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Carl MalamudHack 7: Link Check the Feds (Link Check the Mayor) (2006)

<< Hack 6 ]] 10 Government Hacks — Slides From a Talk at OSCON 2006 [[ Hack 8 >>

This is a fun hack that any webmaster can perform during those quiet times. Every agency has lots of departments. With the big agencies, each department runs their own MIS operation. Adopt an agency and then periodically run a link checker against all the departments, then send the head of the agency a list with the number of broken links, ranked by department. Oh, and send a copy of the list to the chairman of the congressional oversight committee. And to each department head in the agency so the ones on the top can have something to chat about with the ones on the bottom while they're on the golf course.

This hack works at any level of government. For example, link check your city government and send the results to your local newspaper. Pick a slow news day and your ranking will probably even make the evening news.

The movie shows the W3C linkchecker and then a cool Firefox extension called LinkChecker 0.6.1 which color codes links on a page after checking them.


This movie is part of the collection: Internet Governance

Producer: Carl Malamud
Audio/Visual: sound, color

Creative Commons license: Attribution

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Credits

Support for this project was provided by the Center for American Progress, ISC, and Stichting NLnet.

Europe's Society Orchestra, Castle House Rag, Feb 10, 1914.