Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Comments

  1. …instituting an open meeting law for all levels of government.  I’m chairperson of my town’s renewable energy committee, and I have to comply with the open meeting law, which basically says that I can’t make a decision about any topic unless we are meeting in open session at a time and place that was announced to the public at least 48 hours prior to the meeting.  There’s no reason the guys on Beacon Hill or in DC should not have to do the same.

    <

    p>For technology, I’d stream every meeting to the web and archive them – and allow ordinary people to use the archive to create their own educational YouTube videos.

    • Great Idea – will never happen. The legislators will keep inflicting new regulation on local cities and towns and exempting themselves.

      <

      p>

      <

      p> You know the privacy law – the state exempted itself – it just applies to private businesses.

  2. On behalf of my colleagues, Kate Geyer and Tim Vaverchak, I’d like to follow up on this post, and suggest anyone interested in Open Government visit the Massachusetts Open Data Initiative at mass.gov/data, where we’re developing a growing catalog of public data. We welcome requests for new datasets as well – please email opendata@massmail.state.ma.us.

    <

    p>The Open Data Initiative connects citizens to information they need and provides support to agencies in releasing data in open formats. Better access to information gives citizens the tools they need to engage with government, and enables government to make better use of resources. With open access to information, citizens will create great applications with state data.

    <

    p>Pioneer’s award looks like a great opportunity. We’re looking forward to seeing new ideas for state government transparency efforts!

Archives