For those of you not quite clear on what it is that I do, you might be interested in an article that I wrote for the Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, explaining The State Decoded and its application to laws and regulations. The project is more than halfway done, and I’m pleased with its …
Tag Archives: opengovernment
OpenCourt Wins Legal Battle Over Streaming Proceedings
The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled in favor of allowing OpenCourt to expand their streaming video feeds of court proceedings beyond Quincy District Court. The WBUR project has been running since last year, allowing anybody to watch what’s going on in the courtroom. It’s been a success by any measure, but when they tried to …
Continue reading “OpenCourt Wins Legal Battle Over Streaming Proceedings”
Announcing Ethics.gov.
This is what I did for the White House from November–February—create Ethics.gov. I’ll have to write a lot more about that whole adventure, now that the site is public. In short, though, A++++ WOULD WORK THERE AGAIN. →
VDOT tracking snowplows via GPS, sharing their position.
Chicago recently announced that they’d be sharing the GPS-tracked positions of snowplows online, for people wondering when their neighborhood would be plowed, and what roads are cleared. Now VDOT is doing the same in Virginia, although only upstate. →
Links for September 27th
Mediaite: AP Reporter Responds To Chris Hayes Panel Debate On Racism Of Droppin’ G’s From Obama SpeechThere's some fussing about how an AP reporter transcribed a quote from President Obama. In a recent speech, the president said: "Shake it off. Stop complainin’. Stop grumblin’. Stop cryin’." On one of those sunday morning shouting shows, the …
Links for August 29th
Macleans OnCampus: Is this what 17-year-old students are really like?I think Beloit College's annual Mindset List is wretched. Every year it's full of mistakes, exaggerations, and generally poor thinking. I'm glad to see McLeans acknowledge this. DejeroNews stations are either loving their Dejero or coveting one. It's like a whole news truck in a suitcase, …
Links for July 12th
GitHub: nysenatecio/OpenLegislationThe New York Senate's online legislative repository is available on Github. Very impressive. Reuters: It pays to be Murdoch. Just ask US gov’t.Over the past four years, not only has News Corp. not paid income taxes, they've actually gamed the system to collect $4.8B in tax refunds. Murdoch has 152 subsidiaries spread among tax …
Links for May 13th
PolitiFact Virginia: Jamie Radtke says George Allen had 40,000 earmarks while senatorDoes anybody take this woman seriously anymore? CNN: Conservative group sues over bin Laden death photosAlthough I think it would be politically unwise and generally disgusting to release the photos of Osama bin Laden's corpse, I think there's a good argument to be made …
Links for May 10th
IBM Many Bills: A Visual Bill ExplorerIBM is doing some really interesting work with legislation here. In my own work on Richmond Sunlight, I've long treated the text of the bill as a black box, doing very little with the text of bills. IBM demonstrates here that there's actually some valuable data to be gleaned …
Links for March 15th
FOIA.govWoot! It's not just open government—it's open government about open government. Virginia needs one of these. Virginian Pilot: Va. House members back redistricting planThe state's House of Representatives delegation have agreed on a redistricting plan that would protect all incumbents. Let's all pause and put on our best surprised faces. Griffith's district grows to take …