For the Freedom of Information Act to truly make an impact, there must be continual encouragement from both the public and inside government. The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to vote on a bill that will update the FOIA on sometime this week. This bill would require federal agencies
Happy Halloween! Tackling a FOIA request may seem daunting, but don’t let that haunt your thoughts. When you break down the FOIA process, it’s not quite as spooky as it might seem at first. Just look to Halloween traditions to help you handle your Freedom of Information requests: Go
This morning for my #Monday #FOIA #Advice tweet, I tweeted about FOIA communications and it started a little buzz and demonstrated it was a well worthy topic for a blog. FOIA communication is not only an essential action for better FOIA processing for requesters and FOIA offices, but also
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
With the start of the new fiscal year still in our shadow, it is a great time for all FOIA compliant agencies and offices to implement initiatives to increase transparency and open government. It is important to remember that the purpose of the FOIA is to provide the
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
“[It] is ultimately up to you to keep your government accountable. Activists and watchdogs can help, but ultimately the best and only thing to keep governments in line, at least in democracies, is popular will.” -Centre for Law and Democracy That is the take away from the International Right to Know
Next week marks the start of Right to Know Week in many countries across the globe. The very first Right to Know Day was held in 2002 after a FOI coalition meeting in Bulgaria. Since then, Right to Know Day has served as a reminder of the importance
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
