{"id":1760,"date":"2009-01-26T08:29:59","date_gmt":"2009-01-26T13:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=1760"},"modified":"2009-01-26T08:29:59","modified_gmt":"2009-01-26T13:29:59","slug":"open-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2009\/01\/26\/open-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, yells yeah<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear\u00a0presumption:\u00a0In the face of doubt, openness prevails.\u00a0The\u00a0Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of\u00a0speculative or abstract fears.\u00a0Nondisclosure should never be\u00a0based on an effort to protect the personal interests of Government officials at the expense of those they are supposed to\u00a0serve.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take\u00a0affirmative steps to make information public.\u00a0They should not wait for specific requests from the public.\u00a0All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government.\u00a0Disclosure should be timely.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Of all the things President Obama has promised to do, I hope this is his most lasting legacy. An open government is a trustworthy government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, yells yeah: A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency. […] The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear\u00a0presumption:\u00a0In the face of doubt, openness prevails.\u00a0The\u00a0Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of\u00a0speculative or abstract… Continue reading Open Government<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-1760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-government","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-so","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":434,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/03\/31\/internet-study-finished-after-7-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":0},"title":"Internet study finished – after 7 years","author":"Keith Survell","date":"March 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I find this particularly amusing, given some of the conclusions of the report. One thing noted was that the report suggests that major Internet hubs be operated by volunteers & other non-government agencies - which is in STARK contrast to what the UN is saying these days.","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26480,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2026\/01\/13\/america-is-a-fascist-state\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":1},"title":"America is a Fascist State","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I never thought I would see the day where I would have to say this, but here we are.","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":534,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/06\/08\/school-controls-speech\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":2},"title":"School Controls Speech","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 8, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"\"It's true that under the Court's Establishment Clause caselaw the government generally may not itself engage in religious speech, nor may it give preferential treatment to religious speech. But this ban on government preferences for religious speech doesn't require or authorize discrimination against private religious speech. Such discrimination is itself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3043,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/04\/22\/lessons-we-still-havent-learned-from-1984\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":3},"title":"Lessons we still haven’t learned from 1984","author":"Keith Survell","date":"April 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking at George Orwell's novel '1984' and seeing some uncomfortable parallels to our modern world.","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2008\/05\/1984-was-not-supposed-to-be-an-instruction-manual-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4941,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2017\/01\/25\/a-party-in-denial\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":4},"title":"A Party in Denial","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Denial has somehow become the political strategy of the Republican Party in the United States, and somehow... it's working?","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6286,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2025\/02\/14\/thats-not-how-you-do-efficiency\/","url_meta":{"origin":1760,"position":5},"title":"That’s not how you do “efficiency”","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I do not think that word means what you think it means.","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}