Author archives

New Apps Help Taxpayers Report Waste, Fraud and Abuse

Stateline: “Cities and states have long had hotlines for reporting misuse of government resources. But mobile apps bring a new level of sophistication. They allow people to submit photos and videos in support of their claims; and in some cases auditors can use the app to respond and ask for follow-up information, all while maintaining …

Subjects: Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Knowledge Management

GAO Reports: Elections, Data Act, High Containment Laboratories, Tax Filing, Unaccompanied Children, VA Health Care

Elections: DOD Needs More Comprehensive Planning to Address Military and Overseas Absentee Voting Challenges, GAO-16-378: Published: Apr 20, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 20, 2016. Data Act: Section 5 Pilot Design Issues Need to Be Addressed to Meet Goal of Reducing Recipient Reporting Burden, GAO-16-438: Published: Apr 19, 2016. Publicly Released: Apr 19, 2016. High-Containment Laboratories: …

Subjects: Government Documents, Health Care, Intellectual Property, Internet, Knowledge Management

Searching for Explanations: How the Internet Inflates Estimates of Internal Knowledge

Searching for Explanations: How the Internet Inflates Estimates of Internal Knowledge, Matthew Fisher, Mariel K. Goddu, and Frank C. Keil, Yale University. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 2015 American Psychological Association 2015, Vol. 144, No. 3, 674–687. “As the Internet has become a nearly ubiquitous resource for acquiring knowledge about the world, questions have arisen …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management

Children’s Rights and Digital Technologies: Introduction to the Discourse and Some Meta-Observations

Gasser, Urs and Cortesi, Sandra, Children’s Rights and Digital Technologies: Introduction to the Discourse and Some Meta-Observations (April 21, 2016). Handbook of Children’s Rights: Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives (M. Ruck, M. Peterson-Badali & M. Freeman, eds., Taylor & Francis), Forthcoming; Berkman Center Research Publication No. 2016-7. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2768168 Digital technology plays an important …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Internet, Knowledge Management

Public Advocate Appointed by FISA Court Declares PRISM Surveillance Unconstitutional

TechDirt: “On [April 19, 2016], the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released some redacted versions of three previously secret FISA Court rulings. There are a few interesting things in them, but one notable point, found in a ruling from last November regarding the NSA’s 702 PRISM program, is that the FISC took advantage …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation, Patriot Act, Privacy

Project seeks to thwart patent trolls

“All Prior Art is a project attempting to algorithmically create and publicly publish all possible new prior art, thereby making the published concepts not patent-able. The concept is to democratize ideas, provide an impetus for change in the patent system, and to preempt patent trolls. The system works by pulling text from the entire database …

Subjects: Intellectual Property, Internet, Patent and Trademark

CRS – Arms Sales: Congressional Review Process

Via FAS – Arms Sales: Congressional Review Process, Paul K. Kerr, Analyst in Nonproliferation. April 19, 2016. “This report reviews the process and procedures that currently apply to congressional consideration of foreign arms sales proposed by the President. This includes consideration of proposals to sell major defense equipment, defense articles and services, or the re-transfer …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Defense, Economy, Government Documents, Legal Research

Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy

Via FAS – CRS report – Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy. Kenneth Katzman, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs. April 15, 2016. “The United States, partner countries, and the Afghan government are attempting to reverse recent gains made by the resilient Taliban-led insurgency since the December 2014 transition to a smaller international mission consisting …

Subjects: Congress, Defense, Government Documents

What’s on Television? The Intersection of Communications and Copyright Policies

Via FAS – CRS report – What’s on Television? The Intersection of Communications and Copyright Policies. Dana A. Scherer, Analyst in Telecommunications. April 20, 2016. “In the 1940s and 1950s, watching television meant tuning into one of a few broadcast television stations, with the help of an antenna, to watch a program at a pre …

Subjects: Congress, Copyright, E-Commerce, Economy, Government Documents

Lewis Carroll Photography Collection

Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas: “Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) Photography Collection – Writing under the name Lewis Carroll, Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898) was one of the major literary figures of Britain’s Victorian Age. Of equal significance, however, was his emergence as one of the most important photographers of the era. In 1856, …

Subjects: Internet, Knowledge Management, Libraries