Hey, we've been asking that question for decades now.  Turns out we are not alone.  The same thing occurred to Adena Schutzberg, Executive Editor of Directions Magazine.  In a current article, “Geographic (and Other Types) of Metadata in the Newsroom,” she writes:

“Despite the growth of the Web and the maturation of
search engines, somehow word is not trickling down to the news media
about geographic and other types of metadata. I’m seeing just as many
stories, especially on local
newspaper websites, which convey no information regarding the location
of the events in question….”

Rave on, Adena, rave on.

The guys from The Media Center write:

“We wanted to give you a heads up on a conference we're conducting in
New York, Oct. 5, called We Media. Marketing is about to begin in
earnest, and we're sure our highly verbal communications director,
Gloria Pan, will make us sound much smarter and hipper than we really
are. Some extraordinary people will be joining us. We hope you will
too.

The Oct. 5 program, hosted at The Associated Press headquarters
in New York, will include a series of discussions that will frame the
next phase of participatory communications and the opportunities we see
emerging. Details and online registration are here.

We'd love to see you there, with colleagues, and we hope you can
share this information throughout your organization. We expect about
220 people. And of course, best – we'd love to see you there to
represent your company as a member of The Media Center Network. More
about the Network here.

We're also seeking sponsors to help defray the costs of the
event, so we'd be grateful for any effort you could make to persuade
the right people within your organization to sponsor the conference.
Sponsor details are here.

Regards,

Andrew and Dale

:: The Media Center

:: 11690 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA 20191 USA

:: o: 703.715.3318 | f: 703.935.1083

The gang at AskSam has posted a searchable file of John Robert's work, at least that released so far.

Check out “the entire text of all 49 published opinions of Judge John G. Roberts on-line in a searchable
database. You can search and browse through the information from your
Web browser.”  Go to http://www.asksam.com/ebooks/johnroberts/

The Published Opinions of Judge John G. Roberts

Free Searchable Version

Search and
analyze the published opinions of Supreme Court nominee, Judge John G Roberts.

On
July 19, 2005, Judge John G. Roberts was nominated by President George
W. Bush to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court left by the
retirement of Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. In two years on
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Judge
Roberts has helped decide about 120 cases and written 49 published
opinions.”

We recently enjoyed meeting Stuart Kasdin at a Netlogo workshop. 
Stuart spent some years in the Peace Corps, then a decade with the OMB
(Office of Budget Management).  Currently he's working on his
doctorate in Poly Sci at UC-Santa Barbara.

Stuart has also been thinking about “performance measurement,” the
term-of-art used by auditors and managers of government agencies. 
(In the private sector, the term often used is “forensic
accounting.”)  We have generally thought well of performance
measurement, especially as a vocabulary and tool journalists should
know about to better understand and evalutate the performance of
government.  Stuart, however, has thought about this in greater
depth, and from the perspective of someone inside the government. 
His paper, “When Do Results Matter?  Using Budget Systems to
Enhance Program Performance and Agency Management” is worthwhile
reading.


ABSTRACT: “Managing by results” is a widely used public
budgeting approach based on developing performance measures that display the
progress of a program toward its stated objectives.  This paper considers the complex environment of government
budgeting and how to establish budget systems that can successfully encourage
improved performance by managers.  The
paper assesses the limitations in how governments currently apply performance
budgeting and suggests ways that it might be made more effective.  First, performance measures must be individually
tractable and simple, as well as be coherent and revealing in the context of
other program performance targets.  In addition, performance budgeting must distinguish between
program needs based on environmental changes and those based on management
related decisions.  Finally, the
paper argues that multi-task, complex-goal programs
will typically result in low-powered incentives for program managers.  This outcome results because, even apart
from information obstacles, program managers will be rewarded or punished on only
a component of the program, representing a small fraction of the total program
performance when performance measures as increase.  A partial solution is to ensure that the number of policy
instruments is not smaller than the number of targets.”   


Click here to read the Kasdin paper.

Some weeks back we were quite critical
of Newsweek coming out with what we concluded was a bogus index of the
best high schools in the United States.  Such lists or indexes are
not new, of course.  U.S. News & Report has been doing them for years but, according to a piece in the NYTimes “Education Life” supplement, it is the only publication to rank law schools.



Today's story, “The $8.78 Million Maneuver” lays out an interesting tale of how some law schools can juggle their numbers to increase their ranking in the U.S. News' list. 
Such little fiscal slight-of-hands as including the law school's water
bill in the school's total spending.  That, in turn, adds to the
“spending-per-student” factor, which is part of the ranking
index.  Turns out some schools DO add such utility costs, others
not.



Of
course the real question is, exactly how significant is the qualitative
difference between No. 1 Yale and No. 3 Stanford or No. 26,
Illinois.  We suspect it only matters to the alumni.

We have long-enjoyed — and learned from — Chance News, published by
the good folks in the math dept. at some Eastern school in the wilds of
the far, far north.  The current issue has an interesting link to
some paper related to “modeling conflict.”
See:
http://chance.dartmouth.edu/chancewiki/index.php/Rules_of_engagement_-_modelling_conflict

Steve
writes a good column, especially if you're interested in utilities that
make driving our digital beasts just a bit easier or more fun. 
From today's column:

“Maps, Maps, and More Maps

Y'all like maps–that's pretty obvious from all the e-mail I
received after “Maps for Fun and Business” hit your inboxes:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121387,tk,sbx,00.asp

* Google Earth. Tons of you complained that I didn't mention
Google Earth in that newsletter. This one's a stunner–and a time killer. Our
uberboss, Harry McCracken, describes it in detail in his blog, “First
Impressions: Google's Amazing Earth”:
http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/000748.html

Unfortunately, you can't have it: The Google folks pulled
the beta. Too many people accessing it, they said. There may still be a way for
you to get it, though. Read through the comments at Harry's follow-up blog:
http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/000761.html

You could also try going to a mirror site:
http://find.pcworld.com/48978 

And when you do get a copy, I promise, you'll kill an hour
or more playing with it (which is why this newsletter's being filed late).

* Mapdex. Jeremy Bartley wrote to tell me about Mapdex, a
“GeoGoogle” for map servers. Jeremy is the assistant GIS Coordinator
and Geoinformatics Project Lead of the Kansas Geological Survey at the
University of Kansas (hey, I get paid by the word). He explained that Mapdex
uses roughly 1550 servers, serving 26,000 map services, containing more than
400,000 GIS layers, and covering more than 3,250,000 columns. Check it out:
http://www.mapdex.org

* ESRI Conference. It's too late this year, but mark your
maps for the next “Virtual Woodstock for digital mapmakers from 110
countries around the globe.” It's the ESRI International User Conference
for GIS geeks (meaning “geographic information system”). Here's the
Web site:
http://www.esri.com/uc

Interactive Storytelling, Rethinking
Journalism

Mark 2005 Batten Awards Finalists

“COLLEGE
PARK, Md. – A
national panel of judges has selected five finalists to win the 2005
Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism,
honoring them for setting new standards for interactive journalism,
advancing creativity in
digital storytelling and recalibrating the role that news organizations play
in their communities….

“'We were impressed again this
year with the range of talents and ideas presented — from a collaboration of
former broadcast professionals from Europe to the transformation of a newsroom
in North Carolina to the wild idea of a lone innovator in Chicago” said Bryan
Monroe, chairman of the
Batten Awards Advisory Board and Knight Ridder assistant vice president/news.
“Prevailing themes were the increasing transparency, accessibility and democratization
of
news.”

“The Batten Awards spotlight the creative use of new information ideas and technologies to involve citizens in
public issues. They are administered by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive
Journalism at the University of Maryland.”

Psychology at work at Guantanamo

Generally overlooked role of doctors' in prisoner interrogations.

Marylaine Block, editor/publisher of Ex Libris and Neat New Stuff, tips us to a new journal, “Open Government.”  It is a British online-only publication, but addresses global issues related to freedom of information.

“Launched March 2005…..open access peer reviewed journal on Open Government and Freedom of Information

Journal Aim: To publish research and communications related to
Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation from the perspective of
academics, practioners and FOI users.

Scope:
-Freedom of Information legislation and information provision for citizens
-Comparative views of international freedom of information legislation
-Freedom of information legislation and the open government debate
-The impact of Freedom of Information on public administration
-Case studies from public authorities by FOI practioners
-Information Systems for managing records and FOI requests
-The relationship of Freedom of Information legislation and other access to information legislation

The Journal is run under open access principles is free to
access in electronic form. Printed copies of the journal are not
currently available.
The Journal is funded by the School of Business Information at Liverpool John Moores University” 

———————————————————–

Also….

Watching America 
http://www.watchingamerica.com/
"Discover what the world thinks about the US" with "Translated Foreign News 
Available NOWHERE Else In English." Includes text, videos, and other media from 
Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas.