newsobserver.com projects - The principles of online sunshine - Comments

Re: The principles of online sunshine

rossreport — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:31:48 -0500

I'd like more hearing rooms at the General Assembly accessible online.
Right now only the two main chambers and the main finance and appropriations rooms are streaming. But there's a lot of action that takes place in judiciary and other hearing rooms.
Not all of us can afford to hang out in Raleigh all day.

thanks for asking

kmr

Re: The principles of online sunshine

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:21:59 -0500

I agree that timeliness is a key goal for online sunshine, and one that the legislature, if not state departments, handles well.

But the search function is a problem. Say you're looking for a bill in the 2007 session that would have put a moratorium on capital punishment. Type "capital punishment" in the "Search Bill Text" box and the top results are about corporal punishment, streamlined capital cases, capital financing and a local option sales tax. Search for "moratorium"? Not there.

You have to search for "execution" to get the bill.

— RTB

Re: The principles of online sunshine

gercohen — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:35:44 -0500

thanks Jeff for the praise.

At the NCGA, we've automated a lot of the process, so within a few minutes of a member filing a bill, it's online. We link the bill history, roll call votes, etc. As to presentations, we're trying to do a good job of gathering up power point presentations and posting them online for interim studies. At standing committees during session, there are rarely visuals and most of the time we just get paper handouts from presenters.

As to having links to sections of the budget bill (or for that matter, to sections of any bill), the bill section styles are created by the drafter with a domino.doc template initially in MSWord, then later converted to .pdf and .html, and I've asked the NCGA IT staff if it is possible to put some sort of tag or anchor there that would allow a direct link. I'll post the answer.

Re: The principles of online sunshine

MeckDeck — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:05:26 -0500

Finding smaller chunks of info in bigger haystacks concerns me less than having access to ALL the decision-making documents -- the memos and PowerPoints that actually stick in policymakers' minds.

A good general rule of thumb should be if you attach it, post it. Yeah, hopelessly "open" but I think if we create the expectation that the public is always part of the dialog, officials will adapt. We are making progress, I think.

JAT

Re: The principles of online sunshine

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:46:40 -0500

I don't think the legislature is going to create its own wiki, but direct linking would allow you or I to create one for it.

Direct links to specific sections in the budget would make that even easier.

Given the nature of politics today, you might even see two competing wikis: One from the left and one from the right...

— RTB

Re: The principles of online sunshine

mikehelms — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:38:49 -0500

In the "perfect" internet universe, I think this is where a wiki would really shine. Each section of the budget could be broken down into cohesive, digestible pages with links to reference documentation that would help the reader synthesize the information.

This would take some effort to turn into a properly hyperlinked wiki document, but I think it would be worth it.

The principles of online sunshine

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:02:42 -0500

What does sunshine look like online?

The state's public records law goes into detail about what information should be made available to the public and the press, but it's silent on whether any of this should be on the Internet.

Fortunately, most state agencies in North Carolina are pretty good about putting certain records online, but really harnessing the power of the Web takes more than just scanning and posting a few documents.

Take the state budget, for example. The General Assembly posts a copy of the budget in bare-bones HTML and as a downloadable PDF. But at 298 pages, it's a monster to read—and even worse to link to.

Say you were a blogger who wanted to point out what the budget says on abortion. You can link to the budget, but you can't link directly to the line (Section 10.32) that talks about the state's abortion fund.

There's a principle of online sunshine: Allow direct linking on complex legislation.

In the coming weeks, we at Dome will explore other principles. We welcome your comments in the thread below, on your own blog or by e-mail to dome@newsobserver.com.