Twitter has become a vital social networking site for people of all backgrounds to keep their "followers" updated on their every move. Somewhat unknowingly, these people are simultaneously creating a public record for all members of the Twitter community.

A growing number of states are posting salary data online. While this data has always been public, with limited exceptions, it hasn't always been readily accessible.

A few weeks ago, we posted about PublicResource.org and its effort to gather and post federal court records online via the federal PACER system. The organization has now made nearly 20 million pages of federal court documents available online.

Recently, the State of California posted the Reporting Transparency in Government web site.

Previously available only in person, White House Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure reports (SF 278s) are now available via e-mail.

Given the poor economy and the resulting decrease in spontaneous donations, more charities have been hiring telemarketing companies to solicit donations over the phone. Charity officials justify the low return typically associated with these programs on the supposition that recent donors are more likely to repeat their donations in the future. However, watchdog groups such as Charity Navigator disagree that the fees paid to telemarketers are worthwhile. Here's how you can use public records to get the facts and draw your own conclusion.

To facilitate disclosure of how the $787 billion stimulus package will be spent, President Obama recently appointed Earl E. Devaney to chair the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. To ensure that the spending is well accounted for, the Board has put together the web site recovery.gov as a public resource to follow the money.

The National Security Archive recently awarded its fifth annual Rosemary Award to the Federal Bureau of Information.

In a January 21st memo, President Obama called for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to set new federal guidelines to carry out a more transparent interpretation of the Freedom of Information Act. On March 19th, Holder issued a memo to the heads of federal agencies with instructions to err on the side of openness when responding to FOIA requests.

This week, the Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information Online published the results of its survey, which ranks state governments on the online accessibility of public records.

Freedom of Information Day is celebrated annually on March 16, the birth date of the fourth US President James Madison.