Here's a timely (free!) resource that crossed our radar screen this week, from a publisher that is certainly highly qualified to profile this sort of information.
Staying abreast of current developments throughout the transition from the old administration to the new is important to the American people. Carroll Publishing has always provided the best contact information at all levels of government for its clients. With the addition of Transition Tracker 2008, our government information coverage is even more comprehensive, now for the public.
What's here?
+ Overview of the Transition, which list all the advisory board members, transition staff, agency review teams, and policy working groups.
The following list is a compilation of appointments and nominations, widely reported in the reputable news media, of individuals expected to serve in the forthcoming Obama Administration. These positions have not yet been officially announced by the Office of the President-elect. Once an appointment or nomination is officially revealed by the Office of the President-elect, it will be removed from this list and added to our compilation of Newly-Appointed Officials and Nominations.
We've posted several items about resources offering various types of transition information, such as Lost in Transition (National Journal and Government Executive) and SourceWatch's Presidential transition resources wiki. We offered other sites in our Change Is Good Resource of the Week last November.
But we figured we'd also highlight this one because it seems to be a very easy place to quickly find lots and lots of names.
BTW, Carroll also offers a My Elected Officials Search page, where you input your address and get back a long list of elected officials down to the state level, with contact information for each.
And...as they say in those television commercials...that's not all! We also commend your attention to another free gem -- this one from CQ Politics, which invites you to Track Obama's Cabinet Nominees.
Barack Obama began vetting his choices for a Cabinet before he was even elected; his first announcement came just days after Nov. 4. In the past, nearly all Cabinet nominees have been confirmed, and with a Democratic Senate, it's unlikely any of his choices will be rejected. Still, nominees such as Eric H. Holder to be attorney general, or Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of State could face some tough questions.
Senate committees with special jurisdiction over each position hold hearings to assess the merits of each nominee before voting to confirm. If the committee approves the nomination it is sent to the full Senate for a full vote.
The Senate may choose not to confirm a nominee in a few ways. Committee members may vote against a nominee or indefinitely drag out hearings -- though rarely, a nominee may still proceed to the full Senate. The full Senate may vote against the nominee. Or, a senator or senators may filibuster to block the confirmation.
This is a matrix that shows each cabinet position, the nominee, and where in the process the nomination currently sits -- e.g., committee hearing, committee vote, floor vote, confirmed. There is a picture of each nominee and a link to a relevant current news article on the CQ website.
A family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success. Read more »
Recently I have found myself cooing over visualisation maps (and heat maps) of health and well being resources. The content rich data is overlayed with mapping technologies, and some interesting themes and patterns are emerging.
A lot of the talk around social media in the last year has been around information overload. Social media has provided us with new and exciting ways to create content. But it has also meant learning new ways to manage and engage with social media tools. Are we teetering on the edge of an information overload precipice?
Information overload is a figment of your imagination. Or a failure of your filter. Or a symptom of your technological submissiveness. Depends on who you ask.
What if you had to sort through 3.5 million articles and social media posts a day and try to pull out the most relevant items for your organisation? What if you then had to cobble it all together into something readable for your top groups and executives in your organisation?
Alacra Compliance saves time by aggregating information from both free and fee-based sources and enabling users to conduct an accurate federated search across these sources (coined “simultaneous search” by Alacra).
FreePint Family
Quilting big data threads
The fallacy of information overload
Information overload: fact, fantasy or filter failure? 
