Freedom of Information:
Journalists Fight for Open Government in The Face Of Secrecy
Transparency is inconvenient. It’s inconvenient for the reporter who’s trying to report the news and it’s inconvenient for the government that attempts to hide information. "It is not unique for federal officials to go to great lengths to get around having to turn over documents or respond," Sharyl Attkisson said during a keynote address last week at the University of Florida’s public information conference, "Breaking Down Walls: The Fight for Open Government." One journalist told the tale of being denied documents about the terrorists who held him hostage for six years because it would infringe upon his captors’ privacy. Another told of a time when she filed a Freedom of Information Act request, only to receive a response a decade later.
The group of journalists and law professionals agreed that it’s critical to report on FOIA violations to make audiences aware of why the issue is important. One way to do this is by leaving blanks in stories where public information was denied. The Miami Herald did just that when they published two copies of the same report, obtained via public record requests from the Department of Children & Families a year apart. The latest release of the report was subject to DCF’s new disclosure policy, which led to almost every word being blacked out, whereas the first released copy of the report had about a sentence or two blacked out at most.
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2015/04/journalists-fight-for-open-government-in-the-face-of-secrecy/.
Army Denies it Sought to Hide Troops’ Chemical Exposure in Iraq
The Pentagon denies it deliberately tried to hide the fact that U.S. troops were exposed to chemical agents, including mustard and sarin, during the Iraq War. The Army on Friday apologized for its failure to properly care for Americans exposed to the chemical agents, promised to provide medical support to those affected and indicated some troops would be eligible for the Purple Heart. But the Army on Monday said there was never any "conspiracy" to play down or conceal the chemical exposures, including from those who experienced them.
In October 2014 The New York Times published a lengthy series based on documents acquired through Freedom of Information Act requests and interviews with Iraq War veterans, including 17 who were exposed to chemical agents. The Times said that about 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs were found by U.S. troops following the 2003 invasion. Officer and enlisted personnel interviewed for the story said they were told to keep silent or provide as little information as possible about such exposures, including to sarin.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/03/31/army-denies-it-sought-to-hide-troops-chemical-exposure-in-iraq.html.
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Libraries:
America’s ‘national library’ is lacking in leadership, yet another report finds
The federal government’s watchdog agency released a critical report Tuesday on the Library of Congress’s long-standing failures to manage the complex computer systems that are vital to its mission. The result of a year-long investigation by the Government Accountability Office, the report reveals a work environment lacking central oversight and faults Librarian of Congress James H. Billington for ignoring repeated calls to hire a chief information officer, as required by law.
Digital technology is crucial to the library’s evolving operations, and yet it is not a priority of management, the GAO investigators found. These findings repeat the conclusions of previous reports dating back 20 years. Taken together, the reports reveal library mismanagement costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, and outdated and inefficient systems in the U.S. Copyright Office. And despite the library’s reputation as an early Internet pioneer, various reports have found that it hasn’t kept up with the rapidly evolving digital times. "The library does not have the leadership needed to address these IT management weaknesses," the GAO report said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/americas-national-library-is-behind-the-digital-curve-a-new-report-finds/2015/03/31/fad54c3a-d3fd-11e4-a62f-ee745911a4ff_story.html.
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Intellectual Property:
Not Just Space Photos: Flickr Now Allows All Users To Expand the Public Domain
The way copyright lawyers talk about the public domain as something works "fall into" when the copyright terms finally expires, it sometimes sounds like some kind of trash heap. But that couldn’t be further from the truth: The public domain is a fantastic resource for learning, creativity and innovation—our cultural commons.
We were very happy to learn that Flickr has released a feature this weekend that allows any uploader to use Creative Commons tools to take easy affirmative steps to support that resource. Flickr users can now easily mark their photos as public domain materials in two ways: either by using a Public Domain Mark (for images already available without copyright restrictions), or using the CC0 waiver (to release whatever restrictions might be in place). This announcement comes after SpaceX, the private spaceflight company that operated a mission for NASA earlier this year, said it would release photos without any restrictions. That was big, but Flickr’s technical update supporting it could have an even greater impact.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/not-just-space-photos-flickr-now-allows-all-users-expand-public-domain.
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Internet Access:
U.S. Internet users pay more and have fewer choices than Europeans
More than a quarter of Americans cannot go online at home to check their children’s grades at school, apply for jobs, pay bills or research health issues. They don’t have what has become a crucial service for participation in modern society: Internet service at home. The proportion of households with Internet service had been rising steadily for decades, according to the Pew Research Center, until the past few years when the adoption rate slowed. One reason? The high cost of broadband and the lack of competition that leads to those high prices.
A Center for Public Integrity analysis of Internet prices in five U.S. cities and five comparable French cities found that prices in the U.S. were as much as 3 1/2 times higher than those in France for similar service. The analysis shows that consumers in France have a choice between a far greater number of providers – seven on average – than those in the U.S., where most residents can get service from no more than two companies. The Center’s analysis echoes the findings of several studies on Internet pricing disparities worldwide. By mapping the service areas of U.S. providers, The Center for Public Integrity also found that telecommunications companies appear to carve up territory to avoid competing with more than one other provider.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/04/01/16998/us-internet-users-pay-more-and-have-fewer-choices-europeans.
Nearly 7% Of Americans Say Their Smartphone Is Their Only Way To Get Online
We may often joke that losing our smartphone would mean being cut off from the outside world. While that’s likely an exaggeration for many consumers, a new report from The Pew Research Center finds Americans’ reliance on smartphones to stay connected with the rest of the world is very real, especially when it comes to accessing the internet. Pew’s latest report, based on a survey conducted in October 2014, focuses not only on American’s increased use of smartphones, but also their changing preference for connecting to the internet.
Today, nearly 64% of American adults own smartphones; that’s a substantial increase of 29% from just four years ago. While most Americans once relied on actual computers to go online, that simply isn’t the case anymore, thanks in part to the availability of smartphones. Of the consumers with smartphones, 10% tell Pew they don’t have broadband access at home, and another 15% say they have few other options to access the internet beyond their phones. When both factors are considered, 7% of respondents say that they do not have broadband access at home, and also have relatively few options for getting online other than their cell phone.
http://consumerist.com/2015/04/01/nearly-7-of-americans-say-their-smartphone-is-their-only-way-to-get-online/.
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Privacy:
Microsoft drops default ‘do not track’ browser privacy setting
Microsoft has changed course on a Web browsing feature that was the subject of a heated Internet privacy debate. As Internet users became aware of the amount of data advertisers were able to collect based on their browsing, privacy advocates and regulators in recent years pushed for a "do not track" feature in Web browsers that would ask sites not to monitor their behavior for advertising purposes. Microsoft took a firm stance on the issue, enabling do not track by default beginning with the 2012 release of Internet Explorer 10. Now, the company is reversing that decision for its new browsers, citing a move from a Web standards group to recommend giving individual users choice as to whether to enable tracking features. In a blog post on Friday, Microsoft chief privacy officer Brendon Lynch said the company made its decision after draft guidelines from the World Wide Web Consortium recommended that "in the absence of user choice, there is no tracking preference expressed" by Web browsers.
http://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/microsoft-drops-default-do-not-track-browser-privacy-setting/.
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International Outlook:
Secular writers in Bangladesh fearful after 2nd blogger slain by suspected Islamists
Bangladesh, a majority Muslim nation long seen as insulated from the most fervent strains of militant Islam, has seen that reputation crack amid an increasingly bloody divide between secular bloggers and conservative Islamist groups. The writer, a thin young man who fears the growing interweaving of religion and politics in Bangladesh, knows his turn could come next. What happened earlier this week, when the second secularist blogger in less than a month was hacked to death in the streets of the capital, made it clear he wasn’t safe. "Anytime they can hit me or my like-minded friends," said Ananya Azad, a 25-year-old blogger who has written pieces that were critical of Islamic fundamentalism and politics driven by religion. He quit his job as a newspaper columnist and stopped writing blogs in recent months after receiving numerous threats, but still posts critical comments on Facebook. Ananya says he’s thinking about fleeing the country and spends much of his time indoors these days.
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/2f619ce878714140b7013dd2d5867b7b/AS–Bangladesh-Blogger-Deaths.
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The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.