sarahschacht

[sarahschacht]

Exciting News! An Akoma Ntoso Challenge

As someone who has trained in Akoma Ntoso and realizes what the potential of the US adopting this XML standard is, I'm thrilled to see the Library of Congress taking this important step to introduce coders and government staff--all across the US--to the potential of this standards base. Links: http://akoma-ntoso-markup.challenge.gov/ http://www.akomantoso.org/akoma-ntoso-in-detail/schema-1 "As mentioned by Mr. Robert Reeves and Mr. Gherardo Casini at the 2013 Legislative Data and Transparency Conference, the Library of Congress is sponsoring data challenges to help advance the development of international exchange standards for legislative data. The first challenge, Markup of US Legislation in Akoma Ntoso, opened today and invites competitors to create representations of four specific US bills using the most recent Akoma Ntoso XML schema. Rather than trying to convert existing US bill XML to the proposed Akoma Ntoso standard, this challenge asks competitors to markup the raw text versions of US bills using the structure, elements, and attributes of the Akoma Ntoso schema and produce an entirely new XML version of the bill. To learn more about the challenge, please visit Challenge.gov, the Law Library of Congress blog, In Custodia Legis, or read the official press release. Sincerely, Tina Gheen US Library of Congress"

[sarahschacht]

3 Tools for Converting Images of Docs to Data

I was searching around for online and software tools for this work and here were a few of the best options I found for performing OCR actions on scanned documents: PDF Converter Pro http://fncy.it/14ZjJ3G (cnet.com) IRDAC PDF Converter Pro is an enterprise application for converting PDF documents to Microsoft Word and Excel file formats. It extracts images from PDF documents. It converts scanned PDFs in English through OCR technology. It also creates PDF documents from any printable file. It converts PDF documents with five Layout options. It Converts PDF documents retaining the format with text, columns, tables and images. It converts PDF documents picking out text, columns, tables and images with format, no page gaps. It formatted text converts PDF documents retaining the format and text, discarding images. Plain text converts PDF documents by extracting text without format. Images converts PDF documents by picking images only, and OCR: Converts scanned PDF documents through OCR. It makes converted document easily editable. It converts PDF documents to .RTF and .TXT formats without Microsoft Word and Adobe Reader installed. Foxit PhantomPDF http://fncy.it/10K2eVm (foxitsoftware.com) Ideal for groups of all sizes, Foxit PhantomPDF Standard delivers the right features at the right price to deliver professional looking PDF documents. Create, edit and organize PDF Sign documents Scan and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Desktop PDF index capability integrated into Microsoft Windows search Collaborate and share PDF documents Create and fill forms Convert and export Secure PDF FreeOCR http://fncy.it/13HzTC6 (paperfile.net) FreeOCR is a good scanning and OCR program that lets you extract text from popular image file formats such as jpg and tiff files. It also extracts text from scanned PDF documents, and allows images from scanned PDF documents to be selected and placed on the clipboard. You can save the scanned results as a plain text document or even export directly to Microsoft Word file format. In a complex page, multiple columns will need to be processed individually, and images are transferred via standard copy and paste. FreeOCR requires the .Net Framework to run and the installer will automatically scan, detect and download the framework for you. The framework is usually already included in the later versions of Windows such as Vista and 7.

[sarahschacht]

"The results in Pottstown got noticed by police in Philadelphia, who were already solving crimes with social media.

Philadelphia's use of social media has produced tips leading to arrests in a lot of cases — from a man who killed an officer to someone in South Philly who kept stealing fake flowers off of someone's porch. The department is using Pinterest in the same way, to help identify suspects, thanks to Cpl. Frank Domizio. His wife was already a fan."

[sarahschacht]

"Why don't successful people and organizations automatically become very successful? One important explanation is due to what I call "the clarity paradox," which can be summed up in four predictable phases:

Phase 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it leads to success. Phase 2: When we have success, it leads to more options and opportunities. Phase 3: When we have increased options and opportunities, it leads to diffused efforts. Phase 4: Diffused efforts undermine the very clarity that led to our success in the first place.

Curiously, and overstating the point in order to make it, success is a catalyst for failure."

[sarahschacht]

"Government revenues and spending average above 30 percent [of GDP] in developing countries," and "public sector management shapes how the public sector machinery translates these resources into results."

[sarahschacht]

Write. Research. Write. Write. Research. Surf. Beer. Surf. Write.

[sarahschacht]

Friends from TABridge, hanging out after the conference with a guy who crooned (and looked a bit) like Elvis. Had a great time at TABridge, learned a lot, and led 5 sessions, ranging from open legislation to government relationship building, to leveraging economical tools for NGOs.

[sarahschacht]

Visited Barbados' Parliament this week, sat in the gallery and learned a lot about their process, and how they share information with the public.

[sarahschacht]

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. - Alice Walker