National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

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California’s Open Data Portal Goes Open Source for the Apps

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California’s Government Operations Agency relaunched its open data portal as open source Thursday, so civil coders and state departments might sustainably innovate on the new platform.

The state started piloting portals with greengov.data.ca.gov and a coinciding codeathon in October, out of which emerged 14 open source applications posted on the online project hosting site GitHub.

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National Archives’ Open Government Plan 4.0 Open for Comment

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As the Archivist of the United States announced earlier this week, you can now review and comment on the National Archives and Records Administration’s Open Government Plan 4.0 on Github. The plan covers steps the National Archives intends to take over the next two years to strengthen open government within our agency and across the Federal government.

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Tennessee: State museum foundation transparency questioned

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A week and a half ago, Attorney General Herb Slatery's office issued an opinion stating that none of the donors contributing funds towards the construction of the new Tennessee State Museum need to be made public, as the non-profit Tennessee State Museum Foundation is not itself a governmental entity. But as the Knoxville News Sentinel reports, not everyone is happy with this:

Gov. Bill Haslam — who is leading the campaign — says the names should be made public, but not the exact amount of each contribution.

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California Aware: In San Francisco, another sunshine-reform effort

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A group of open-government activists is working to get a CalAware-endorsed measure strengthening San Francisco’s Sunshine Ordinance onto a future citywide ballot.

CalAware’s general counsel, Terry Francke, drafted the original language in the ordinance, which the city Board of Supervisors watered down and then passed in 1993, and voters approved a package of reforms to the law in November 1999.

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Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear open records case

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An open records case being fought by Attorney General Brad Schimel will go before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The Republican who tries to position himself as a strong advocate of transparency and regularly holds training sessions for government officials on the open meetings and records laws is appealing to keep secret a pair of law enforcement training videos made when he was working as the Waukesha County district attorney.

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Pols, activists join legal battle over revealing any actions against cop who choked Eric Garner

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Pull back the curtain! So says a group of elected officials and activist groups that will file briefs Tuesday in support of a two-year legal battle to get the city to release the disciplinary records of the cop who fatally choked Eric Garner back in 2014, organizers said.

The effort is being mounted by Garner's mother Gwen Carr, members of the City Council, Public Advocate Letitia James and Communities United for Police Reform, a nonprofit dedicated to greater police accountability.

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DCOGC Press Release: Reporters Say They Can Live With Federal Plan to Post All Records Released Under FOIA – With Delay

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Results reported August 30 showed a large majority of reporters answering a survey by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and who use the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in their work support plans due in the new year that will require federal agencies to post online all records released.

Of the 107 responding, 83 per cent supported the idea, though 58 per cent did so only on condition that general release was delayed as much as a month to protect against competitors scooping the original requester.

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NJFOG Press Release: Free NJFOG OPRA/OPMA forum in Perth Amboy on September 20

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Join the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government the evening of September 20, 2016 for a discussion of the state's open public records and meetings laws. This event is being provided at no cost to attendees with our thanks to The Amboy Guardian for making the arrangements.

Come learn about the laws that provide public access to government records and meetings and that allow citizens greater insight into the operations of state and local governments in New Jersey.

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Open data: How access to public data is growing in Detroit

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It's a bright new day for the collection, cataloging, and distribution of public data in Detroit.

And you can put the emphasis on "new." Erica Raleigh is the executive director of Data Driven Detroit (D3), a company dedicated to providing and analyzing local public data. Raleigh, D3's second hire after its founding in 2008, recalls that they spent the bulk of their time in those early days just trying to get their hands on public data.

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