Better late than never: Martin Stabe contributes his thoughts from the UK, and how their Freedom of Information Act is playing out. read the full entry

I just noticed that Jason D. O’Grady at PowerPage, subpoenaed in the Apple v. Does lawsuit, endorsed Blogshine Sunday yesterday on their Opinion page. Thanks for the support!

As Blogshine Sunday draws to close here on the East Coast, I’ll close with some more examples of what folks are saying:

nadezhda at chez Nadezhda chimes in with her excellent thoughts on bloggers’ relationship to Sunshine Week and freedom of information:

The public’s access to information and — equally important — how information intermediaries and consumers choose to use that information, ought to be a major focus of the blogosphere of “ideas,” whether politics or science and technology, medicine, environment, social services, law and law enforcement, labor relations, financial services, education, you name it. For the great majority of blogs that aren’t engaged directly in electoral politics or who don’t see themselves competing with “journalists,” the ability to access the vast amount of information that federal, state and local governments have collected, analyzed and archived is far more important than the debates over “who is a journalist” and whether/how blogs will be regulated if they support partisan activities. read the full entry

Delilah Boyd at A Scrivener’s Lament makes sure to represent the light-hearted side of sunshine: “Go forth and question everything.” read the full entry

PDiddie at Brains and Eggs contributes a Texas-sized liberal perspective. read the full entry

Julian Krause, a student the University of California, Riverside, writes about his experiences writing a paper on the Parents Music Resource Center. read the full entry

Jim Zellmer at Zmetro contributes his notes about the politics of Madison, Wis. read the full entry

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the massive coverage of Sunshine Sunday, the parallel and inspiration for Blogshine Sunday. A sampling is available at Sunshine Week. In particular, I like this editorial cartoon from the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Pat yourselves on the back for standing up for open government! Let your elected officials know how you feel — and that you won’t stand for anything less.

“Hey, did anyone see a report from the jail?”

Once, I was a journalist. Well, sort of — I’m a student, and I decided to try my hand at reporting, so I got a job at the student newspaper. I was assigned the cops & courts beat: if the provost got a DUI, it was my job to know about it.

At the University of Florida, the provost only gets arrested once in a while. On other days, I had to find something else to write about. Was a car stolen from campus? Was there a drug bust in a student-heavy part of town?

So, after class, I’d head in to the newsroom, call the county jail, ask them to fax the daily logs… and wait. Sometimes they came right away. Sometimes they were busy, and the fax didn’t come until hours later, after my deadline had passed. Often they weren’t what I’d asked for. Sometimes they never came at all.

Of course, when you’re running a jail, faxing records to the student newspaper probably doesn’t seem like a top priority. But nearly every day, I wondered, “Does the real newspaper have this problem, day after day?”

Other times, the problem was the opposite. Last September, a female student alleged she’d been raped at a fraternity party. She moved to press charges, then changed her mind. A few weeks later, we learned the case had been re-opened. I called the Clerk of Courts to see whether any warrants had been issued. In fact, one had: a search warrant for the frat house. The clerk faxed it to me — along with the original complaint, un-redacted. The police department had declined to tell us much of anything, citing ongoing investigation, but here was the warrant, with every bit of detail. Things I wasn’t supposed to know, and didn’t want to know: the names of the victim and perpetrator, her birthday and address, even her online screenname — there it all was.

This is how well local officials complied with their responsibilities under state and federal sunshine laws — and I was a member of an established newspaper, press pass and all. How in the world would a freelance journalist or blogger fare? What about an average Joe?

Of course, the forces with which I struggled are nothing compared to the secrecy that can exist at a federal level. Perhaps the most mind-boggling example is EFF co-founder John Gilmore’s story, told through articles like this one from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. On the Fourth of July, 2002, Gilmore attempted to board a domestic flight and was asked for photo identification. Gilmore asked to see the law that requires photo ID for domestic flights — and was told the regulation is Sensitive Security Information and “not subject to public disclosure.” He would have to comply with a law he’s not allowed to see.

I gave up reporting, but I remain a citizen. Sometimes I’d like to see a government document, and am disappointed to find it’s not online. For many Americans, especially young people, if something’s not online, it doesn’t exist. And that’s precisely the problem. Sure, I can call and ask someone to fax it to me — I can even go downtown and pick it up myself — but not everyone can.

What good is a fax for a blind person? If that document was online, technologies exist to make it accessible — technologies that don’t exist for a fax. What good is a fax for an individual living overseas — or will the U.S. government pick up the tab to fax documents of any length to Bolivia? More succinctly, what good is a fax for the millions of Americans who have an Internet connection, but no fax machine? Or will Uncle Sam send it via snail mail?

What I’m getting at is this: a better technology exists, with the possibility to save time and money for both individuals and governments. Why aren’t we using it?

To rely on older methods of communication is tantamount to discrimination against citizens who depend on the Internet, for whatever reason they do so. Similarly, to restrict access for journalists from certain news organizations, or journalists from a certain medium, is discrimination. Whether governments do so purposefully or otherwise, the act is equally discriminatory, and unconstitutional government meddling with a free press.

The solutions are not difficult to see: more training for government employees; more, and better, information released by government entities; more information available online, in open file formats, without requiring registration or tracking users’ personal information, in open databases to which no one can be denied access; less secrecy — in short, more respect for the freedom of information, for citizens and journalists of whatever variety.

But the status quo doesn’t change unless citizens push it to. A government with nothing to hide will let citizens see so. A government that pushes back? You may have something to worry about.

Gavin Baker is a freshman majoring in history at the University of Florida and director of Blogshine Sunday for FreeCulture.org. This column, along with the rest of the Blogshine Sunday Web site, is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license, and may be freely reprinted in any medium, with or without alterations, according to the terms of the license.

Some examples of what folks are writing on Blogshine Sunday:

Mark Tapscott, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Media and Public Policy, rings in with “just some of the countless examples of how the FOIA helps citizens find answers.” read the full entry

Aaron Swartz, coder extraordinaire, writes about U.S. State Department documents revealing the U.S. role in Indonesia’s 1975 invasion of East Timor. According to Swartz, the invasion may have resulted in the death of up to 230,000 Timorese. U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger knew of the planned invasion; Kissinger promised to “influence the reaction in America” and later lied about his knowledge of the invasion. read the full entry

J. Gregory Palmer, publisher of Keystone Politics, writes, “The FOIA is one of the most powerful tools journalists possess when investigating the government, and thus bloggers have no choice but to learn to effectively utilize it. Open, honest journalism relies on market-based competition to succeed and to ensure truth. Bloggers can play an enormous role in checking the power of corporate media conglomerates, but only if they mimic the techniques of real journalists.” read the full entry

Donna Wentworth at Copyfight contributes her thoughts on the OPEN Government Act, which proposes equal treatment under the Freedom of Information Act for online journalists as for traditional journalists: (The debate over online speech is about) “the battle to ensure that we have a truly healthy, functioning democracy — one where you don’t have to be a member of the media elite to participate. As I wrote before, I can’t imagine that we’ve ever needed this kind of legislation more than we do right now.” read the full entry

Steve Rhodes writes at Tiger Beat about “one of the first uses of the web to distribute documents,” the Tobacco Control Archives at the University of California, San Francisco. According to Rhodes, the archives were founded in 1994 after thousands of tobacco industry files were left in a UCSF professor’s office. read the full entry

Christopher Frankonis writes at the Portland (Ore.) Communique about two outstanding requests for information regarding the city of Portland: “For us, these requests represent a fair example of the challenges of the public or the press obtaining relevant and timely information fom the government. At any moment, City Council could schedule a hearing on Portland’s participation in the (Joint Terrorism Task Force). Given the imminence of that consideration, these peices of information are extraordinarily important to proper public discussion of an important public matter.” read the full entry

Mary Minow at LibraryLaw Blog provides her thoughts on the Congressional Research Service. read the full entry

David Giacalone of f/k/a weighs in, “reminding our readers that the lawyer discipline system falls signifcantly short in most states from the basic goals of an open process and easy access to information.” read the full entry

Scott of LavishLuau offers the tale of his quest to learn why Arizona State University tore down a gymnasium and never built a new one: “As a taxpayer it seemed wasteful that ASU removed a perfectly functional building, disrupted many people but were too short-sighted to realize that they lacked the funds to use the vacant land and relocate the displaced users someone else on campus.” read the full entry

Garrett M. Graff of fishbowlDC, the first blogger to recieve a daily White House press pass, provides a link; Blake Carver of LIS News does the same.

Check back later for updates and my own thoughts.

Trackback or comment on this entry with a link to the Blogshine entry on your blog. The address to trackback is:

http://blogshine.org/blog/2005/03/13/its-blogshine-sunday/trackback/

I’ll spotlight some entries throughout the day, and post one of my own.

Thanks to everyone for all of our great coverage, including Sunshine Week, Editor and Publisher, WikiNews, Online Journalism Review at USC Annenberg, Mark Tapscott of the Heritage Foundation, the Committee to Protect Bloggers, Intellectual Property & Social Justice, New Media Musings, MediaLaw, LIS News, LibraryLaw, the Freedom of Information Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and everyone else.

I hope Blogshine Sunday will give you all something to report about again!

Bloggers-as-journalists seems to be gaining acceptance, judging by some recent news:

• On Monday, the New York Times reported that Garrett M. Graff of fishbowlDC “may be the first blogger in the short history of the medium to be granted a daily White House pass.” (Don’t want to register for the Times?)
• On Tuesday, the Online Journalism Review from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California announced it was making available three tutorials for bloggers without journalism experience. The tutorials are wikis which anyone can edit, and are licensed under a Creative Commons license.
• Sen. John Cornyn’s press secretary told me last week that the OPEN Government Act will likely have its first hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committe in mid-March. The act, among other provisions, would charge bloggers and other Internet-based journalists lower fees for information requests, a privilege currently based on institutional affiliation.

Have something to say? Want to play a role in Blogshine Sunday? Here’s how.

Pick a topic and your perspective. Do you have a story to tell, or are you just speaking your mind? Remember when you tried to look for property records for that big house on corner to find out how much it’s worth? Or when you found out your Uncle Joe had a CIA file in the ’60s, and wanted to look at it? Or when you wanted to know the phone number for that guy running for the city commission? Or would you rather write from a more philosophical standpoint, about why access to information is important? Maybe there’s something specific you’d like to write about, like the OPEN Government Act?

This will be coupled with your choice of topic: are you writing about the need for digital access to government records, or about the need for equal access for non-traditional journalists?

If you have a blog, then post your column there on Sunday, March 13. We’ll post an entry the day before where you can comment or trackback so people find your story; or, email me. You can use one of these buttons on your site, if you like.

If you don’t have a blog, why not get one? (They’re the wave of the future, don’t you know.) If you have a Web site, you can install a free software blogging system, like WordPress. If you can’t install your own blog, there are sites that offer free blogs, like LiveJournal or Blogger.

For more information about freedom of information and open government, have a look at our resources section. Sunshine Week also offers a list of organizations for open government; there’s one near you.

If you’d like to help out in other ways, feel free to tell others about Blogshine Sunday, write about it on your blog, or forward the press release to your local media.

(View this release in PDF or ODT)

Bloggers Look for “Sunshine” on Public Access to Government Documents
FreeCulture.org announces Blogshine Sunday

March 8, 2005 – On March 13, news organizations across the United States will participate in “Sunshine Sunday” by running stories and editorials in support of public access to government information. Simultaneously, bloggers throughout the U.S. and beyond will spotlight their own experiences with obtaining access to government documents. This “Blogshine Sunday” has been organized by FreeCulture.org, an international group of student activists, to ensure that government remains accessible to tomorrow’s journalists.

Are bloggers really journalists? While the debate continues to rage, it is indisputable that this grassroots media is already playing an important role in uncovering and disseminating information. Indeed, the very characteristics that set bloggers apart from traditional journalists – amateur status, a near-fanatical dedication to following particular stories – are powerful tools for pursuing the kinds of buried malfeasance that open-access laws are meant to uncover. Recent incidents – the CBS Evening News and “Rathergate” in 2004, Sen. Trent Lott’s comments at Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday in 2002 – make it clear: bloggers unearth stories that would otherwise go untold.

Blogshine Sunday, at http://blogshine.org, is about preserving the right of all citizens, not just credentialed journalists, to observe the workings of their government. Whether local council meetings or federal advisory committees, the activity of public officials should be clear and visible to ordinary people.

Blogshine Sunday also focuses on digital access to records, a topic relevant to traditional journalists as well as bloggers and other citizen journalists. Blogshine Sunday emphasizes the importance of open access, asserting that government documents need to be digital and online, not buried in archives.

As part of mainstream journalism, the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Sunshine Sunday is an important effort. FreeCulture.org supports the need for freedom of information and open government. But the strong, disinfectant power of sunshine can come from many corners. On Blogshine Sunday, look for some rays from unexpected sources.

Related stories

On Feb. 2, the Society of Professional Journalists announced it had donated $1,000 to the legal fund of the senior editor of Oklahoma State University’s student newspaper, who was denied access to university records in a digital format. link

On Feb. 16, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced legislation which would extend Freedom of Information Act fee waivers to journalists, regardless of institutional association, including bloggers and other Internet-based journalists. link

In 2003, the Florida Supreme Court banned court clerks from making most court records available online until guidelines for the process had been created. A court committee is expected to vote on those guidelines later this month. link

About Blogshine Sunday

Blogshine Sunday, on March 13, 2005, is being organized by FreeCulture.org to ensure that government remains accessible to tomorrow’s journalists. Authors of Web logs around the United States will be encouraged to write on their blog about their experiences obtaining access to government and the need for freedom of information in the digital age.

On the Web at http://blogshine.org/

About FreeCulture.org

Launched in April 2004 at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pa., FreeCulture.org is non-partisan, not-for-profit group of student activists dedicated to promoting the power of technology to enable cultural participation. Named for the book by Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig, FC.o was founded by two Swarthmore students after suing voting-machine manufacturer Diebold, Inc. for abusing copyright law in 2003. Today, Free Culture groups exist at nine colleges, from Maine to California. Groups with which FC.o has collaborated include the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, Creative Commons and Downhill Battle.

On the Web at http://freeculture.org/

Contact

Gavin Baker
Director, Blogshine Sunday
campus: (352) 846-6359
mobile: (407) 929-5657
gavin@freeculture.org

Nelson Pavlosky
Executive Director, FreeCulture.org
campus: (610) 690-5287
mobile: (973) 580-7510
nelson@freeculture.org