In the past week, Maryland Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller Jr. and House Speaker Michael E. Busch have announced that Maryland legislative committee level votes will be posted online within a few days after they are cast. Maryland is following several other states in making committee level votes readily available to the public.
Read MoreInventor of World Wide Web Launches Web Site for British Government Offering Unprecedented Public Access to Government Data
After being hired by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last June, World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee last week launched a free web site that offers access to a wide range of data from the British government. The web site, Data.gov.uk, has been heralded for offering the public unprecedented access to government information ranging from house prices to traffic statistics and access to local hospitals. The British web site has been compared to the United States' own web portal to provide government data sets to the public, Data.gov (read more about the US version here). Data.gov.uk currently offers 2,500 sets of data from across government and there are plans to expand the data available. The site is already being used by internet developers to create applications that aim to convert the data into a more easily useable format for the public (read about the similar trend in the United States here).
Sir Tim said the ultimate goal is to make British government data more accessible to the public:
"Making public data available for re-use is about increasing accountability and transparency and letting people create new, innovative ways of using it."
Professor Nigel Shadbolt of Southampton University, who helped develop the web site with Sir Tim, addressed privacy concerns related to releasing the data and made the point that the data was already available under Freedom of Information laws. Shadbolt said:
"A lot of this is about changing assumptions. If [the data] can be published under an FOI (Freedom of Information) request why not publish it online?"
To learn more about the new web site, see this BBC article.
See our previous blog entry to learn more about Sir Tim's appointment to develop the site after an expenses scandal in the British Parliament.
Lack of Paper Trail Creates Controversy Over Use of Blackberry PIN Numbers
States are taking notice of newer forms of "record-less" electronic communications that may circumvent public records laws. Blackberry PIN messaging is drawing scrutiny when used by officials whose correspondence is otherwise subject to open records release and retention.
Read MoreUniversities, Hospitals and Other Publicly Funded Institutions are Often Subject to FOIA Laws
An institution that receives a majority of its funding from the state is typically then subject to state freedom of information laws. Following is an overview of each state's law regarding requesting public records from publicly funded institutions.
Read MoreOnline Open Source Document Databases Are Public Records Resources
When a public record is not easily accessible from its government location, a secondary search strategy is to look for the document in an online, open source database. These document warehouses often have comprehensive categories to which anyone can upload relevant documents and resources, so you may even be able to find things that are not traditionally available as public records.
Read MoreHouse Expenditure Reports Now Available Online
The US House of Representatives recently uploaded the latest quarterly Statement of Disbursements to its website, marking the first time these public records have been made available online. These reports detail how Members spent their Member's Representational Allowance over the past quarter.
Read MoreWhite House Open Government Directive Released
Yesterday, the White House released a directive with instructions and deadlines for executive departments and agencies for implementing the goals set forth in President Obama's January 21 Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. It lists specific plans to be completed in time frames ranging from 45 to 120 days.
Read MoreNew York Times Reports on Reworking Obscure Municipal Records into Useful Datasets
Today's New York Times includes an in interesting article discussing how municipal governments are starting to release obscure public records datasets to Internet and software developers. These programmers are finding new applications for the data, and creating websites that make the information more useable and interesting to the general population.
Read MoreEnforcing FOIA Request Compliance: The Appeals Process and Filing Lawsuits
When responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, sometimes agencies provide unsatisfactory or untimely responses. In such cases, start by evaluating the basis of the denial and then move toward making an appeal of the agency determination.
Read MoreFree Access to Federal Court Records Aided by RECAP
We recently posted news of Carl Malamud's effort to make access to the federal court records contained in the PACER system available at no cost to the general public. Now comes news that the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University has created a PACER Firefox add-on called RECAP.
Read MoreGoogle Advances Its Search Technology
Google recently announced that its Caffeine search upgrade will be activated following several months of user testing.
Read MoreTwitter and Facebook Becoming More Searchable as Public Records
Microsoft Bing will now offer search features specifically derived from recent Twitter and Facebook status updates. With Twitter and Facebook becoming commonly used by politicians and other public figures to communicate with the public, these new search features provide better tools for researching their past statements.
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