2. • What is transparency?
• What aspects of government
can be made transparent?
• How can you get information
about your governments?
Opening Questions:
3. Transparency Laws
See it as it happens:
• Open Meetings Laws
• Open Data Laws
• Regularly disclosed public records
Ask for it later:
• Freedom of Information Act (and state FOIAs)
5. We’re celebrating 50 years of FOIA this year!
How can you participate?
• Make a request through FOIA.gov
• Find out about what’s available (and not) in your state or city by
checking the Open Government Guide at RCFP.org
• Keep an eye on attacks on your right to know at NFOIC.org!
• Make a request and find your community of muckrackers &
busybodies through MuckRock or FOIA Machine
• Follow #50DaysofFOIA on Twitter to hear great stories made possible
by FOIA
6. Open Meetings Laws
• “Government In the Sunshine” law creates a right to access executive
agency meetings
• This is under attack right now – some FCC commissioners want more private
meetings. There is a hearing on 5/24. Follow along and weigh in here!
• Congress has created its own rules for generally providing access to
sessions and committee meetings.
• States each have their own open meetings law – you can also find
those in RCFP’s Open Government Guide.
7. Local FOIA and accountability
• Journalists have FOIAed for—and found—prejudiced emails
sent by local officials, leading to the firing of problematic
public employees and other reforms.
• Recent examples of this occurring include prison guards in
Camden, NJ, a top official with the Los Angeles Sherriff’s
department, and a police officer in Baton Rouge, LA.
8. Local FOIA and accountability
• FOIA for police automatic license plate readers (ALPR) showed
patterns of police surveillance of neighborhoods
9. Local FOIA and Accountability
• Check this out yourself! Go to Oakland’s RecordTrac to see public
records requests in action.
10. Regularly disclosed public records
• Court records: PACER for Federal cases, state court records sites at
NCSC
• Congressional Record
• Statistical data from the US Census and other agencies
11. Open Data laws
• Laws which require the proactive publication of certain kinds of data
online, in machine readable format
13. What information about government do you
feel like you’re missing?
Open Data/FOIA need you. Advocate for the release of information!
Ask yourself:
• What are the possibilities for political change if you had it?
• What are the potential downsides to making that information
available?
• What are the things that would need to happen in order for this
information to have a positive effect on the government & its
community?
