links for 2009-08-07

• Event – Innovation at Google: the physics of data – PARC (Palo Alto Research Center)
  Technologies for sensing, storing, and sharing information are driving innovation in the tools available to help us understand our world in greater detail and accuracy than ever before. The implications of analyzing data on a massive scale transcend the tech industry, impacting the environmental sector, social justice issues, health and science research, and more. When coupled with astute technical insight, data is dynamic, accessible, and ultimately, creative.
  (tags: google data tech emerging)
• EPA CWA Action Plan
  An informed public is our best ally in pressing for better compliance with federal regulations. Our Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) provides information on facilities such as inspection history, compliance status, enforcement actions taken, and demographic profile. ECHO identifies whether a facility is discharging into a river, lake or coastal water that fails to meet the water quality standards set by a state, territory or tribe. It also notes whether a facility has the potential to contribute to the impairment of such a water body.
  (tags: data transparency)
• Defragmenting the Stimulus: 5 easy steps to take Recovery.gov to the next level | Analysis & Commentary | Rhiza Labs
  A few states and government agencies have created their own mapping portals, and a few software makers have pulled some of the stimulus data into their own tools. Considering the inaccessibility of public data before the Obama administration, these are all a huge step.

  But each site has its own silo of data, and no site is complete. What we need is a unified point of access to all sources of information: firsthand reports from Recovery.gov and state portals, commentary from StimulusWatch and MetaCarta, and more. The trend toward information liquidity has prompted web tools for fields as different as human services and social networking to allow data to flow freely between different silos. The federal government can use this same paradigm to turn Recovery.gov into a radical tool for transparency.

  (tags: transparency gov20 economy)
• The tipping point for events planning « eventastic
  It strikes me that social media trends have the ripple effect, in that a new web 2.0 technology gets dropped into the ocean of webness creating a ripple that eventually reaches those on the periphery, by which time those at the centre have adopted that technology to the point where its impossible to function on a daily basis without it, whilst something new has already been dropped in again, starting the process over. Creating ever increasing circles of knowledge and acceptance.

  Are we perhaps reaching the tipping point in events planning? Will events where the content is driven by the delegates and all speakers use web 2.0 technologies to engage and interact with the audience become commonplace?

  (tags: socialmedia eventpalnning)
• 10 Super-Simple Web Designs | Web Design Blog by Union Room Web Design
  (tags: webdesign)

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