Monday Links: December 22nd, 2008

A few links for you this morning.  I put a little cinnamon and nutmeg in my coffee grinder with the coffee beans this morning, so I’m fired up and ready to go.  For those of you who are already on vacation…well, have pity on the rest of us.  Links!

• Duke Energy is facing a Renewable Energy and Efficiency Portfolio standard in NC that mandates 12.5% renewable energy in utilities’ portfolios by 2021.  The law is finally pushing Duke to explore creative power generation:

The energy company is proposing to invest $50 million over a two-year period in as many as 425 solar energy arrays atop the rooftops of homes, schools, stores and factories — or on the ground at those properties — to establish a solar distributed generation program. [...]

Under the arrangement, the utility company would install, own, operate and maintain all equipment related to the solar array. The company, rather than the home- or property owner, would also use and own the electricity produced. The customer receives the rent paid for using the rooftop or land, and the compensation is based on the size of the installation.

• Here’s a compelling new ad from WeCanSolveIt (Al Gore’s effort).  TreeHugger quotes Van Jones: “The main piece of technology in the green economy is a caulk gun.”

• The Federal government is a huge publisher of information (or, at least, it SHOULD be), but any student of policy or engaged citizen knows what a hassle it can be to search for information on agency websites.  A group of cabinet-agency web directors (the Federal Web Managers Council) put together a white paper on online government that many expect the President-elect’s transition team to embrace; after all, during campaign season Obama’s team seemed to really get this stuff.  Included in the report [PDF here] is this crucial piece (emphasis mine):

One of the biggest problems we face in improving government websites is that many agencies still view their website as an IT project rather than as a core business function. Many government websites lack a dedicated budget. Only a minority of agencies have developed strong web policies and management controls. Some have hundreds of “legacy” websites with outdated or irrelevant content. With limited resources, many find it difficult to solicit regular customer input and take quick action to improve their sites. While there are many effective government websites, most web teams are struggling to manage the amount of online content the government produces every day. [...]

Agencies should be required to appoint an editor-in-chief for every website they maintain, as do the top commercial websites. This person should be given appropriate funding and authority to
develop and enforce web policies and publishing standards, including ensuring that prime real estate on government websites is dedicated to helping people find the information they need.

More from techPresident here; as they write:

Running this gargantuan online network means empowering a vast cadre of managers to do their work – it means giving them the power to make decisions about email and social media, for example. In theory, the Obama apparatus should be great at this. After all, the President-Elect’s operation maintained a keen top-down message throughout the campaign, even while allowing volunteer coordinators to do their thing without running every dash and and RSS feed past the campaign minders.

• The Year in Pictures from the Boston Globe photographers is a great wya to spend 10 minutes [Hat Tip: Jarred].

• Let’s take a moment to geek out over the trailer for the new X-Men movie.  Gambit arrives!

• I’m hoping to do some long-overdue music blogging over the holidays.  I re-discovered one of my favorite MP3 blogs this weekend while cleaning out my Firefox bookmarks.  I followed a number of MP3 blogs a few years ago…this one is apparently one of the few that’s still kicking.  Check out the author’s top-25 songs of 2008.  I particularly recommend the Anathallo song, which I’ve been listening to on repeat for about 2 weeks.  You can also connect with me and Jarred on our favorite music site–Lala.