IUP Journalism Class

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IUP LogoYesterday, I had the privilege of speaking to a journalism class at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. David Loomis invited me to talk to the class about the Right-to-Know Law, the Sunshine Act, and other issues of government transparency.

The class had a lot of great questions, and the discussion was a lot of fun.

Here’s the Powerpoint I put together for the event:

Indiana University of Pennsylvania Presentation 24 Sept 2015 (PDF)
Indiana University of Pennsylvania Presentation 24 Sept 2015 (PPTX)

OOR Annual Training: 10/21 in Harrisburg

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The Office of Open Records conducts training sessions across Pennsylvania throughout the year, but each year we also host an Annual Training session in Harrisburg. This year’s event will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., at the State Museum.

This training session will cover both the Right-to-Know Law (also known as the Open Records Law) and the Sunshine Act (also known as the Open Meetings Law), including a discussion of significant recent OOR rulings and court decisions impacting the laws. Attendees will have ample opportunity to ask questions.

Registration is free, and the event is pending approval for 1.5 CLE credits.

Register online at http://oor-training-2015.eventbrite.com/

UPDATE (9/25): The training has been approved for 1.5 CLE credits.

Thrival Festival: Big Data & You

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Yesterday, I took part in the “Big Data & You” panel at Pittsburgh’s Thrival Innovation & Music Festival.

The panel also included Dr. Rasu Shrestha, Chief Innovation Officer, UPMC Enterprises; Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Associate, UPMC Center for Health Security; and Saman Haqqi, President of Pittsburgh Dataworks and Program Director at IBM’s Watson Group. Our terrific moderator was Jay Srini, Chief Information Officer, Kew Group.

It was a fascinating discussion and I was excited to be a part of it. Here’s the Powerpoint I used:

Thrival Festival Presentation 22 Sept 2015 (PPTX)
Thrival Festival Presentation 22 Sept 2015 (PDF)

Yesterday’s other panels and discussions were equally interesting, including “This is Old News: Innovation in Traditional Media” and “Creative Chaos: Diversity and Innovation.” If you’re in the Pittsburgh area this week, check out Thrival Festival’s schedule. This year’s event runs through Sunday, Sept. 27.

Follow ErikOpenRecords and OpenRecordsPA on Twitter.

New Office of Open Records Website

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I’m pleased to report that the Office of Open Records has a brand new website: http://www.openrecords.pa.gov/

It’s designed to make it easier for everyone — requesters, agencies, media, etc. — to access the information they need as quickly as possible.

The website will always be a work in progress, so if you have an idea for improvement, let us know! Leave a comment here, tweet @ErikOpenRecords or @OpenRecordsPA, or send an email to openrecords@pa.gov.

Agency Open Records Officer Guidebook

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The Office of Open Records website (which, by the way, is scheduled to get a much-improved look and feel tomorrow!) includes numerous guides about the Right-to-Know Law for both requesters and agencies.

The newest — and most comprehensive — of these is our new Agency Open Records Officer Guidebook (PDF).

The AORO Guidebook, 79 pages in total (with a variety of sample forms agencies can use as templates), is designed to provide a general overview of the RTKL process from an agency perspective. We tried to write it to be helpful for both new and veteran AOROs.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please post them here or tweet to @ErikOpenRecords or @OpenRecordsPA. You can also email us at openrecords@pa.gov.

OOR on Yelp

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OOR on YelpThe Office of Open Records is now on Yelp, the online review site.

Inspired by the article “Can Yelp Help Government Win Back the Public’s Trust?,” published this week by Governing, I added the OOR to Yelp this morning. Here’s part of what the article had to say:

Last month, Yelp and the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages the basic functions of the federal government, announced that government workers will soon be able to read and respond to their agencies’ Yelp reviews — and, hopefully, incorporate the feedback into service improvements. …

“I think government is looking to become far more innovative when it comes to social media,” said Laurent Crenshaw, head of public policy for Yelp. “This agreement provides a new way to connect with citizens and improve services.”

The goal of adding the OOR to Yelp is to give the public another way to connect with us, specifically to let us know how we’re doing. So if you’ve ever had a chance to interact with the OOR, go ahead and post a review. We want to hear from you!

Public Business and Private Email

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A recent article at Pennlive.com — “Should state workers conduct public business using private email accounts?” — tackled a very timely issue.

It’s an important article. When public officials are discovered to have used private email accounts to conduct government business, it can erode public trust. However, at least in Pennsylvania, it does not remove those emails from potential public review.

Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, as I told the article’s author, Jan Murphy, “very purposely does not distinguish between agency business that’s done on agency computers versus agency business done on a personal device.”

In other words, the RTKL was written to ensure that public records could not be kept out of the public sphere simply by using a personal email account.

Public officials should use official government email accounts — that’s clearly the best practice, and it should be the standard.

But if, for any reason, government business is conducted on personal devices, the RTKL covers those records in the same way it covers government business conducted on government devices.

August 2015 Appeals Statistics

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August was another record-breaking month here at the Office of Open Records. More appeals came in our door last month than in any month before.

We received 344 appeals in August. At this point, four of the top five months in history (including each of the top three) have been in 2015.

Here’s a look at the top 10 busiest months in the history of the OOR:

  1. Aug. 2015 — 344 appeals received
  2. June 2015 — 313
  3. July 2015 — 261
  4. Sept. 2013 — 244
  5. April 2015 — 241
  6. Oct. 2013 — 240
  7. Aug. 2013 — 235
  8. Aug. 2012 — 231
  9. April 2013 — 222
  10. Dec. 2013 — 221

Podcast: Senator Dominic Pileggi

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SenPileggiWebSmOn the new Open Records in Pennsylvania podcast, I interviewed Senator Dominic Pileggi, the author of Pennsylvania’s current Right-to-Know Law.

Senator Pileggi and I talked about how he thinks the law has worked since being enacted in early 2008, his thoughts on possible amendments (including Senate Bill 411), and more.

Subscribe:
Open Records in Pennsylvania podcast on iTunes

Listen:

Podcast Logo CroppedDownload:
Episode 2 of the Open Records in Pennsylvania podcast

If there’s something you’d like to hear on a future episode, let me know. Share your thoughts in the comments below, tweet to @ErikOpenRecords or @OpenRecordsPA, or send an email to openrecords (at) pa (dot) gov.

Theme music by Pennsylvania’s own John Austin.