Another rss to java service...

As a follow up to my posting December 7, 2004 about converting to RSS to javascript and the virtues of streaming feeds directly to a webpage, here's yet another service that does this: http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm

(aha - per 02/09/2005 - here's yet another: http://www.rss2html.com/)

Also, here's an example of how you can stream the ircworld rssfeed (ircworld.blogspot.com/ircworld.xml)directly to your website.

New Public Diplomacy Report

The Public Diplomacy Council, a non-profit organization committed to the study, practice and advocacy of public diplomacy, released a report today entitled "A Call for Action on Public Diplomacy"



Following is the media alert released by the Council in connection with this report.



PROFESSIONALS CALL FOR TRANSFORMATION OF U. S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY





Members of the non-partisan Public Diplomacy Council, in a White Paper

released today, call on the administration and the Congress to undertake a

transformation of American public diplomacy to bring it into the 21st

century. The "Call for Action on Public Diplomacy" notes that U.S. public

diplomacy is in crisis. Reorganized and adequately funded public diplomacy

is vital to a successful foreign policy and the war on terrorism. The

report posits the need for a more robust global communication strategy and

puts forward five action recommendations.



The recommendations include: creation of a new agency within the State

Department to manage civilian international information and exchanges

functions; a 300 percent increase in overseas staffing for public diplomacy;

increases in funding and closer integration of international broadcasting;

the establishment of a cabinet level interagency committee to coordinate and

direct a national public diplomacy strategy; and a public-private sector

partnership to provide permanent funding for international exchanges.



The entire text of the "Call for Action on Public Diplomacy", with

commentaries on the paper, is available on the Council website at

www.pdi.gwu.edu <http://www.pdi.gwu.edu>.





The Public Diplomacy Council, founded in 1988, is a non-profit organization

committed to the academic study, professional practice and responsible

advocacy of public diplomacy. Its fifty members represent practitioners and

observers of public diplomacy past and present. The Council joined with

George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs and Elliot

School of International Affairs to establish the Public Diplomacy Institute

in 2001.

A Lawyer in Baghdad

IRCs with international law contacts may be interested in an article recently published in the Green Bag online law journal. Entitled 'A Lawyer in Baghdad,' it is an account of the work of a Washington lawyer who worked for the General Counsel to the Coalition Provisional Authority.

His conclusion? "In sum, to those who say international law does not exist, or who say the occupation of Iraq was somehow extra-legal, I invite them to scrutinize the legal work of my former office, where international law was lived, breathed, and debated, with realworld consequences, twenty-four hours a day."

The eight-page article, originally discovered at the Instapundit web site, can be accessed at:

http://www.greenbag.org/McGurk.pdf



# Posted by Tel Aviv IRC http://194.90.114.5/publish/resource.htm

Best Free Reference Web Sites 2004

This is an annual series initiated under the auspices of the Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of ALA to recognize outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web - see 2004 list at http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/mars/marspubs/MARSBestRef2004.htm

What is RSS?

Zeki Celikbas of Istanbul Technical University provides a clear and concise introduction to RSS in "What is RSS and how can it serve libraries?"

USC Center for Public Diplomacy

The University of Southern California's Center on Public Diplomacy is a useful site for information about public diplomacy, including (in the "library" section) links to government hearings, reports, public opinion surveys, and think tanks and organizations that deal with public diplomacy.

Converting RSS to Javascript

RSS Digest (see September 25 posting) is one of several tools that will create javascript out of an rss feed so that you can direct the feed to any html page. Two similar tools that deserve mention are rss-to-javascript and Feed2JS. Directing an RSS feed to a webpage - as has been done with the feeds on the left side of this page - makes good sense when you'd like users to be able to read newsfeeds without downloading/installing/using an rss aggregator/reader like Amphetadesk orFeedReader. In our environment, where many users are neither inclined nor permitted to download/try out new software, this is particularly useful. Using an RSS to Javascript converter, you can easily direct any RSS feed to your website, intranet, or even to an html page on the shared section of your LAN.

Center for Immigration Studies

(from Scout Report Volume 10, Number 48)

December 3, 2004Center for Immigration Studies [pdf]

http://www.cis.org/

Founded in 1985, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization which happens to be the United States' only think tank devoted "exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States." From the homepage, visitors can peruse a number of common topics in immigration, such as immigration history, statistics on immigrants, and citizenship. The site's homepage also contains links to current news articles addressing various aspects of immigration, and also contains a feature titled "This Day in Immigration", which highlights various important dates in immigration history and policy. Perhaps the most helpful section of the site is the "What's New" area of the site, which highlights various new policy briefs and papers released by the CIS.

Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication

An interesting report with links to a number of Public Diplomacy studies:





This report is a product of the Defense Science Board (DSB). The DSB is a Federal Advisory Committee established to provide independent advice to the Secretary of Defense. Statements, opinions, conclusions, and recommendations in this report do not necessarily represent the official position of the Department of Defense.





The current Strategic Communication Task Force re-examined the purposes of strategic communication and the salience of recommendations in the earlier study. It then considered the following questions:



(1) What are the consequences of changes in the strategic communication environment?

(2) What Presidential direction and strategic communication means are required?

(3) What should be done about public diplomacy and open military information operations?



The Task Force met with representatives from the National Security Council (NSC), White House Office of Global Communications, Department of State (DOS), Department of Defense (DOD), Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), and the private sector.



http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09-Strategic_Communication.pdf

ADSURLS 17, FY 2005

Afghanistan: From Presidential to Parliamentary Elections. [Asia Report No. 88] November 23, 2004. Executive Summary:http://www.icg.org/home/index.cfm?id=3127&l=1 [Dari version, html format, 5 printed pages]Item# 05AD156 MPP Theme: 12EL

Geo: Asia



Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004. November 2004.http://www.unodc.org/pdf/afg/afghanistan_opium_survey_2004.pdf [pdf format, 125 pages]Item# 05AD163 MPP Theme: 09 Geo: Asia



Braille Literacy: Resources for Instruction, Writing Equipment, and Supplies. Web-posted November 23, 2004.http://www.loc.gov/nls/reference/circulars/brailleliteracy.html [html format, 42 printed pages]Item# 05AD157 MPP Theme: 12ED Geo: Global



A Description of the Immigrant Population. November 23, 2004.http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/60xx/doc6019/11-23-Immigrant.pdf [pdf format, 37 pages]Item# 05AD158 MPP Theme: 8A Geo: USA



Disability and Retirement: The Early Exit of Baby Boomers from the Labor Force. November 22, 2004.http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/60xx/doc6018/11-22-LaborForce.pdf [pdf format, 28 pages]Item# 05AD159 MPP Theme: 5I Geo: USA



European Competitiveness Report 2004. Web-posted November 25, 2004.http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/enterprise_policy/competitiveness/doc/comprep_2004_en.pdf [pdf format, 359 pages]Item# 05AD155 MPP Theme: 4B Geo: Europe



How the Drug War in Afghanistan Undermines America's War on Terror. November 10, 2004.http://www.cato.org/pubs/fpbriefs/fpb84.pdf [pdf format, 8 pages]Item# 05AD161 MPP Theme: 9C; 11 Geo: Asia



International Trade in GMOs [Genetically Modified Organisms]: Legal Frameworks and Developing Country Concerns. November 8, 2004.http://www.unctad.org/en/docs//ditctncd20041_en.pdf [pdf format, 19 pages]Item# 05AD162 MPP Theme: 5O Geo: LDCs



Resuscitating the Bioweapons Ban: U.S. Industry Experts' Plans for Treaty Monitoring. November 2004.http://www.csis.org/isp/041117_Bioweapons.pdf [pdf format, 114 pages]Item# 05AD164 MPP Theme: 2A; 1I Geo: Global



Trends in Educational Equity of Girls & Women: 2004. Web-posted November 19, 2004.http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005016.pdf [pdf format, 116 pages]Item# 05AD160 MPP Theme: 12ED; 12DIG Geo: USA

Thomas gets a facelift

Thomas will have a new and improved look before the 109th Congress convenes on Jan.5 - for a preview see http://thomas.loc.gov/home/redesign/

NeighborSearch

Here's a useful tool, and and example of the generous spirit of the internet! For a while I'd been looking - unsuccessfully - for a tool that would limit Google searches to the sites that a given page (e.g. a subject portal) links to. I mentioned this to Philipp Lenssen, who is the creator of findforward.com, feeeds.com and the Google Blogoscoped blog. Within 24 hours he came up with the desired tool, and it's called NeighborSearch! Many thanks,Philipp!!

Century Foundation Report: "Defeating the Jihadists"

(excerpted from Century Foundation website:



Defeating the Jihadists: A Blueprint for Action



Various Authors

Century Foundation Press, 11/16/04



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



The international jihadist network of radical Islamic terrorist groups is far more extensive than just al Qaeda, and it has conducted twice as many attacks in the three years since September 11, 2001 as it did in the three years prior to that date. Defeating the Jihadists: A Blueprint for Action (Century Foundation Press, 2004), assesses the nation's successes and failures on homeland security and calls for a stronger, more effective strategy for dealing with jihadists, including al Qaeda. The report offers a detailed action plan for neutralizing the international movement at the core of worldwide terrorism. The report also describes the nature of the jihadist threat; provides comprehensive profiles of the various jihadist groups; and offers a rationale for the effort and money that would be needed to make the plan a success. The plan presented in the report builds on the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and serves as a road map for winning the war against the jihadists.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar appears to be a very interesting new resource - I was looking for perspectives on the effectiveness of the USIA-State consolidation for public diplomacy ("usia and public diplomacy") and found many things that I would have missed with a plain Google search. Shirl Kennedy and Gary Price have written a thorough review of Google Scholar at ResourceShelf, see http://www.resourceshelf.com/2004/11/wow-its-google-scholar.html

Public Diplomacy reports 2001-2004

One of the appendices to "Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication" (http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-09-Strategic_Communication.pdf) includes a useful list of central PD reports issued 2001-2004



Appendix E: Government and Independent Organization Studies of

Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy, September 2001 –

September 2004



Building Public Diplomacy Through a Reformed Structure and Additional Resources, Report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2002.

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/13622.pdf



Changing Minds, Winning Peace: A New Strategic Direction for U.S. Public

Diplomacy in the Arab & Muslim World, Report of the Advisory Group on Public

Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, Submitted to the Committee on

Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives, October 1, 2003.

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/24882.pdf



Finding America’s Voice: A Strategy for Reinvigorating U.S. Public Diplomacy, Report of an Independent Task Force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, September 2003.

http://www.cfr.org/pdf/public_diplomacy.pdf



How to Reinvigorate U.S. Public Diplomacy, The Heritage Foundation, April 2003.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/bg1645.cfm



Managed Information Dissemination, Report of a Defense Science Board Task Force sponsored by the Department of Defense and Department of State, September 2001.

http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/



Public Diplomacy: A Strategy for Reform, Report of an Independent Task Force

sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, July 2002.

http://www.cfr.org/publication.php?id=4754.xml



Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century, Report submitted by the Public Diplomacy

Institute and Public Diplomacy Council in response to requests from staffs of the

Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, and Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, May 31, 2002.

http://pdi.gwu.edu/



Reclaiming America’s Voice Overseas, The Heritage Foundation, May 2003.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/wm273.cfm

The Need to Communicate: How to Improve U.S. Public Diplomacy with the Islamic World, The Brookings Institution, Analysis Paper #6, January 2004.

http://www.brookings.edu/fp/saban/analysis/amr20040101.htm



The New Diplomacy: Utilizing Innovative Communication Concepts that RecognizeResource Constraints, Report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2003.

http://www.state.gov/r/adcompd/rls/22818.htm



Strengthening U.S.-Muslim Communications, Report of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, July 2003.

http://www.thepresidency.org/pubs/US-MuslimCommunications.pdf



The Rise of Netpolitik: How the Internet is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy, Report of the Eleventh Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology, 2003.

http://www.aspeninstitute.org/AspenInstitute/files/CCLIBRARYFILES/FILENAME/000

0000077/netpolitik.pdf



U.S. International Broadcasting: Enhanced Measure of Local Media Conditions Would Facilitate Decisions to Terminate Language Services. Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, February 2004.

http://www.gao.gao/cgi-bin/getrpt?GA0-04-374



U.S. International Broadcasting: New Strategic Approach Focuses on Reaching Large Audiences but Lacks Measurable Program Objectives, Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, July 2003

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03772.pdf



U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department and Broadcasting Board of Governors Expand Efforts in the Middle East but Face Significant Challenges, Testimony of the U.S. General Accountability Office before the Subcommittee on National Security,Emerging Threats, and International Relations, Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, February 10, 2004.

http://www.gao.gov/cgl-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-435T



U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department Expands Efforts But Faces Significant Challenges, Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, September 2003. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03951.pdf



U.S. International Broadcasting: Challenges Facing the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Testimony of the U.S. General Accountability Office before the

Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism, Committee on Foreign

Relations, U.S. Senate, April 29, 2004.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04627t.pdf

Fagan Finder

Fagan Finder (www.faganfinder.com) provides many useful tools, including a Speed Browse feature (http://www.faganfinder.com/misc/browse.html) that allows you to queue up websites for accelerated browsing (nice for presentations!), a URL info tool http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/ that provides many kinds of kind of information about a website, and bookmarklets, which have many different uses. Well worth a look!

Post Election Poll

Election 2004Source: National Annenberg Election Survey Post-Election Polling Shows Public Coming to Believe United States Is “Generally Going in Right Direction,” Annenberg Data Indicates (PDF; 96 KB)"After the re-election of President George W. Bush, the American public has become more optimistic about the general direction of the country and more supportive of him personally and as president, the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey shows."

Errors in English

Paul Brians of Washington State University has created a useful site devoted to "Common Errors in English," which should be of interest to English teachers everywhere! Another useful site is Stewart Clark's "English Matters" ; Clark is a Brit living in Norway and has developed this site with a Norwegian audience in mind, but his nicely organized collection of language resources will also be useful for a more general audience of teachers and non-native speakers of English.

The American Presidency Project

The American Presidency Project

Terrorism Knowledge Base

The MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base is a new and important source of information about terrorism, coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the website, the "MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base is the one-stop resource for comprehensive research and analysis on global terrorist incidents, terrorism-related court cases, and terrorist groups and leaders. The Terrorism Knowledge Base illuminates the current status of terrorism today. It takes users through the history, affiliations, locations, and tactics of the terrorism entities operating across the world at this moment. The database features interactive maps, biographies on key terrorist personalities, dynamic graphs, and succinct summaries on who is who and what is what inside the shadowy world of terrorism today. "



http://www.tkb.org/

Duelfer Report

The text of the Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction(the "Duelfer Report")

Polling Report

PollingReport.com provides a tidy overview of current opinion polls

New CRS Report on Electoral College

Our colleagues at the FPC have made available the CRS report "The Electoral College: How it Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections" (09/28/2004)

LII theme collection: Elections 2004

Librarians Index to the Internet has assembled an Elections 2004 Theme Collection

Chicago Council on Foreign Relations public opinion study

Here's the latest Chicago Council on Foreign Relations' public opinion study:

American Public Opinion and Foreign Policy

Nice tool for incorporating xml feeds in html pages

The RSS Digest tool by Peter Cooper is very easy to use: 1. enter the url of the xml or atom feed that you would like to add to a webpage. 2.let RSS Digest generate the code for you and 3. paste the code into the html page where you want the feed to appear. For example, the javascript for the 4 feeds on the left (Resource Shelf, Research Buzz, beSpacific, and Library Stuff) was generated in RSS Digest and pasted into the html template for this page.Please let me know if there are other feeds that might usefully be included here!

FRASER

(excerpted from FRASER™website:



The Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research is the newest project by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to expand on its mission to provide economic information and data to researchers interested in the U.S. economy. On this web site you will find links to scanned images (in Adobe® Acrobat® PDF format) of historical economic statistical publications, releases, and documents.



When used in connection with data contained in FRED® (Federal Reserve Economic Data), FRASER™ allows the researcher to create uninterrupted data series by accessing sources previously available only in printed form and those currently available electronically (on FRED®). In addition, the ability to retrieve series presented in preliminary, revised, and final releases provides a powerful tool in recreating and evaluating previous economic research and policy.

University of Houston Libraries election 2004 guide

http://info.lib.uh.edu/research/websubs/index.html?id=59&fid=108

A guide to websites in following categories:Analyses/Commentaries,Information Sources for Voters, News Sources, Official Campaign Sites, and Polls and Public Opinion

Electoral Vote Predictor

This appears to be a useful site for monitoring electorate opinion and translating results into electoral college predictions... http://www.electoral-vote.com/

beSpacific

The following is excerpted from Sabrina I Pacifici's weblog at www.bespacific.com , which a colleague recently alerted me to. It appears to be a very useful supplement to other alert services such as the Scout Report, Gary Price's Resource Shelf, ResearchBuzz, and so forth..



"beSpacific focuses on the expanding resources in the public and private sector related to law and technology news. Daily postings provide updates on issues including copyright, privacy, censorship, the Patriot Act, ID theft, and freedom of information.

The weblog was launched to the public January 4, 2003. The archives cover entries back to September 2002.

Sabrina I. Pacifici has been an active member of the online legal community for many years. She created the webzine LLRX.com in 1996 and is the site's owner, editor, publisher and web manager. She created the journal PLL Perspectives in 1989, and served as its only editor and publisher until 1996. Sabrina has authored many articles on legal technology topics delivered numerous presentations at professional conferences nationwide, and has been a law firm librarian in Washington, DC for 25 years, the past 20 with a global 50 law firm. She is the web manager of the firm's cyberlaw site and firmwide research intranet, authors in-house blogs, and provides research and practice technology services. "