Jonathan Reichental is the CIO of the City of Palo Alto, Calif., and one of the world’s leading proponents of open data. Why is he so big the idea of giving citizens access to the data their governments collect? Because even in times of recession and debt, he said on our Structure Show podcast this week, the one thing governments always have in abundance is data. And it belongs to the people.
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Read More… from 5 reasons why good governments should embrace open data
From Reporter Committee for Freedom of the Press: In response to the recent controversy about The Associated Press phone records subpoena, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would expand the existing shield law for the state’s journalists.
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Read More… from California expands journalist shield law, requires third-party subpoena notification
A few national and state FOIA and open government news items selected from many of interest that we might or might not have drawn attention to earlier in the week:
ACLU sues DOJ for digital surveillance data
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From SF Gate:
California, home of so much brilliance and innovation, should be ashamed that Texas and Kentucky lead the nation in using the tools of technology to make their government spending more transparent to their citizens. Even worse is that 35 other states scored higher than California in a recent analysis by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
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Read More… from How California got D minus in government transparency
Redding intends to keep under wraps a pair of investigative reports on mismanagement and hostile workplace allegations in the electric utility's customer service department.
On Monday, a Los Angeles law firm representing the city denied the Record Searchlight's request for the reports dating to 2008, saying they are exempt from public disclosure because they are part of personnel records.
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Read More… from Redding denies records request for REU investigative reports
