US gov't drops price of journals from $17k to $0, adds XML to Federal Register!

Rogue archivist Carl Malamud sez,

Well, this is just very cool. I throw a few stones over the wall to official DC, but this time I want to send some roses in the front door.

The Government Printing Office and the Office of the Federal Register just announced they're making all the "Official Journals of Government" available for free in bulk. Previous price was $17,000/year per product.

But wait, there's more. They've upgraded the Federal Register to XML. And, believe it or not, GPO has been using Ed Felten's shop at Princeton (coming Monday morning) and Public.Resource.Org (our re-design page from Point.B Studio) as alpha testers to see what we can do with the XML, and we're both definitely happy customers.

It was fun working with the GPO and Federal Register teams. This is a clueful product, the price is just right, and it is an important first step in making America's operating system open source.

Government Printing Office

(Thanks, Carl!)