Beth Noveck on Open Government
Beth Noveck on Open Government: "
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| Oromo Index |
She writes that transparency, one of the “core principles of democracy” can ... The third goal of open government, collaboration “across agencies and with ...
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Friday, April 30, 2010
She writes that transparency, one of the “core principles of democracy” can ... The third goal of open government, collaboration “across agencies and with ...
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Freedom of information: High Court must support public's right to know
Freedom of information: High Court must support public's right to know: "That is the only correct decision to make under state FOI laws. The decision by the clerk to withhold these names is simply unacceptable. ...
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Survey finds FOI requests double | News | Local Government Chronicle
Survey finds FOI requests double News Local Government Chronicle: "Freedom of Information Act requests to councils almost doubled between 2005 and 2008.
Local Government Chronicle -... - http://www.lgcplus.com/"
BC Ferries brought under FOI law, executive salaries capped
BC Ferries brought under FOI law, executive salaries capped: "She expects the FOI provisions will be in place as soon as the bill becomes law, she said. “Ever since 2003 we've been calling for more accountability and ...
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Opposition says education FOI request rejected
Opposition says education FOI request rejected: "SA Liberal education spokesman David Pisoni made a freedom of information (FOI) request to the Education Department for documents on complaints about the ...
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Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Online Users Look For Government Information
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Online Users Look For Government Information
A new survey out from the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that Americans are going online to look for government information, participate and interact with the government and use online tools for transactions with the government.
A full eighty-two percent of internet users either looked for information or completed a transaction on a government website in the last year. Even more impressive, forty-eight percent have "looked for information about a public policy or issue online with their local, state or federal government." This is an impressive number and shows what Sunlight has long known, people are looking for information about their government and the internet is best place to deliver such information.
One statistic that amazed me was that nearly a quarter (23%) of internet users searched online for information on the how money from the stimulus bill was being spent. If you find yourself to be one of these people, this iPhone/Android application that Sunlight Labs developed may be what you're looking for. The app layers stimulus spending, as reported by Recovery.gov, over Google Maps to provide an on-the-go way to search where the money is being spent.
Another welcome development from the report is that 22% of internet users downloaded or read text of legislation online. One of Sunlight's more popular efforts has been to get Congress to post legislation online for at least 72 hours before debating and voting on it. It was pretty obvious to us last year that people wanted to find legislation and read it last year as thousands of people visited our Read the Bill site.
Other statistics that relate to searches for government information include:
- 16% visited a site that provides access to government data, such as data.gov, recovery.gov or usaspending.gov
- 14% looked for information on who contributes to the campaigns of their elected officials
Americans who use interact with the government online through social media or by searching for data are more likely to find online government presence useful than those who do not:
- 78% of internet users agree that social media engagement by government makes government more accessible (this is compared to 63% for non-users)
- 82% of internet users agree that social media engagement by government helps people be more informed about what government does (compared to 68% for non-users)
- 43% of those who sought government data (stimulus money, legislation, campaign contributions, data.gov) stated that government is more open and accountable than it was two years ago (compared to 33% of all internet users and 27% of non-internet users)
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tweet from: @Nextgov - FBI launches new form to accept FOIA requests electronically
From: @Nextgov
Sent: Apr 27, 2010 2:24p
FBI launches new form to accept FOIA requests electronically http://bit.ly/b2Xgyk
sent via twitterfeed
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/Nextgov/status/12955801365
Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.
Danger-zone journalists in Brisbane to champion Press freedom and right to know
Danger-zone journalists in Brisbane to champion Press freedom and right to know: "He contributed to FOI laws in Indonesia, Maldives and India. • Mr Frank La Rue, who is the UN's expert on FOI and media. • Rick Snell, an Australian ...
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Is Asia too conservative for open govt data?
Is Asia too conservative for open govt data?
But open government data is still very much in its infancy in China, and the release of information is restricted to carefully selected policy reports
FOI law tests public transparency | The Jakarta Post Mobile
Sent to you by Greg via Google Reader:
via Google Alerts - "foi" -"ma foi" by on 4/27/10
The FOI Act works on the MALE principle: maximum access, limited exemption. The major aim of this law, stated in Article 3, is to assure citizens of their ...m.thejakartapost.com/.../foi-law-tests-public-transparency.html
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Monday, April 26, 2010
FOIA needs new muscle behind it, not just promises
Sent to you by Greg via Google Reader:
via Google Alerts - transparency or "freedom of information" or "open government" by CPJ Press Freedom Online on 4/26/10
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| CPJ Press Freedom Online |
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Heather Brooke and The Silent State: 'Let's end the UK's culture ...
Heather Brooke and The Silent State: 'Let's end the UK's culture ...: "There are exemptions to the FoI act; there are 25 reasons why officials can refuse to give out information and some of them are really vague. It's also not properly enforced: information officials are starved of cash so they can't do ...
World News - http://world-news.tk/"
UK Freedom of Information Blog: Conservatives promise to extend ...
UK Freedom of Information Blog: Conservatives promise to extend ...: "Conservatives promise to extend FOI Act. The Conservatives have promised to extend the scope of the Freedom of Information Act within weeks of the general election. Expanding the Freedom of Information Act ...
UK Freedom of Information Blog - http://foia.blogspot.com/"
PM's secrecy a breakdown of democracy
PM's secrecy a breakdown of democracy: "When Canada was formed, responsible government was part of the bargain. This concept is the lifeblood of our democracy. Once established, it meant that the ...
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Saturday, April 24, 2010
National security cited in one-fifth of government's ATIP rejections: Embassy - Canada's Foreign Policy Newspaper
http://www.embassymag.ca/mobile/story/security-04-21-2010
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Olympic minister Mary McNeil defends goverment reporting on Games tickets - Straight.com
http://m.straight.com/article/319529
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Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Heather Brooke - Secrets, Surveillance and the State of British Democracy
Heather Brooke - Secrets, Surveillance and the State of British Democracy: "Heather Brooke is an award-winning campaigner and journalist."
The FOI Advocate: Make Public Information Free and Online From Its ...
The FOI Advocate: Make Public Information Free and Online From Its ...: "The official blog of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the FOI ADVOCATE, in which we bring news of freedom of information developments far and wide... NFOIC is a coalition of state groups dedicated to open government, ...
The FOI Advocate - http://foiadvocate.blogspot.com/"
The government seems to be inviting suspicion - Globe and Mail
The government seems to be inviting suspicion - Globe and Mail: "
 Globe and Mail | The government seems to be inviting suspicion Globe and Mail The Globe and Mail was able to obtain, through an access to information request, a major document that, even in redacted form, was not brought to the ... and more » |
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Release Government Data, Early and Often
Release Government Data, Early and Often: "
One of the key axioms of modern open government is that all public data should be published online in a raw but usable form. Usability in this case is aimed at software programmers. By making government datasets more usable, programmers are more likely to innovate in the civic sphere and build technologies, using the raw data, to enhance the relationships among citizens and with government.
The open government community has provided plenty of valuable guidance about what usability means for programmers. We proclaim that all datasets need to be: published in a format that is reasonably structured and machine-processable; well-documented; downloadable in bulk; authenticated using cryptographic digital signatures; version-controlled; permanent and citable; and the list goes on and on. These are all worthy principles to be sure, and all government datasets should strive to meet them.
But you'll be hard-pressed to find any government datasets that exist with all of these principles pre-satisfied. While some are in better shape than others, most datasets would make programmers cringe. Data often only exist as informal working sets in proprietary Excel spreadsheets. Sometimes they are in structured databases, but schemas are undocumented, field values are ambiguous, and the semantics are only understood by the employee who created them. Datasets have errors and biases that are known but never explicitly corrected.
For a civil servant who is a data caretaker looking over the laundry list of publishing principles, there's frequently a huge quality chasm between the dataset she owns and how people are asking to see it released. To her, publishing this data adequately just seems like a lot of extra work. The more attractive alternative is to put off the data publishing—it's not in her job description or evaluations anyway—and move on to other work instead.
How can this chasm be bridged? A widely-adopted philosophy in software development and entrepreneurship would serve open government data well: release early and release often. And listen to your customers.
In the software development world, a working version of the product is pushed out as soon as possible even with known imperfections—an 'alpha' release—so it can be subject to real use by early adopters. Early adopters can provide helpful feedback about what works, what's broken, and what new features would be most useful to them. The software developers then iterate quickly. They incorporate the suggested fixes and features into their code and release an updated version of the product to their users. The virtuous cycle then starts again. Under this philosophy, software developers can be efficient about how to best improve their code where it matters, and users get software that works better and has more features they desire.
The 'release early, release often' philosophy should be applied to government data. For the initial release, data caretakers should take the path of least resistance to get data out the door. This means publishing datasets in whatever format is most convenient, along with as much documentation as can reasonably be mustered. Documentation is especially important with an 'alpha' dataset—proper warnings about its problems, instabilities and inductive limitations must be prominently displayed. (Of course, the usual privacy and legal caveats should also be applied.) Sometimes, the 'alpha' release will be 'good enough' for programmers to start their work, and this will minimize any superfluous work done by caretakers. This is the virtue of 'release early.'
In other cases, programmers will need assistance using the dataset and will notice problem spots with the initial release. The dataset might be confusing, contain errors or be difficult to work with. A tight feedback mechanism allows the programmer to get help quickly and continue to innovate, while the data caretaker can fix problems based on real use cases and add clarifying metadata into an updated version of the dataset. Data quality and usability increases for those working with the dataset, both in and outside of government. That's the virtue of 'release often.'
And here is the big opportunity for government: no platform currently exists to engage the prime audience for government data—software programmers. Without a tight feedback mechanism, the virtuous cycle of mutual benefit cannot exist. Government is missing its best opportunity to improve data quality by neglecting useful feedback from programmers who are actually tinkering with the datasets. Society is losing out on potentially game-changing civic innovations, which otherwise would have been built if data were more usable and the uncertainty of failure reduced.
A terrific start in turning the corner would be for government to adopt an issue-tracking system for its datasets. As a public venue, it would help ensure that data caretakers are prompt in addressing developer concerns. It would also allow caretakers to organize feedback in a formal way. Such platforms are commonplace in any successful software development venture. The same needs to be true for government data in order to drive rapid quality improvements and increase developer engagement.
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Patient access to e-record urgent, advocate tells federal panel
Patient access to e-record urgent, advocate tells federal panel: "
When Regina Holliday needed her husband's electronic health record to help her care for him after a terminal cancer diagnosis it didn't arrive for days, was incorrect, and outdated when he was transferred to another provider. She later used the correct record to care for him until his death.
"It's time to stop being incremental," Holliday, now an advocate for patient access to their EHRs, told a panel of the Health and Human Services' Health IT Policy Committee on April 21. "There's too much urgency to get the data to the patient."
"
Data journalism pt1: Finding data (draft – comments invited ...
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via Google Alerts - "foi" -"ma foi" by ojb on 4/21/10
Particularly useful is the data held by public bodies which can be accessed through a well-worded Freedom of Information (FOI) request. Heather Brooke's book Your Right To Know (2007) is a key reference work in this area, and the online ...Online Journalism Blog - http://onlinejournalismblog.com/
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Secrecy has no place in court
Secrecy has no place in court: "Blocked access to exhibits in a public trial remains an ongoing issue that the media, and by extension the public, are continually forced to fight in Canada ...
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Wednesday, April 21, 2010
More transparency needed at political level
More transparency needed at political level: "It appears Angelo Persichilli is arguing that “freedom of information” laws go too far, in that Opposition parties use them to dig up dirt on the government ...
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Secrecy the norm in native politics
Secrecy the norm in native politics: "Politicians in Canada's federal, provincial and municipal governments, as well as Crown corporations, have their earnings publicly disclosed, ...
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Access to Information Act has turned into a bad joke - Winnipeg Free Press
Access to Information Act has turned into a bad joke - Winnipeg Free Press: "
Access to Information Act has turned into a bad joke Winnipeg Free Press It costs $5 to make an Access to Information request. And while a response is to be answered within 30 days, many government agencies average several months ... and more » |
Convention centre report public soon - TheChronicleHerald.ca
Convention centre report public soon - TheChronicleHerald.ca: "
Convention centre report public soon TheChronicleHerald.ca Save the View, a group opposing the project, received a copy of the report under a freedom of information request, but the Coast weekly newspaper reported ... |
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Faster FOIA Act Heading for Senate Vote
Faster FOIA Act Heading for Senate Vote: "A bill to improve the speed at which the government processes requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), called the Faster FOIA Act of 2010, was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee late last week and has been reported to the full Senate for a vote. The bill was introduced in March by Senators Leahy (D-Vt.) and Cornyn (R-Tx.) and will establish a 16-member commission to conduct a study to determine methods for reducing delays in processing FOIA requests. For more information, see EPIC FOIA Litigation Docket, EPIC FOIA Litigation Manual."
Monday, April 19, 2010
Heather Brooke: 'Let's end the UK's culture of secrecy'
Heather Brooke: 'Let's end the UK's culture of secrecy': "
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| The Guardian |
I fired off a Freedom of Information (FoI) request. If they had been helpful and had treated me, as a member of the public, as someone with equality, ...
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Thursday, April 15, 2010
Freedom of Information ruling on drug classification proposals ...
Freedom of Information ruling on drug classification proposals ...: "So the FOI or the Home Office kept everyone waiting as long as they possibly could before informing them that the Home Office had decided to appeal against the ruling to reveal the information. What this will do of course is to delay ...
The UKCIA News Blog - http://ukcia.org/wordpress/"
When transparency can save lives
When transparency can save lives: "
Dan Froomkin has a good write-up of the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) failure to release certain notes related to violations that Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine was cited for in the past year. The Upper Big Branch Mine was the site of the worst coal mining disaster in the United States in the past forty years.
"The Charleston Gazette’s award-winning mining beat reporter Ken Ward Jr. first reported about the inspector’s notes late Tuesday, describing them as being among a “dribble” of documents that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA, pronounced em-sha) is finally releasing to the public “as federal and state officials begin a long and complex effort to figure out what caused the worst U.S. coal-mining disaster in 40 years.”
The violation the inspector described in his notes was fixed later that same day; the company was cited for “unwarrantable failure” to follow safety rules and fined a hefty $70,000.
But the inspector’s notes — a particularly valuable source of information that the government used to routinely make available on request — weren’t released to members of the public or to journalists until more than a week after the mine exploded.
If those notes had been available, journalists like Ken Ward or Ellen Smith (the managing editor of Mine Safety and Health News) or someone else just might have brought some much-needed attention to Massey’s evidently casual attitude toward such a life-threatening issue. And maybe a disaster would have been averted.
“This is life and death stuff,” said Steven Aftergood, a secrecy specialist at the Federation of American Scientists. “And by withholding this information from the public domain, the government’s capacity to spur corrective action was blocked.”
Education board must undergo FOI training
Education board must undergo FOI training: "HARTFORD — The state Freedom of Information Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to require that the New Haven Board of Education undergo FOI training, ...
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Wednesday, April 14, 2010
If you won't tell us about our MPs, we'll do it for you - globeandmail.com
New websites herald the rise of digital democratic activists who seek to open up government for all to see
- SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
APRIL 13 2010 10:05 AM EDT
New rules aim to clean up dirty politics in Nova Scotia
New rules aim to clean up dirty politics in Nova Scotia: "While still in opposition, Mr. Steele, the current Finance Minister, had denounced compensation as “a model of secrecy and complexity. ...
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Call centres legacy of federal fund for Cape Breton - CTV.ca
Call centres legacy of federal fund for Cape Breton - CTV.ca: "
Call centres legacy of federal fund for Cape Breton CTV.ca An access-to-information request to the Enterprise Cape Breton Corp. resulted in a list of the 25 companies and 16 government and non-profit recipients of ... and more » |
Access denied: Federal delays stymie information requesters, watchdog says - Winnipeg Free Press
Access denied: Federal delays stymie information requesters, watchdog says - Winnipeg Free Press: "
Access denied: Federal delays stymie information requesters, watchdog says Winnipeg Free Press Citizens who pay a $5 application fee to make an Access to Information request are supposed receive an answer within 30 days, but many agencies average ... and more » |
Harper government slammed for its record on access to information
Harper government slammed for its record on access to information: "Canadians' access to federal government information risks "being totally obliterated" because of chronic delays in releasing the material, Canada's ...
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Access to chief of staff fleeting - National Post
Access to chief of staff fleeting - National Post: "
 CBC.ca | Access to chief of staff fleeting National Post ... aide invented the concept of "unreleasing" public information just as it was poised to roll out in response to a media access to information request. ... Access denied: Federal delays stymie information requesters, watchdog saysWinnipeg Free Press all 119 news articles » |
PM's elusive chief dodges access hot seat
PM's elusive chief dodges access hot seat: "But in a startling display of bad timing, Giorno faced his tormentors an hour after access to information commissioner Suzanne Legault attacked the Harper ...
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Canadians' access to information at a crisis point - The Globe and Mail
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadians-access-to-information-at-a-crisis-point/article1533385/?service=mobile
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Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Friday, April 09, 2010
N.S. chose pricier bids for rural web
N.S. chose pricier bids for rural web
Last Updated: Friday, April 9, 2010
7:33 AM ET Comments40Recommend21CBC News
Two companies hired to bring high-speed internet service to rural Nova Scotia did not submit the lowest bids, CBC News has learned.
Rural Nova Scotians were originally promised access to high-speed internet by the end of 2009. (CBC)Aliant lost the contract despite bidding millions of dollars less than EastLink and Seaside Communications, according to documents obtained under the province's Freedom of Information law.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/04/09/ns-aliant-internet.html?ref=rss#ixzz0ke0WqeBc
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Thursday, April 01, 2010
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