(2002-11-08) Government Info

Phil Windley on info the government has, but doesn't know how to share. With some follow-up by Jon Udell. I think I'd stop trying to get it "right" anytime soon (even more than in a wide Intranet environment). I'd start by requiring that all goverment publications be placed on some public webserver. Preferably in HTML, but PDF or even MsWord would be acceptable initially. Don't even create index pages, just turn on server settings that let directory listings get turned into web listings (because rule#2 is that each URL must be listed by its containing server). And rule#3 is that each such server be registered (root URL) with the most-local city/state/fed registry server (which, if nothing else, just has a list of all those root URLs, for discovery by others).

Then let Google, WebLog writers, and the rest of the world start working.

Then start worrying about having the government itself try to do more editorial value-adding. (See Intranet.)