It's Sunshine Week -- Is the Sun Shining Brightly on an "Open Government" near you?

Sunshine Week is “the annual nationwide celebration of access to public information and what it means for you and your community.”

As genealogists and family historians access to public records and “freedom of information” are critical to our success in documenting the lives of interest to us. Since many of the records that interest us are created by government entities, open government is invaluable.

Unfortunately, open access is often sought, as it should be, about malfeasance by those responsible for managing programs or providing services.  One can also use open access though to learn about more mundane.

And, threats to records access continue.  In the most recent IAJGS Public Records Access Alert – (US) Sunshine Week and the Right to Know – Worldwide, Jan Meisels Allen shares...

... This is a good time to look what is happening with the “right to be forgotten” and the tension between the US Freedom of Speech and the European Union’s right to privacy—which is being emulated in other countries.  How will the US First Amendment fare with the new requirements being imposed on information technology?

Whether it is the myriad of court cases and EU rulings against Google and Facebook, the impending EU Data Privacy Regulations or the newly proposed Privacy Shield replacing the Safe Harbor regarding data flow from Europe to the United States, the “right to know” is being challenged ...

A reminder that access to information is not a given and that access we have now may disappear in the future, which is reinforced by “Sunshine Week: Session included attempts to roll back access” as recently reported in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA.)

Rejoice in the public information and records that you do have access to and also help ensure that such access continues into the future.

  

Editor’s Note: Related posts-- National Freedom of Information Coalition (2012) & Should photographing public records be FREE? (2014) & NARA Open Government Plan (2014)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission to [email protected]. All republished articles may not be edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom of each UpFront article.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to [email protected]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Follow NGS via Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter