senator, he was only a few thousand votes from being the vice-president in a Democratic administration six years ago. And despite almost the entire Democratic establishment supporting his run against a virtually unknown businessman named Ned Lamont, including former President Clinton campaigning for him in Connecticut, the bloggers and Connecticut voters have essentially kicked Joe Lieberman out of the Democratic Party.

The power of the blog? Is it that simple? Blogs do offer perspective outside of the mainstream media. The key is that they are perceipved as to me more conversational than media, which adds a different level of trust.

9 August, 2006 | No comments

Open government meets IT

Open government meets IT | InfoWorld | Column | 2006-06-28 | By Jon Udell

One of the speakers at InfoWorld’s SOA Executive Forum in New York last fall was Dan Thomas, director of the DCStat program in Washingon’s Office of the CTO. Earlier this month, he alerted me to a remarkable development. Starting in mid-June, the District of Columbia would begin releasing operational data from a variety of city agencies to the Internet in several XML formats, including RSS and Atom.

Very, very cool development. As more organizations (like government) start usings the Web 2.0 technologies, more people will see the merits and perhaps we will see more “free” exchange of ideas. Which is what the internet was supposed to be about in the first place.

28 June, 2006 | No comments

D.C. Conference Suggests Government Is Ready for Web 2.0

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: In Focus: D.C. Conference Suggests Government Is Ready for Web 2.0

Is Web 2.0 in government an oxymoron? It would seem that Uncle Sam in particular could easily fall out of step with a “new” Web of blogs, wikis, podcasts and RSS. Yet last week’s “Gilbane Conference on Content Technologies in Government” in Washington, DC, suggests that federal Web managers are indeed exploring Web 2.0 technologies.

The cool part of this article is how the US Government is looking at using technolgies like Blogs, Wikis, and RSS feed. However the really interesting part is how the government is having governance issues of its own in relation to its websites.

27 June, 2006 | No comments

Judge: Surfing Web at Work No Big Deal

FOXNews.com - Judge: Surfing Web at Work No Big Deal - Science And Technology News | News On Technology

“It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work,”

Interesting ruling and I agree with it. Although one might argue that surfing the internet uses corporate resource. Well so does playing solitair on the computer and if one reads the newspaper and then leaves it laying around a cleaning person has to discard it, which also technically uses corporate resources. A colleague at Auburn once gave a good piece of advice… don’t do anything on the internet you would not do in real life. Would you look at ESPN the magazine in your office? Then espn.com is acceptable. Would you place a personal phone call? Then chatting with a friend or e-mail a friend is acceptable. I think the judge got it right.

24 April, 2006 | No comments

Peter Quinn Resigns

Consortiuminfo.org Standards Blog

I’m very sorry to report that Peter Quinn, the CIO of Massachusetts who has been at the center of a controversy relating to his efforts at the Information Technology Division (ITD) to adopt the OpenDocument format for the use of the Commonwealth’s Executive Agencies, has resigned, effective January 9, 2006.

You might ask what does the resignation of Peter Quinn have to do with Digital Stakeholders? Well honestly a lot. He is correct in saying that he has been a lightning rod. He has been pushing for the state of Mass to move to the Open Document standard (away from proprietary MS standards). By pushing this he has made quite a few people angry and has been under a lot of scrutiny. Is moving to the Open Document standard the right thing to do? I certainly think so as it removes the MS costs from access for all stakeholders involved. Yet the change is coming with quite a bit of resistance. Why? Well people have offered reasons why the state should stay with MS, but the right thing to do is to change and Peter’s resignation is a sad day. He was/is a visionary who can see beyond corporate greed and control. It will be interesting to continue to watch this play out.

28 December, 2005 | No comments

Mobile Phones to Announce ‘You’ve Been Indicted’

Mobile Phones to Announce ‘You’ve Been Indicted’

SEOUL (Reuters)—South Koreans may look at their mobile phones with some trepidation in the new year because prosecutors will start telling people they have been indicted via text messages, an official said Monday.

This would be interesting in the US as many people pay to receive text messages. I guess the IRS could work out a deal with the cell phone companies, but still, this digital stakeholder prefers that traditional paper method… on second thought just leave me out all together

27 December, 2005 | No comments

Google: Witness for the Prosecution

FOXNews.com - Technology - Google: Witness for the Prosecution

Robert James Petrick, 51, didn’t exactly point a Web browser to the Internet search engine Google and type in “how do you kill your wife?”

But he came pretty close, say prosecutors in Durham County, N.C.

eWeek, by way of Fox News, reports that Google information has been used to support a prosecution. We all saw this coming and as the prosecution states, this is not the last time we will see this done. Will the come a time when law enforcement will data mine the Google databases to help solve crimes? Pretty scary stuff and of course as usual Google is short on answers.

6 December, 2005 | No comments

The FBI’s Secret Scrutiny

The FBI’s Secret Scrutiny

Under the shield and stars of the FBI crest, the letter directed Christian to surrender “all subscriber information, billing information and access logs of any person” who used a specific computer at a library branch some distance away. Christian, who manages digital records for three dozen Connecticut libraries, said in an affidavit that he configures his system for privacy. But the vendors of the software he operates said their databases can reveal the Web sites that visitors browse, the e-mail accounts they open and the books they borrow.

If the FBI could do this to a library where they have to track down the system admin. why couldn’t they do this to Google as well? And with all the records Google keeps what would the find? Better yet what would they create? With the billions of web searches that are done they could quickly create any story they would like. While I believe there are some merits and needs for the PATRIOT act, there are also some serious concerns. If we could trust government and the people who work in government that PATRIOT act would protect the good digital stakeholders. Unfortunatley we have seen way to often government abuses of power.

With that said, businesses need to be prudent in data retention and need to do the right thing, but they also do not need to enable additional abuse.

7 November, 2005 | No comments

Internet postings targeted in court

Internet postings targeted in court - baltimoresun.com

A Maryland appeals court will hear arguments today in a case that could help determine whether someone who makes an anonymous — and disparaging — Internet posting in chat rooms or on message boards could be unmasked.

A decision could add to an emerging body of law shaping free-speech boundaries in the Internet age, when people using screen names as aliases regularly gripe online about politicians, employers and investments.

Here is another case that must be watched very closely. It too has the potential to undermine the fabric of the internet. As I read about the companies that are upset about anonymous posters making false statements about their products and impacting the company’s stock prices I had to think back to Enron and other companies where the actual officers make false statements. The only difference is corporations have money to spend on minimizing negative opinion, and you know they will if they win this lawsuit, while individual investors have to wait until the lies of management are revealed, if ever. This indeed is a tough one.

3 November, 2005 | No comments

Could blogs trump stumping in Iowa?

Could blogs trump stumping in Iowa? | csmonitor.com

Second, the Web in general and blogs in particular have perhaps upset a generation-old tradition of political campaigns. Previously, those of us living outside of Iowa or New Hampshire were largely left out of the process. The blogosphere helps dissipate this geopolitical claustrophobia.

An excellent commentary of how blogs could impact the political process. It is amazing to me how many blogs have a political focus. Definitely worth reading as I think the authors are right on the mark.

3 November, 2005 | No comments

Weighing Webcasters’ Rights to Content

Weighing Webcasters’ Rights to Content

Battles over illegal sharing of music online are so last summer. The hot fight now is over copying of video from television or the Internet that generally has been considered freely available to the public.

If television broadcasters and webcasters have their way in international treaty talks, they would gain new, 50-year rights to virtually any video they beam out, even if no one owns the rights to the content.

This is a devewlopment that must be watched very cloeely as it will alter the very nature of digital stakeholder relations. This is copyright moving in the wrong direction, but with Google it was the other wrong direction.

3 November, 2005 | No comments

Open Debate About OpenDocument

FOXNews.com - Views - Your Mail: Open Debate About OpenDocument

The column “Massachusetts Should Close Down OpenDocument” that appeared on FOXnews.com Sept. 28 identified author James Prendergast as executive director of Americans for Technology Leadership, but failed to disclose that Microsoft is a founding member of that organization.

I don’t know if you have been following the Open Document debate, but Mass. is looking to use the Open Document standard instead of upgrading its current Office license. Several have written how this is a bad move, but this link takes you to people’s responses to the silly arguments why the government must stick with MS. Are people really that stupid? Do we not see that MS has only one interest? More money. Take a read through the comments and you will see many different instances where MS has stiffled competion. You don’t even need to read them, just think about your own experiences and how many times you, or your empoyer, has had to pay to “upgrade” when the upgrade provided little to no functionality that you actually use.

Open Document just makes sense. As one of the last paragraphs suggests, the only people who believe MS is the answer are those that have a vested interest in MS. Fox was wrong to report the article as objective without mentioning that MS was a founding and supporting member of the author’s primary affilition. We all must consider the source of the information and adjust accordingly.

14 October, 2005 | No comments

Looming struggle over Internet control could put network’s freedoms at risk

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Looming struggle over Internet control could put network’s freedoms at risk

This sounds like geeky stuff, but it matters for everyday users. The technical rules for how networks and computers find and recognize each other can determine how freely and securely information can be retrieved and sent.

That is an understatement. One of the best things about the internet to this point is that no one government controls it. Sure there are some that control what its citizens can view, but as a whole the internet is an independent entity. However it appears that the UN, or at least countries in the UN want to control it. In my opinion, if that happens it could drastically impact all digital stakeholders in negative ways. Government has a nasty habit of starting small and growing quickly. So once they control one part it will quickly mushroom.

We all better watch this story closely.

14 October, 2005 | No comments

Mayor Tilghman asks FBI to probe blogger

Local News - The Daily Times - www.delmarvanow.com

SALISBURY — Mayor Barrie P. Tilghman has formally asked the FBI to investigate a retired lawyer’s Internet claims that he hacked into her personal computer and reprinted at least one memo she wrote.

Now this is an interesting occurance….a lawyer hacks into the Mayors computer, views some documents and then blogs about it? It is hard to tell which side of this one is blowing more smoke!

5 October, 2005 | No comments

The Wiki Effect

Salt Lake City Weekly - The Wiki Effect

XMission founder and CEO Pete Ashdown wouldn’t be running for office if Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, shared his love for technology. The self-proclaimed computer geek jumped into politics only after Hatch suggested blowing up computers as an ideal punishment for hackers and file swappers. Critics claim Ashdown doesn’t have a snowball’s chance against the Republican powerhouse, but his firm grip on cyberspace could help level the political playing field. In fact, some believe Hatch’s anti-Internet views could hamper his chances in 2006.

Great article on the use of Blogs & Wikis in politics. Check out PAshdown.org and click on Journal to see his blog and then click on Collaborate to see his wiki. It is quite innovative.

30 September, 2005 | No comments

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