A two-year-old effort by Internet and government transparency activist Carl Malamud and the National Technical Information Service to post oodles of videos online for use in the public domain has become the one of the most popular YouTube channels of the U.S. government. The FedFlix program ran for a year and it was so successful that the project agreement was amended so NTIS now sends Malamud and his team at Public.Resource.Org a minimum of 100 tapes a month. In addition to those, Malamud has systematically written every other agency he could find and paid for DVDs or asked for videotapes. For example, he has about 60 hours of valuable training material from the Federal Aviation Administration, reels from the Mine Health and Safety Administration, and a slew of Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety videos.
All told, Malamud says he has posted 1,000 videos online, including original Walt Disney, John Ford and James Cagney films as well as content from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Army and Air Force, the Smithsonian Institution and many others. The videos can be found on YouTube for casual viewing; on the Internet Archive Web site, where users can burn their own DVDs; and at Bulk.Resource.Org as raw data so individuals can create their own stock footage library of public domain material. Most of the content is from the federal government but Malamud has added videos from Washington, Illinois and a few other places. A California state agency wrote him this week offering 17 DVDs filled with material.
Watch several of Tech Daily Dose's favorite flicks after the jump...
The U.S. Postal Service goes Hollywood with some slick, highly produced PSAs
"Duck and Cover," a 1951 film produced after the Soviet Union began nuclear testing
"A Little Song About Noise," Mine Safety and Health Administration
New Media
Online Politics
Tech Policy
Comments
To post a comment, you must provide a name and a valid e-mail address. Messages must be limited to 400 words. By using this service you agree not to post material that is obscene, harassing, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable. Although Tech Daily Dose does not monitor comments posted to this site (and has no obligation to), it reserves the right to delete, edit, or move any material that it deems to be in violation of this rule.