Day one, Obama calls for open government

Obama, keeping it real, as promised!

UPDATE: the memo is already posted on the whitehouse.gov site for anyone to review! How refreshing!

During this, his first day in office, President Obama called for open government, and issued a memorandum which spells out to approach the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) “with a clear presumption: in the face of doubt, openness prevails.” This presumption of openness is in direct contrast with limits the Bush administration put in place, a fact driven home by the last line of the memo:
Sec. 6. Revocation. Executive Order 13233 of November 1, 2001, is revoked..
Now we’re talking! More of the memo reads:

All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government. The presumption of disclosure should be applied to all decisions involving FOIA.  The presumption of disclosure also means that agencies should take affirmative steps to make information public. They should not wait for specific requests from the public. All agencies should use modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government. Disclosure should be timely.

But wait, there’s more… (more…)

Jan 22, 2009 | Categories: commentary, headline, obama, politics | Tags: barack obama, foia, linux, Microsoft, obama adminstration, open software, open source technologies, privacy, Scott McNealy | View Comments