The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), working with the Office of the Federal Register (OFR), recently announced it has converted the text of the Federal Register (2000-2009) into XML (extensible markup language) and placed it online in numerous Federal Government portals. The project is part of the Obama administration’s openness and transparency initiative that was begun soon after the President took office last January.

The new Federal Register portals include:

• GPO’s Federal Digital System
• The Federal Register Web site
• Government’s new portal for Government data

The change supplements the official publishing formats with XML, a form of text that can be manipulated in virtually limitless ways with digital applications. For example, people who want to know about the workings of the Executive branch of the Federal Government no longer need to sift through the Federal Register in its traditional Department-by-Department and Agency-by-Agency format. In this new format users can rearrange the Federal Register’s contents in personalized ways to match their particular interests. It is now possible, for example, to download the Federal Register and easily see what proposed actions might affect one’s community or region, or what actions might have an impact on one’s profession or business interests.