Next Generation Government Information

South of the border we’re seeing moves to go well beyond the traditional depository of government documents in how public information is presented.

Most immediately a new site called Data.gov which includes a complete redesign of the Federal Register attracted even the attention of the Washington Post.

The key feature for Slaw readers is that it is based on XML, so can be built into other applications. More detail below the fold.

The second development is the launch of Law.Gov which takes Carl Malamud’s bold pamphlet on public access to legal information We The People and makes it real. The site aims to be a distributed, open source, authenticated registry and repository of all primary legal materials in the United States. You can see his speech here and here at the Gov 2.0 Summit.

Law.Gov aims to develop a report documenting exactly what it would take to create a distributed registry and repository of all primary legal materials in the United States.

Primary legal materials means all materials that have the force of law and are part of the law-making process, including: briefs and opinions from the judiciary; reports, hearings, and laws from the legislative branch; and regulations, audits, grants, and other materials from the executive branch. Creating the system from open source software building blocks will allow states and municipalities to make their materials available as well.

Law.Gov would be similar to Data.Gov, providing bulk data and feeds to commercial, non-commercial, and governmental organizations wishing to build web sites, operate legal information services, or otherwise use the raw materials of our democracy.

The project aims to deliver, by mid-2010, a detailed report to the White House and Congress, including at a minimum:

* Detailed technical specifications for markup, authentication, bulk access, and other aspects of a distributed registry.
* A bill of lading defining which materials should be made available on the system.
* A detailed business plan and budget for the organization in the government running the new system.
* Sample enabling legislation.
* An economic impact statement detailing the effect on federal spending and economic activity.
* Procedures for auditing materials on the system to ensure authenticity.

The metaphor that the project uses is America’s Operating System built on Open Source strikes me as wonderfully apt.

Back to Data.gov. The Federal Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents. Published by the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), it is updated daily and is available Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) contains Federal Register issues from 1994 to the present. The current XML data set is not yet an official format of the Federal Register. Only the PDF and Text versions have legal status as parts of the official online format of the Federal Register. Data.gov offers data in three ways: through the “raw” data catalog, using tools and through the geodata catalog. The “Raw” Data Catalog provides an instant download of machine readable, platform-independent datasets while the Tools Catalog provides hyperlinks which may lead to agency tools or agency web pages that allow you to mine datasets. The FDsys data set includes digitally signed Federal Register PDF files, which may be relied upon as evidence in a court of law.

The widget looks interesting:
, as does the data extraction tool

The formats for manipulation include

XMLUsed by automated programs capable of handling raw XML files.
CSV/TXTUsed for easy access to data through most desktop spreadsheet applications.
XLSFile format used with Microsoft Excel.
KML/KMZDisplays geospatial data in Google Earth/Maps, and similar applications.
ShapefileUsed by ESRI-compatible mapping applications

Of course, the test for all of these services will likely be whether they capture such delights as the Vermont state pie, the Massachussetts, New York and Minnesota state muffins, and the Utah Legislative Resolution on Jello. The Wisconsin apple pie and cheese ordinance is an urban myth.