Bill Clinton Calling for of Govt Internet Monitoring Agency ... and Rumor Control

This a rather laughable ... read Clinton's words closely ... they seem like a bit of a criticism of various media outlets who claim to be non-biased ... ironically from evil FoxNews (emphasis added):

Bill Clinton Muses About Creating Internet Agency to Combat Falsehoods

If Bill Clinton had his way, there would be an Internet agency created by the U.S. government or United Nations to debunk malicious rumors that originate and spread online.

"I think it would be a legitimate thing to do," Clinton told CNBC in an interview that aired Friday. He was interviewed alongside Mati Kochavi, a cybersecurity entrepreneur.

But Clinton added that if such an agency were ever created, it would have to be "totally transparent" about where its funding came from and would have to be independent.

"Let's just say the U.S. did it. It would have to be an independent federal agency that no president could countermand or anything else because people wouldn't think you were just censoring the news and giving a different falsehood out," he said. 

"That is, it would be like, I don't know, National Public Radio or BBC or something like that, except it would have to be really independent and they would not express opinions, and their mandate would be narrowly confined to identifying relevant factual errors," he said.

Clinton said the agency would have to have citations so it could be checked in case it made a mistake.

"Somebody needs to be doing it, and maybe it's a worthy expenditure of taxpayer money," he said. "But if it's a government agency in a traditional sense, it would have no credibility whatever, particularly with a lot of the people who are most active on the Internet."  [Yeah, no shit, Sherlock!]


Click here to read the entire transcript.

Does this not just absolutely reek of Orwellian bullcrap?  He suggests that The UNITED NATIONS, too, be involved in debunking rumors?!?  Now, that's a reputable organization, isn't it?  And, can a federal agency be truly "independent?"

Don't you just love what he says about NPR and the BBC?: "That is, it would be like, I don't know, National Public Radio or BBC or something like that, except it would have to be really independent and they would not express opinions."  Why, what is Bill implying about those fine and unbiased meda outlets, hmmm?

 

Gee, I can't imagine why Bill would be interested in controlling rumors, can you?

A Description Framework for Digital Public Services

Service description frameworks and relevant metadata appear as a key enabler that assists management of resources related to the provision of personalized, efficient and proactive services oriented towards the real citizens’ needs. 

As different authorities typically use different terms to describe their resources and publish them in various Digital Service Registries that may enhance the access to and delivery of governmental knowledge, but also need to communicate seamlessly at a national and pan-European level, the need for a unified digital public service metadata standard emerges. 

This approach presents an ontology-based extended metadata set that embraces services, documents, XML Schemas, code lists, public bodies and information systems. Such a metadata set formalizes the exchange of information between portals and registries and assists the service transformation and simplification efforts, while it can be further taken into consideration when applying Web 2.0 techniques in governance.

Problems faced during the adoption and application of the  metadata schema in the Greek National Interoperability Framework and Government Service Gateway (www.ermis.gov.gr) were not trivial - the update from public officials being among them - and have to be to be taken in mind during relevant attempts by government officials and practitioners. The adoption of a common “governance policy” over metadata appears as a worthwhile track towards this direction. Language issues also need to be taken care of early in the process, as the provision of pan-European Government Services is already on the way. Finally, adequate time and effort should be spent for educating and working together with government officials at various levels, for obtaining a common perspective over the metadata set. 

See the presentation made in the 1st International Workshop on Modelling Methodologies (SMART) in 2010 Service Wave: http://slidesha.re/hU7MxU 

The full paper is under publication by Springer LNCS. Find a related article here: http://www.springerlink.com/content/x48j0l4h0nw3657q/