Anyone here working with the new FDSys beta?

[Tom Bruce]

Folks:

I'm playing with the beta of FDSys. I'm probably being obtuse -- and
you should bear in mind that my perspective is essentially that of a
mashup designer who wants documents in bulk. But so far I see liitle
that makes it any better than GPOAccess and a number of things that
make it worse. On very superficial assessment it seems to be a system
designed to deliver PDF images of printed pages one document at a
time. I will grant that it is much more responsive and speedy, and
that the advanced search seems to expose a good bit more metadata than
GPOAccess did.

I hope I'm wrong about that. Somebody who has spent more time with it
please tell me I am.

Is there something behind it/around it that would (eg.) let me get the
list of CFR sections affected for time period Z in, oh, that XML thing-
a-ma-jig we've been hearing so much about lately?

Best,
Tb.

[John Wonderlich]

I'm going over it too, and upon first glance, some things jump out as big improvements:

First, the search is much better, displaying relevant results much better than, say, the search pages on GPO access.  Here's the old page on Congressional Hearings: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/chearings/index.html

The new page allows both search and top-down browsing, by committee, with primary results data in pdf and text.

Under "more" for each result, here's what the new page looks like (with links removed, since it's still in pw protected beta):

S.Hrg. 110th - 275 - THE PERILS OF POLITICS IN GOVERNMENT: A REVIEW OF THE SCOPE AND ENFORCEMENT OF THE HATCH ACT

Back to search results
________________________________
Download Files
Formats Text (92 KB) | PDF (4605 KB)
Descriptive Metadata MODS
Authenticity Metadata PREMIS
All Format & Metadata Files ZIP

---

Metadata

Category	Congressional Committee Materials
Collection	Congressional Hearings
SuDoc Class Number	Y 4.G 74/9
Congress	110th
Congress Chamber	Senate
Hearing Sub Type	General
Senate Hearing Number	S. Hrg. 110-275
Committee and Subcommittee	Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Members	Barack Obama (IL); Carl Levin (MI); Claire McCaskill (MO); Daniel K. Akaka (HI); George V. Voinovich (OH); John E. Sununu (NH); John Warner (VA); Jon Tester (MT); Joseph I. Lieberman (CT); Mark L. Pryor (AR); Mary L. Landrieu (LA); Norm Coleman (MN); Pete V. Domenici (NM); Susan M. Collins (ME); Ted Stevens (AK); Thomas R. Carper (DE); Tom Coburn (OK)
Witnesses	James Byrne, Deputy Special Counsel, U.S. Office of Special Counsel, accompanied by Ana Galindo-Marrone, Chief, Hatch Unit, U.S. Office of Special Counsel; B. Chad Bungard, General Counsel, U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board; Colleen M. Kelley, National President, National Treasury Employees Union; John Gage, National President, American Federation of Government Employees; Thomas Devine, Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
Serial Numbers	Serial No. 110-275

[James Jacobs]

Hi all, several of us over at Free Government Information (FGI) have
participated in the beta testing. We've posted our beta feedback on
scribd and on FGI (http://freegovinfo.info/node/2277). In general what
you've said here is spot on. It's definitely better than gpoaccess
with better search and faceted results. APIs and other enhancements
are scheduled for releases in late 2009 (http://www.gpo.gov/projects/
fdsys_capabilities.htm). but we found many issues and enhancements
that aren't part of the release schedule. Specifically, we didn't see
any plans for enhanced social tools or "find it in a library" (which,
from a librarian standpoint is inexcusable).

If you've submitted feedback, please consider posting it on scribd and
leaving us a comment. GPO staff are regular FGI readers.

cheers,

James Jacobs


On Jan 10, 7:55 pm, "John Wonderlich" <johnwonderl...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I'm going over it too, and upon first glance, some things jump out as big
> improvements:
>
> First, the search is much better, displaying relevant results much better
> than, say, the search pages on GPO access.  Here's the old page on
> Congressional Hearings:http://www.gpoaccess.gov/chearings/index.html
>
> The new page allows both search and top-down browsing, by committee, with
> primary results data in pdf and text.
>
> Under "more" for each result, here's what the new page looks like (with
> links removed, since it's still in pw protected beta):
>
> S.Hrg. 110th - 275 - THE PERILS OF POLITICS IN GOVERNMENT: A REVIEW OF THE
> SCOPE AND ENFORCEMENT OF THE HATCH ACT
>
> Back to search results
> ________________________________
> Download Files
> Formats Text (92 KB) | PDF (4605 KB)
> Descriptive Metadata MODS
> Authenticity Metadata PREMIS
> All Format & Metadata Files ZIP

> ------------------------------

>  Metadata
>  Category[image: Mouse over help for Category says The category to which the
> collection belongs. Search field operator example is category:"congressional

> committee materials".] <http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/#>Congressional Committee

> Materials  Collection[image: Mouse over help for Collection says The
> collection to which the document belongs. Typically the same as the
> publication or series. Search field operator example is

> collection:chrg.]<http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/#>Congressional

> Hearings  SuDoc Class Number[image: Mouse over help for SuDoc Class Number
> says The SuDoc class number from the U.S. Superintendent of Documents which
> classifies Government publications by publishing agency. Search field

> operator example is sudocclass:"Y 4.C 73/8:".]<http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/#>Y

> 4.G 74/9  Congress[image: Mouse over help for Congress says The number of
> the congress responsible for the hearing. Congresses last for two years.

> Search field operator example is congress:109.]<http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/#>

> 110th  Congress Chamber[image: Mouse over help for Congress Chamber says The
> chamber of Congress who produced the hearing. Congressional hearings can be
> House hearings, Senate hearings, or joint hearings. Search field operator
> example for chamber is chamber:house.]

> <http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/#>Senate  Hearing

> Sub Type[image: Mouse over help for Hearing Sub Type says The type of
> hearing which provides information about the activity of the hearing.
> Hearing sub types include field(f), markup(m), oversight(o),
> authorization(au), appropriation(ap), nomination(n), treaty(t), or
> general(g). Use letter(s) for field operator values. Search field operator

> example is hearingtype:f.] <http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/#>General  Senate

> Hearing Number[image: Mouse over help for Senate Hearing Number says The
> number used to identify the hearing for Senate hearings. Senate hearings
> have a consistent numbering scheme across all Senate committees. For House
> hearings, the number identifies a hearing within a committee. Search field
> operator example is congress:109 doctype:shrg

> hearingnum:20.]<http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/#>S. Hrg. 110-275

> Committee
> and Subcommittee[image: Mouse over help for Committee and Subcommittee says
> The name of the committee or subcommittee listed on the hearing. Search
> field operator example is committee:transportation

> subcommittee:aviation.]<http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/#>Committee

> on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs  Members[image: Mouse over
> help for Members says Members of the committee or subcommittee listed on the
> hearing. Search field operator example is

> member:clinton.]<http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/#>Barack

> Obama (IL); Carl Levin (MI); Claire McCaskill (MO); Daniel K. Akaka (HI);
> George V. Voinovich (OH); John E. Sununu (NH); John Warner (VA); Jon Tester
> (MT); Joseph I. Lieberman (CT); Mark L. Pryor (AR); Mary L. Landrieu (LA);
> Norm Coleman (MN); Pete V. Domenici (NM); Susan M. Collins (ME); Ted Stevens
> (AK); Thomas R. Carper (DE); Tom Coburn (OK)  Witnesses[image: Mouse over
> help for Witnesses says Witnesses that participated in and are listed on the
> hearing. Search field operator example is

> witness:baldwin.]<http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/#>James

> Byrne, Deputy Special Counsel, U.S. Office of Special Counsel, accompanied
> by Ana Galindo-Marrone, Chief, Hatch Unit, U.S. Office of Special Counsel;
> B. Chad Bungard, General Counsel, U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board;
> Colleen M. Kelley, National President, National Treasury Employees Union;
> John Gage, National President, American Federation of Government Employees;
> Thomas Devine, Legal Director, Government Accountability Project  Serial
> Numbers[image: Mouse over help for Serial Numbers says Serial number listed
> on the hearing. Search field operator example is

> serialnum:110-34.]<http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/#>Serial
> No. 110-275