Right now the discretion to place legally public government information online lies with agencies and not the law. Switch this premise around by adding a legal category that says, "public but online dissemination not required. If it is not limited by the law, then put it online for all by default. Period. This would not change access to legally protected/national security information.
Piecemeal legislation to require proactive disclosure of spending information is only a first step.
While over exposure of legally public information about individuals should be constrained (there is some value in not having everything in Google even if people can legally request access), government needs to work differently than our natural tendency to keep information close to the chest.
Comments (5)
Agencies have and will continue to apply FOIA exemptions for good cause. If a record is disclosed under the FOIA after review and redaction where necessary, there is no good reason not to post it on a web site.
seems pretty straight forward to me.
Dear fellow "Idea" brainstormers and commentors:
For news and moderated discussion (public, but unofficial) about the
continuing development and implementation of the "Open Government
Directive", you are invited to either:
1. send mailto:opengovernmentdirective+subscribe@googlegroups.com
2. visit http://groups.google.com/group/opengovernmentdirective
NOTE: Because I am posting this to the Comment section of some
(but not all) Ideas, you may see this message more than once.
I apologize for that.
vr,
Stephen Buckley
http://www.UStransparency.com
can I add and make it citable on a paragraph level:-)
citability.org
thanks Steven!
Transcripts of legislative meetings would be key.