Sunshine Week 2009 is March 15-21 (James Madison, considered the patron saint of sorts for FOIA, was born on March 16). Here is some information on a project the national Sunshine Week coordinators are putting together with the help of state-by-state coordinators. The Virginia Coalition for Open Government is the Virginia coordinator.
For questions about more Sunshine Week activities, check this page in the future, or direct questions to Debra Gersh Hernandez, the national coordinator, at dghernandez@asne.org.
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The American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Online News Association have begun a joint project to expand the availability of public records in digital format and to help news organizations find new and creative ways to provide this information to their Web site readers.
Our part of the digital project, for Sunshine Week 2009, will be to work with the National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Society of Professional Journalists’ Freedom of Information Committee (and possibly others) to survey the availability state and local government information online.
Unlike an audit that requests particular records, this survey will simply look at and report on what can be accessed online, and highlight some best practices. As a guide, we’ll provide a list of categories of information useful to the public and within each category a list of records that are generally public but not always available electronically.
The results, to be released in conjunction with Sunshine Week 2009, March 15-21, will offer a unique look at the state of public records online, providing a big-picture view to supplement your local coverage. While the report will be a tool for journalists and citizens seeking these records, it also will be available to state and local governments to assess and, if necessary, improve how they provide records online.