Pete Seeger’s digital legacy and other tech news

Maps move to high security clouds; GSA pushes Web analytics.

ESRI’s ArcGIS mapping system is now available in Amazon’s GovCloud, a government-only computer cloud that meets stringent security requirements, the companies announced Wednesday.

The GovCloud is staffed only by American citizens, which means it can store information from the State, Defense and other departments covered by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and other high security data. ESRI is the dominant supplier of mapping tools to federal agencies.

On the less secure side of government, agencies are increasingly using mapping technology to gather more complete data about how effective federal programs are and to help citizens locate services .

In other government technology news, the General Services Administration’s Digital Services Innovation Center has launched an analytics program to help agencies better measure how effective their websites are at reaching citizens. The tool is designed to help agencies comply with the White House’s federal digital strategy released in May.

And finally, Archivist of the United States David Ferriero included in his recent blog post celebrating American Archives Month perhaps the best argument ever for digital and digitized archives: