There's a kewl blog out there that I read called "
Bacon's Rebellion". There have been a couple of recent blog articles there that relate to my FOIA focus. (It's not long before the 4th of July, FOIA's birthday, will arrive and I will be back on topics of local interest....anybody wondering what my I've been working on besides FOIA information:)
Anyway, on June 16, 2009, the blog article "
Shining a Spotlight on Transparency" was rolled out. I had to check my audio to be sure I didn't miss a drum roll because it sure deserved one! The opening two sentences set the tone:
The legitimacy of government is based on the consent of the governed.
As owners of our state government, every citizen of Virginia is
entitled to full and complete information about how their government
acts and what their Representatives do."
Wow! That pretty much says it for the backbone of the FOIA at all government levels. WE are the government. Government is not just elected officials and fancy buildings! It is "WE THE PEOPLE". The government works for us, not the other way around.
The article then goes on to discuss recent events in Federal FOIA and Virginia FOIA. I really like the way that it is pointed out that accessibility to information alone is NOT enough. That information MUST be in a format that citizens can understand. We do not need tools that we can't use. We need consistently organized, understandable information. Clothing information (or cloaking, if you prefer) in a manner that make it available but not useable is atrocious.
It is further noted, that the THOMAS JEFFERSON INSTITUTE is initiating an awesome project. They will examine the current FOIA practices of jurisdictions and use that data to develop standards and best practices. This concept could bring a degree of uniformity to jurisdictions that would be a tremendous service to citizens. I know that every jurisdiction wants to keep its "individuality" but there is no reason why they can't do that while still having uniformity in those areas that all jurisdiction have in common. It's too bad that the study will not include Towns, but perhaps that is coming.
This has particular interest to me as it could apply to the internet. If every jurisdiction used a certain part of their website that was consisten across all jurisdictions but allowed for independence in other parts of the website. It would make it so much easier for citizens. We are becoming such a mobile society, with people moving several times during the course of their lives. If there were some degree of uniformity, it would be so much easier for citizens to access information.
It could also save a ton of taxpayer's money! Part of the website would be prepackaged saving development costs and making it easier for employees to use. The remainder of the website could be used as the jurisdiction wishes to promote its unique features and events. It would also make it easier and more cost effective for small jurisdictions to have a website.
The article closes with this:
By providing usable data governments allow citizens to improve their quality of life and make government more efficient." What a wonderful concept! Increase efficiency of government while improving citizen access. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
The 2nd of these 2 articles will be discussed tomorrow.