Transparency and the Web - public domain advocate Carl Malamud

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009; A11

Transparency and the Web

Already, the struggle to digitally upgrade federal agencies seems certain to be one of the central challenges of the new administration as it seeks to create a more transparent government.

Just ask public domain advocate Carl Malamud. "I've been putting government online for ages," says the 49-year-old from Sebastopol, Calif.

Malamud first put difficult-to-access Security and Exchange Commissions records online in early 1994, ultimately leading the SEC to open up its EDGAR database by making the information available online.

Now Malamud is pushing to make "America's operating system," as he calls federal court records, no more than a Google search away.

Launched in early 2007, his nonprofit group, PublicResource.org, has found that effort somewhat controversial, with pushback from privacy advocates and the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) system that has until now had a monopoly on online access to the files, which are stored in a pay-per-page database.

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