The easiest way to explain civic technology? Open up the OneBusAway app on your smartphone.
OneBusAway gives users real-time transit info. So, the next time you’re at the bus stop wondering how long you need to wait, you can just tap the OneBusAway app and it will tell you the number of minutes accurately and instantaneously.
[…]
Read More… from Seattle Civic Tech: Hacking Government Bureaucracy One App at a Time
data.world today announced that it has partnered with the U.S. Department of Defense to launch Data.mil, a new experiment in Defense Open Data created by the Defense Digital Service (DDS) in collaboration with data owners throughout the U.S. military.
Unveiled today by the Pentagon, Data.mil makes open data available in a searchable, machine-readable, downloadable format. Through its partnership with data.world, Data.mil also offers a collaborative workspace for this groundbreaking dataset to invite and facilitate collaboration, targeted analysis and discussion.
[…]
Read More… from U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Joins Forces with data.world to Launch Data.mil
House Republican Caucus Chairman Ryan Williams defended a recent decision to hold a closed-door caucus meeting while outlining the procedure that could be used in the future, in a Wednesday meeting with members of the Capitol Hill press corps.
Defending last week's decision, Williams, R-Cookeville, said he has every intention of giving the press every opportunity to be in the meetings but added, "I do believe there is a time and a place where we have to have the ability to communicate personally with one another."
[…]
Read More… from TN: House caucus chairman defends closed-door meetings, discusses future
A newly-formed group is demanding that the Greensboro City Council release all remaining documents in a police misconduct case.
About two dozen members of GSO Operation Transparency, which identifies itself as a “multiracial, intergenerational group of concerned Greensboro residents,” said Tuesday that it wants the full investigative file and all relating written and electronic correspondence in the case of former Greensboro Police Officer Travis Cole released by noon on Jan. 11.
[…]
Read More… from Greensboro, NC group demands release of info in case of former police officer
The House in September passed a series of bills that would have extended FOIA to the Governor and put the legislature under a mostly-parallel "Legislative Open Records Act."
The bipartisan effort was led by Rep. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, and Rep. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield. But in the Senate the bills were referred to the Committee on Government Operations, controlled by Meekhof. And he won't be bringing them up this session, a spokesperson confirmed.
Moss said he was seeking more partners and wants to reconsider the topic next year.
[…]
Read More… from Voter ID, FOIA legislation fall off Michigan’s lame duck agenda
The North Carolina General Assembly called its fourth special session of the year Wednesday afternoon. A regulatory reform bill filed in the House would create a new exemption for certain information held by the public utility comission, expand two other existing exemptions related to personal information and would significantly change how government agencies can provide access to public records. A separate bill would exempt photographs of people who have been arrested. A third would exempt certain information about community association managers.
[…]
Read More… from NC: New exemptions, change in access to public records proposed in special session
A Cook County judge on Friday ordered the city and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to produce an index of certain emails and text messages that the mayor sent and received on personal devices, as the Chicago Tribune and the city continue to battle over the mayor's electronic communications.
Judge Kathleen Pantle made the ruling in the Tribune's September 2015 lawsuit, which alleged that Emanuel had violated state open records laws by refusing to release communications about city business that he had conducted through emails and texts on personal devices.
[…]
Read More… from Rahm Emanuel is ordered to produce index of messages as Tribune presses records suit
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has been awarded a two-year grant totaling $450,000 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in support of RCFP’s work defending journalists’ legal rights in the face of increased threats to press freedom. The funding will go directly toward offering journalists and media organizations free legal resources to protect their First Amendment rights.
[…]
Read More… from The Reporters Committee Receives MacArthur Foundation Grant
Tennessee legislative staff have destroyed "files, documents, photographs, emails and other information" relevant to Jeremy Durham and his historic ouster from the House of Representatives.
Director of Legislative Administration Connie Ridley said Monday she could not provide public documents and information asked for by The Tennessean because Durham's computers, iPad and other materials given to him have been "returned to factory default settings."
[…]
Read More… from TN legislature destroyed documents from Jeremy Durham investigation
Anyone interested in obtaining up-to-date information on the Massachusetts prison population or grant funds going into the state's various sheriffs' departments might be in for some frustration.
An audit conducted between 2013 and 2015 by the office of State Auditor Suzanne Bump found Massachusetts Sheriff's Association "did not provide the public with sufficient transparency about inmate populations in various counties, and the Legislature and other state agencies had to expend time and resources to obtain information."
[…]
Read More… from Massachusetts Sheriffs’ Association falling flat on transparency, audit finds
