A White House press release posted last month celebrated the third anniversary of the day President Obama joined the leaders of seven other nations to launch the Open Government Partnership (OGP) with four new open government initiatives. The OGP is an international coalition dedicated to promoting transparency and civic engagement.
From October 22-24 in Philadelphia, leaders in Civic Tech will learn how to become an innovator local government and make their communities better stewards of technologies to improve collaboration, transparency, and experimentation at the Rise Conference. AINS, as a leader in case management, FOIA processing, and open government, will attend
October 1st marks the beginning of the fiscal year. This week, many government agencies hustled to finalize the requests, budgets, and tasks of FY 2014. As we close out one year and begin fresh, it is an excellent opportunity to take a closer look at the data we have
Like most businesses, many government agencies and organizations do a lot of their communication through email correspondence. As agencies are steering away from stacks of paper and toward digital file systems there is still some work to be done on the policies that affect these documents. That brings
The world is becoming ever more tech-savvy, and FOIA requestors have come to expect more from their government. We rely on computers for everything from checking job postings to ordering take out. The public has come to expect data at their fingertips thanks to services like Netflix, online
Government agencies deal with tons of FOIA requests every day. There are a lot of steps to processing these requests from receipt to delivery. On top of that, FOIA amendments from 2007 require that agencies release information electronically upon request. Are more requirements on the horizon? Recently, one UK judge took
Government transparency is an important part of running a successful and ethical city. Citizens are more tech-savvy than ever and they are eager to know all they can about their local government. That means they are submitting more Freedom of Information/Privacy Act and other Information Requests than ever. Keeping up with these
Let’s face it. Most times the people making the big decisions are not the ones down in the trenches. The day-to-day maintenance and expertise falls to the power-users; to the experts. Managers and department heads are experts in their own way. They are the people who must ultimately decide how
Merriam-Webster defines transparent as having the property of transmitting light without appreciable scattering so that bodies lying beyond are seen clearly. Does government transparency follow suit? Taking in consideration the definition given, or using clear as a synonym to transparent, it can be argued that it does not.
In 2009, the Obama administration entered the White House and called for a more open and transparent government. They sought sweeping initiatives that planned to make information more easily accessible and set goals for streamlining the FOIA process. However, in the quest for a more open and transparent
