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EOP - Blog Post - Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov

EOP - Blog Post - Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov.

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov

Welcome to the new WhiteHouse.gov. I'm Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House and one of the people who will be contributing to the blog.

A short time ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States and his new administration officially came to life. One of the first changes is the White House's new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.

Millions of Americans have powered President Obama's journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country's future. WhiteHouse.gov is just the beginning of the new administration's efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement.

Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration's online programs will put citizens first. Our initial new media efforts will center around three priorities:

Communication -- Americans are eager for information about the state of the economy, national security and a host of other issues. This site will feature timely and in-depth content meant to keep everyone up-to-date and educated. Check out the briefing room, keep tabs on the blog (RSS feed) and take a moment to sign up for e-mail updates from the President and his administration so you can be sure to know about major announcements and decisions.

Transparency -- President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history, and WhiteHouse.gov will play a major role in delivering on that promise. The President's executive orders and proclamations will be published for everyone to review, and that’s just the beginning of our efforts to provide a window for all Americans into the business of the government. You can also learn about some of the senior leadership in the new administration and about the President’s policy priorities.

Participation -- President Obama started his career as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, where he saw firsthand what people can do when they come together for a common cause. Citizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the internet will play an important role in that. One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.

We'd also like to hear from you -- what sort of things would you find valuable from WhiteHouse.gov? If you have an idea, use this form to let us know. Like the transition website and the campaign's before that, this online community will continue to be a work in progress as we develop new features and content for you. So thanks in advance for your patience and for your feedback.

Later today, we’ll put up the video and the full text of President Obama’s Inaugural Address. There will also be slideshows of the Inaugural events, the Obamas’ move into the White House, and President Obama’s first days in office.

Watch the Obama Inauguration Live Online

Watch the Obama Inauguration Live Online.

Watch the Obama Inauguration Live Online
January 20th, 2009 by Loren Baker, Editor

Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States today in an event which is unlike any other inauguration with the many economic challenges facing the new President and will be the first war time inauguration since Nixon in 1972.

Around 4 million spectators are expected in Washington DC today, and millions more will be watching the inauguration on around the world. But if you’re stuck behind your desk today, or not in the United States, how can you watch the inauguration on the Internet?

Watch the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Live Online

• C-Span : Being the centerpiece of the live streaming of political events, C-Span will be airing a multichannel choice of various inauguration events, including the Bush exit of the Whitehouse and the inaugural concerts and parties.
• CNN Live : Join Anderson Cooper, James Carville and the other CNN political analysts, and even your Facebook friends to watch the live inauguration of President Obama online.
• Ustream : The pinnacle of live broadcasts and user generated content, Ustream will be carrying an Obama inauguration feed which can be viewed on the iPhone.
• Obama Girl : If you’re like me and can’t get enough of Obama Girl, she’ll be living her inauguration commentary live today at Stickam.
• Hulu : Last but not least, Hulu will be featuring live streaming of the Obama inauguration on their homepage, and also via video embeds which can be placed on blogs, sites and social media profiles.

The Prisoner - Patrick McGoohan - Very Short List

The Prisoner - Patrick McGoohan - Very Short List.

JANUARY 19, 2009
A cult classic comes in from the cold

Bored by his role in Britain’s popular Danger Man series (Secret Agent in the USA), Patrick McGoohan — who died last week at 80 — created The Prisoner. This surreal, subversively comedic example of the paranoid style aired in America in the summer of ’68, and it fit the cultural moment to a T. Now you can watch all 17 episodes again, online, in high-quality streams presented by AMC.

Watch The Prisoner at AMC’s Web site.. a remake is coming soon...

The TV Watch - ‘CSI’ Farewell - Leave Us the Maggots - NYTimes.com

The TV Watch - ‘CSI’ Farewell - Leave Us the Maggots - NYTimes.com.

The TV Watch
Goodbye, Grissom, Leave Us a Maggot
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY, Published: January 14, 2009

Men are such babies.

The tender farewell to Gil Grissom (William L. Petersen) as he retires from the Las Vegas Crime Scene Investigation unit was stretched over two episodes and ends Thursday night on CBS in a tableau of bitten lower lips and suppressed tears.

It’s not just Grissom’s colleagues who are feeling bereft. “CSI” has fiercely loyal male fans, and many of them are misting up over their own lost youth and eight years devoted to watching Grissom examine maggots, blood spray patterns and decayed flesh. Grissom has found a successor, Dr. Raymond Langston (Laurence Fishburne), a pathologist and college professor who seems to share Grissom’s slavish work ethic and kindly reticence.

But Langston is not his only successor. Simon Baker, who plays Patrick Jane on “The Mentalist,” the new CBS hit, is a greater threat to the Grissom legacy. More than any other show, “The Mentalist” signals that intuition is the big new thing, while forensic science and nerdy, obsessive lab workers are old hat.

Grissom, the lead investigator on the show, makes a forlorn plea for his life’s work in his last episode. “People lie,” Grissom tells Langston. “The only thing we can count on is the evidence.”
...

Multimedia
Preview: 'CSI'

ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » Resources of the Week: 2009 Presidential Inauguration

ResourceShelf » Blog Archive » Resources of the Week: 2009 Presidential Inauguration.

Resources of the Week: 2009 Presidential Inauguration
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

January 20th is the Big Day. Barack Obama will be sworn in as the nation’s 44th president — and first African-American president. To commemorate this very special event, we bring you a round-up of inauguration-related information. Not that we haven’t already been doing some of this. To wit:

+ Fast Facts: Inauguration Resources #1 — Includes items from the U.S. Senate’s inauguration websites.
+ Inauguration Factfile from Infoplease.com
+ Master Inaugural Events Schedule, from ConklinScott, a political consulting firm

New update... Hulu has put online a collection of video clips of inauguration addresses, all the way back in time to William McKinley's Second Inauguration. See at Hulu

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Prisoner star McGoohan dies at 80

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Prisoner star McGoohan dies at 80.

Prisoner star McGoohan dies at 80
Page last updated at 19:11 GMT, Wednesday, 14 January 2009

[image caption] Patrick McGoohan - Rex Features McGoohan wrote and starred in The Prisoner from 1967

Emmy-winning actor Patrick McGoohan, best known for starring in cult 1960s TV show The Prisoner, has died at the age of 80.

He died in Los Angeles after a short illness, his film producer son-in-law Cleve Landsberg told Associated Press.

McGoohan played the character Six in the surreal 1960s show, filmed in the north Wales village of Portmeirion.

He won two Emmy awards for his work on TV detective series Columbo, playing different characters. The first came for an episode of the series in 1974, with another 16 years later.
...
See also his obituary.

Is it the end of the desktop PC? | Technology | Reuters

Is it the end of the desktop PC? | Technology | Reuters.

Is it the end of the desktop PC?

By Kelvin Soh TAIPEI (Reuters)
Wed Jan 7, 2009 1:20pm EST

The age of the desktop PC appears to be over as its more portable cousin, the laptop, surges ahead with consumers clamoring for light-weight computers in funky designs for use at home, in cafes and on the train to work.

Not a single desktop model figured on online shopping portal Amazon.com's top 10 selling PC and hardware list the weekend before Christmas, while seven laptop models made the list.

It was yet another sign that the former dominance of desktop PCs is fading as wireless advances and lower prices make laptops the preferred option for millions of PC users around the world.

Ask-a-Librarian Services Need a Reboot | David Lee King

Ask-a-Librarian Services Need a Reboot | David Lee King.

Ask-a-Librarian Services Need a Reboot
by davidleeking on January 6, 2009

What would you say if I told you that some libraries discriminate against a certain type of customer? That some customers, because of the way they asked a question, were purposefully pushed to the back of the line, told to wait 2-3 days for an answer, and that they couldn’t get an answer to some of their burning questions … because they’re “that kind” of customer?

You’d be furious, right?

Well … believe it or not, many libraries are doing that RIGHT NOW - today, in fact. Take a peek at these email and chat reference policies for a sec, then come back and let’s talk ...

BBC NEWS | Americas | Hemingway archive opens in Cuba

BBC NEWS | Americas | Hemingway archive opens in Cuba.

Hemingway archive opens in Cuba Ernest Hemingway

Cuba has opened up electronic access to thousands of documents belonging to the writer Ernest Hemingway, who wrote some of his greatest works on the island.

The archive includes photographs, letters and manuscripts, as well as an unpublished epilogue to Hemingway's novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

The items had been stored in the cellar of the writer's Cuban home for decades.

Curators say the files offer an insight into Hemingway's life on the island, where he lived for 20 years.

"We are talking about 3,194 pages of documents, close to 2,000 plus of documents, some already digitalised," said Ada Rosa Alfonso Rosales, director of the Museo Ernest Hemingway in Havana.
...

See also Museo Ernest Hemingway (in Spanish)

Blogs [OCLC - Talk]

Blogs [OCLC - Talk].

Blogs

Want to know what’s on the minds of some of OCLC’s most inquisitive team members? Then make it a habit to visit OCLC’s official blogs—you can even join the conversation by posting your own comments. OCLC’s bloggers continually scan the library landscape and beyond from a variety of viewpoints, looking for news, ideas and other information of potential interest to the library community. See the latest from OCLC’s bloggers:

Metalogue
Metalogue is a forum for sharing thoughts on all things related to knowledge organization by and for libraries, hosted by Karen Calhoun, Vice President, WorldCat and Metadata Services for OCLC.

Hectic Pace
Andrew K. Pace, Executive Director for Networked Library Services, covers library systems and the state of library automation.

WorldCat Blog
A fun spot to read about what's happening on WorldCat.org and to share cool ways that people are using the site and their libraries.

It’s all good
Four OCLC staff who share personal, unvetted reflections on issues and news that impact libraries and their users—informed by their proximity to the center of the WorldCat universe.

Lorcan Dempsey’s Weblog
A look at libraries, services and networks from OCLC’s Chief Strategist and Vice President, Research.

Hanging Together
A place where some of the staff at RLG Programs, part of the OCLC Programs and Research division, a partnership of libraries, archives, and museums, can talk about the intersections we see happening between these three different types of institutions. We travel to our partners a lot and go to conferences and take note of the interesting things we see along the way. Stop in, stay awhile, and hang out. Outgoing
Thom Hickey, Chief Scientist for OCLC Research, covering library metadata techniques and trends.

Weibel Lines
Stuart Weibel, Senior Research Scientist for OCLC research, featuring ruminations on libraries and Internet standards.

025.431: The Dewey blog
News and views on classification issues, interesting and unusual DDC resources, and a means to provide ongoing feedback to help shape the DDC’s future.

BlogJunction
WebJunction’s niche in the blogosphere.

makezine.com: About MAKE

makezine.com: About MAKE.

About MAKE

MAKE Magazine brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. MAKE is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. We celebrate your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.

Published as a quarterly since February 2005, MAKE is a hybrid magazine/book (known as a mook in Japan). MAKE comes from O'Reilly, the Publisher of Record for geeks and tech enthusiasts everywhere. It follows in line with the Hacks books and Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks, but it takes a highly visual and personal approach.

Our premiere issue showed you how to get involved in kite aerial photography — taking pictures with a camera suspended from a kite — and how to build an inexpensive rig to hold your camera. We've also shown you how to make a video camera stabilizer, a do-it-yourself alternative to an expensive Steadicam® and how to create a five-in-one cable adapter for connecting to networks. Some projects are strictly for fun, others are very practical, and still others are absolutely astounding.