Tag Archive | Obama
October 5, 2015  

Big Announcements in Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science at White House Event

WHITE HOUSE OSTP DIRECTOR JOHN HOLDREN MEMO:

Memo: Addressing Societal and Scientific Challenges Through Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/holdren_citizen_science_memo_092915_0.pdf

Blog post: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/09/30/accelerating-use-citizen-science-and-crowdsourcing-address-societal-and-scientific

 

FEDERAL CROWDSOURCING AND CITIZEN SCIENCE TOOLKIT

White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in partnership with the Federal Community of Practice on Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science

Blog post: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/12/02/designing-citizen-science-and-crowdsourcing-toolkit-federal-government

 

NSF CORE PRIORITY IN CITIZEN SCIENCE AND CROWDSOURCING Announced

The NSF Director Dr. France Cordova announces that citizen science and crowdsourcing—“a visionary concept”– will be a core priority for NSF in the coming fiscal year. Her presentation begins about 32 min into the Citizen Science Forum video, and the announcement is at 40:49. The written announcement will come from OMB later this year. https://youtu.be/J17uBahTdDE?t=2449

NSF Press Release: Be a (citizen) scientist! (of note, NSF has made $5,613,201 in grants and related awards that support research in this area): http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=136445&org=NSF

CITIZEN SCIENCE DAY Announced

The Citizen Science Association and partners, including the Federal Community of Practice on Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science, announced plans to organize a Citizen Science Day on April 16, 2015, which will kick off a series of events nationwide.

http://citizenscienceassociation.org/2015/09/30/citizen-science-day-announced-at-white-house/

 

CITIZEN SCIENCE FORUM:

White House Citizen Science Forum, in partnership with the Federal Community of Practice on Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science

YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=J17uBahTdDE

Holdren Opening Remarks (waiting for them to be posted): https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/library/docsreports

Blog Post: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/09/09/open-science-and-innovation-people-people-people

CROWDSOURCING AND CITIZEN SCIENCE ACT OF 2015 – FEDERAL LEGISLATION:

The Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Act of 2015 provides clarification to government agencies, removing ambiguity about whether an agency can use crowdsourcing techniques. Senator Coons (D-DE) and Senator Daines (R-MT) co-sponsored the bill.

Text of the Bill: http://coons.senate.gov/download/?id=063AEFE6-CB5C-42FD-8FD6-57F58BD1AC5B

Press release: http://www.coons.senate.gov/newsroom/releases/release/senator-coons-introduces-bill-to-promote-open-science-and-innovation-in-government

The Government Wants You to Help It Do Science Experiments, Senator Chris Coons, Wired Magazine

http://www.wired.com/2015/09/government-wants-help-science-experiments/

First in MT…Coons to Unveil Federal Crowdsourcing Bill

http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-tech/2015/09/tech-advocates-aim-high-for-next-librarian-of-congress-whitfield-resignation-narrows-candidates-for-e-c-chairmanship-coons-to-unveil-federal-crowdsourcing-bill-210469

Senator Coons Introduces Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Act of 2015 by Gene Quinn, IPWatchdog

http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2015/09/30/senator-coons-introduces-crowdsourcing-and-citizen-science-act-of-2015/id=62158/

  Read More…

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January 7, 2013  

Mobile Mapping and the MAP-21 Act

By Professional Survey Magazine, The Political Surveyor: Mobile Mapping and the MAP-21 Act, January 2013

When Congress passed and President Obama signed the MAP-21 Act in July of 2012, mobile mapping may have been given a big green light. On July 6, President Obama signed into law H.R. 4348 that became Public Law 112-141. The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century act included provisions reauthorizing the nation’s highway program for two fiscal years, providing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in demand for geospatial data, activities, and requirements.

For full text of this article, visit Mobile Mapping and the MAP-21 Act.

Link to summary, text of legislation, and congressional action for H.R. 4348 here. See also the conference report.

February 14, 2012  

President’s FY13 Research and Development Budget Released

The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has responsibility, in partnership with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), for advising the President on the Federal Research and Development (R&D) budget and shaping R&D priorities across those Federal agencies that have significant portfolios in science and technology. OSTP also has responsibility—with the help of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), which is administered out of OSTP—for coordinating interagency research initiatives. It is OSTP’s mission to help develop and implement sound science and technology policies and budgets that reflect Administration priorities and make coordinated progress toward important national policy goal.

OSTP is pleased to release the following information on the science, technology, innovation, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education components of the President’s FY 2013 Budget.  Click here for webcast of budget briefing and PDF of R&D Budget.

The full President’s FY 2013 budget can be found here.

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February 10, 2012  

President’s FY13 Budget Release Info Posted for DOE, NOAA, NSF

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has posted FY13 Budget Release Information for DOE, NOAA, and NSF. The President’s Budget for FY 2013 will be released on February 13. As in prior years, we will be posting schedule information for agency budget briefings to the R&D Budget and Policy Program website. Initial information for the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been posted; others will follow soon. Please check back frequently for the most up-to-date information.


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January 20, 2012  

Digital Fuel of the 21st Century: Innovation through Open Data and the Network Effect

English: Vivek Kundra - United States Chief In...

The Information Revolution by Jenny Li Fowler, Harvard Kennedy School, January 20, 2012

… In a new Shorenstein Center discussion paper titled “Digital Fuel of the 21st Century: Innovation through Open Data and the Network Effect,” [Viveck] Kundra[, who served as Chief Information Officer for the Obama Administration (2008-11),] makes four specific recommendations to ensure our society continues to build on and benefit from the power of open data and the so-called “network effect” …

  • Citizens and NGOs must demand open data in order to fight government corruption, improve accountability and government services.
  • Governments must enact legislation to change the default setting of government to be open, transparent and participatory.
  • The press must harness the power of the network effect through strategic partnerships and crowdsourcing to cut costs and provide better insights.
  • Venture capitalists should invest in startups focused on building companies based on public sector data

For the full text of this article and a link to Kundra’s paper, visit Harvard Kennedy School – The Information Revolution.

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April 18, 2011  

Obama Administration Wants to Take Warrant Requirement for GPS Use to Supreme Court – All Points Blog

By Adena Schutzberg, Directions Magazine, April 18, 2011

On Friday Apr 15 the administration asked the Supreme Court to take a case to determine whether the police need a warrant before using a GPS device to track a suspect’s movements. A recent appeal by a lower court reversed a conviction because the police did not obtain a warrant. That case was in Washington, but other federal appeals court have ruled warrants are not required.

via Obama Administration Wants to Take Warrant Requirement for GPS Use to Supreme Court – All Points Blog.

See also:

http://bit.ly/ge308C and http://tinyurl.com/3rpdua6

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April 13, 2011  

Federal Research and Development in the FY 2011 Budget Compromise

On Monday, April 11, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced the bill to fund the federal government for the last half of FY 2011. This bill will be taken up in the House on April 13th and in the Senate on April 14th, and then sent to the President for his signature, hopefully before the midnight deadline on Friday, April 15th. If passed, non-defense funding levels will be reduced by a 0.2 percent across-the-board cut to achieve savings of approximately $1.1 billion. Specific details on programmatic cuts for Federal R&D can be found in the articles blow:

Text of the Legislation:

A summary of the legislation:

 

R&D in the FY 2011 Compromise

by Patrick Clemins, Ph.D., AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program, April 13, 2011

Congress released their year-long continuing resolution for FY 2011 this morning which contains a total of around $38.5 billion in cuts, the largest collection of spending cuts in history. R&D intensive programs and agencies were spared the worst of the cuts. Basic research programs faired the best, while applied research programs, especially at the Department of Energy did less well, accurately reflecting the current policy debates taking place. Basic research generally has broad, bi-partisan support, but there is discussion as to how much the federal government should be involved in applied research and the role of industry in funding the applied research stage of the innovation pipeline.

For full text of the article and other related resources, visit: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/

 

FYI #48: Details of Final FY 2011 Appropriations Bill Emerging

By Richard Jones, American Institute of Physics

Total FY 2011 funding will be $78.5 billion less than that requested by the Obama Administration. … A release from the Senate Appropriations Committee states, “as these cuts must be implemented in just the remaining six months of the fiscal year, their impact will be especially painful in some instances.” The below figures, provided by the House Appropriations Committee, do not include the 0.2 percent across the board cut that was made to all non-defense accounts.  In all instances, reductions from current FY 2010 levels are shown, and the numbers are rounded.  It should also be noted that the House Appropriations statement explains: “This list contains highlighted program cuts. This list is not comprehensive of all program funding levels in the legislation.”

National Science Foundation
Research and Related Activities: Down $43 million
Education and Human Resources: Down $10 million

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Education: Down $38 million
Cross Agency Support: Down $83 million

U.S. Geological Survey: Down $26 million

For full text of the article, visit: http://www.aip.org/fyi/2011/048.html

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