Public Resource wants to open source America's operating system
Carl sez,
To the Public Printer of the United States in re: America's Operating System (Thanks, Carl!)
In a classic shell game of shuffle that tax dollar, public.resource.org (with contributions from our friends at Sunlight Foundation, Omidyar Network, GovTrack.us, Stanford, and Google) just sent a check for $17,325 to the Government Printing Office.That money purchases a bulk feed of the Code of Federal Regulations in the raw SGML format, which we will promptly open source. We've proposed that this exercise is kind of silly and that GPO should simply open source the rest of their bulk products since they are required to make them available anyway (and already paid to do so) and their incremental costs of distribution on the net would be $0.
For those of you in the private sector who are confused on how this all government/nonprofit stuff works, we've diagrammed the business model.
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I sincerely and wholeheartedly appreciate these efforts by people to publicly distribute this information. Thank you.
I agree this will be very useful. The CFR is already available online, but in lots of little chunks. I just spent a day using sed to grab lots of it. This would have been much more workable.
i've always thought it would be a good thing to have the laws of the u.s. so simple they could fit in a book the size of a, say, "choose-your-own-adventure" novel...
the complexity at times seems intentional, if not entirely diabolical.
i've also always been a fan of creating a fourth branch of government whose only job is to REPEAL laws and simplify the code... removing blue laws, decriminalizing things, etc... the congress is usually too busy congratulating chocolate companies or attempting to institute new legislation to ever be bothered with repealing stuff.
anyway, this project reminds me of obama's that he started with a republican senator to make "open source" what our government spends... cool site... check out how much money we give boeing every year...
During the Zombie war, the Americans moved their government to Honolulu.
Oddly, since WWZ, they've been a more laid back government.
Bureau of Sabotage?
"We already have a Fourth Branch of government."
i almost snarked by calling for a "fifth" branch due to CHENEY's "fourth"... but yeah, there is the fed, and the "fourth estate", the press...
"One argument goes, that it's due largely to the lack of competition in arbitration / dispute resolution. "
not sure i understand... i see there being a surplus of lawyers... almost TOO much competition in the arbitration resolution market... interesting link though
And here I thought they were talking about Windows XP.
#6: Tak-kun, you've been reading Frank Herbert! :)
It's not a bad idea...
I think in general this is a good effort, but it's important to keep in mind that the operating budgets of these agencies are often DEPENDENT on user fees- that's the Gingrich idea- so that without the fees coming in, it may become impossible to print the CFR cheaply. While in general we all use computers, where is there the law that says one has to be computer literate to be able to read the laws of the USA, you know?
Also, I have to laugh about this idea that laws for a country the size of the US have to be small and kept in a small book. Does anyone even recognize how much detail must be described on a mid-sized software requirements document? Then what about, let's say, the regs on the use of federal lands by consumers and industry? The idea that one single person can understand in detail the medical research done at the NIH, the design of robots at DARPA, the food safety needs that the USDA covers, the pros and cons of central bank behavior, the needs of homeowners, commuters, tourists and industry when looking at urban planning as well as the propulsion systems on Navy submarines? Come on... 400 million people and you want to dumb it all down so that everyone can understand it but laws specific to scientific ideas are never written?
Neener @10: I think you missed JamesGyre's point @3; your post assumes that the current level of government regulation of the economy is necessary and/or desirable. If the government didn't take responsibility for so much of the economy, you wouldn't so many complicated laws and regulations. I'm not saying that we need to shrink the fedgov until it's small enough to drown in the bathtub (per, I think, Grover Norquist), just that it isn't a given that the government *must* do all of these things. Do less, and the U.S. Code and C.F.R. should become simpler. Take the whole shebang down to the size of a middle-grade paperback, and we're either living in a minarchist's paradise or a megalomaniac's dictatorship -- turn to page 86 to see what happens.
#3 by jamesgyre
i've always thought it would be a good thing to have the laws of the u.s. so simple they could fit in a book the size of a... (small book)
the complexity at times seems intentional, if not entirely diabolical.
We (USANs) have gotten ourselves into a situation where there is a professional cadre who suround and manage the law. It is not just impractical, it is actively dangerous for a ordinary citizen to attempt to approach and use the law without a hired intermediary.
Persons who are clever/intelligent/ambitious and have good financial backing are attracted to the practice of law because it provides high returns for mostly mental work. As they go into the system they are acculturated and come to believe that the way it is right now is the only way it really could be. They accept the situation as they find it.
There is no real incentive for them to simplify anything. Through experience and training they come to understand the rules and how to operate them. If you need something in all that mess you can come to them.
Once you have a muddy situation that is owned and operated by a small group who profit hugely from it, you have several opportunities that arise:
1.) By manipulating the law you can somewhat steer society. This is part of what government is supposed to do, and as such is not objectionable.
2.) By manipulating the law you can reward friends and punish (perhaps "trample" is a better word?) enemies.
3.) By managing the law carefully you can build up tremendous amounts of wealth and power. After all, when you get to set the rules, you can always win the game.
For a specific example, consider American tax law. Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people make a steady living by dealing with the byzantine complexities of them. There are tax lawyers, tax accountants, tax advisers, tax preparers, and on and on.
Let's imagine you were to come in with a radically simplified tax rule. We could call it Gyres Simple Tax Sytem. Let's say: "All persons and corporate entities shall pay 10% of their income, from any source, as their federal tax." Period. No exceptions. No conditions. Anyone could understand this. Anyone could apply this. Tax havens would disappear. Any little guy would be on a par with giant corporations. All those intermediaries would evaporate. All that friction would leave the system. Sounds great right? For you and I it is, however we're not in charge, and we don't count. Here's the problem:
A huge body of people would be put out of work. The people who are supposed to be steering the country would lose their biggest carrot and stick. Highly trained professionals would be scrambling like mad bastards. Money, not just money, but *wealth* would be lost. Lobbyists would have nothing to offer. The movers and shakers would be inconvenienced. It just wouldn't do.