Freedom of information and metadata
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Freedom of information and metadata         


Author: Dr Quite Evil
Date: May 14, 2008 11:50

It would be interesting to hear your comments and opinions on the
following.

Essentially, I'm struggling with the problem that when we want to get
information out of the government, it can be difficult because we don't
know if the information exists or if it's in the right format.

My tentative solution is to turn the idea of having a database full of
information on its head. Instead, we would have a database describing
information we don't have but would like to have.

The problem is that there seems to be a distinct obstacle to holding
governments accountable using Freedom of Information requests.

This was highlighted yesterday, when the EU Ombudsman announced a
consultation to see what people think about databases as documents.

The public currently has the legal right of access to some EU documents.
However, in 2005 a Danish journalist requested access to a database about
agricultural subsidies. His application was refused, on the grounds that
a database is not a document.
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3 Comments
Re: Freedom of information and metadata         


Author: Brian Selzer
Date: May 14, 2008 13:35

"Dr Quite Evil" evil.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9A9E6E4506418evil@85.214.90.236...
> It would be interesting to hear your comments and opinions on the
> following.
>
> Essentially, I'm struggling with the problem that when we want to get
> information out of the government, it can be difficult because we don't
> know if the information exists or if it's in the right format.
>
> My tentative solution is to turn the idea of having a database full of
> information on its head. Instead, we would have a database describing
> information we don't have but would like to have.
>
> The problem is that there seems to be a distinct obstacle to holding
> governments accountable using Freedom of Information requests.
>
> This was highlighted yesterday, when the EU Ombudsman announced a
> consultation to see what people think about databases as documents.
>
> The public currently has the legal right of access to some EU documents. ...
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no comments
Re: Freedom of information and metadata         


Author: Ed Prochak
Date: May 14, 2008 14:23

On May 14, 7:35 am, "Brian Selzer" selzer-software.com> wrote:
> "Dr Quite Evil" evil.com> wrote in messagenews:Xns9A9E6E4506418evil@85.214.90.236...
>
>
>
>> It would be interesting to hear your comments and opinions on the
>> following.
>
>> Essentially, I'm struggling with the problem that when we want to get
>> information out of the government, it can be difficult because we don't
>> know if the information exists or if it's in the right format.
>
>> My tentative solution is to turn the idea of having a database full of
>> information on its head. Instead, we would have a database describing
>> information we don't have but would like to have.
>
>> The problem is that there seems to be a distinct obstacle to holding
>> governments accountable using Freedom of Information requests.
>
[] ...
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Re: Freedom of information and metadata         


Author: Brian Selzer
Date: May 14, 2008 16:19

"Ed Prochak" gmail.com> wrote in message
news:69cee404-0f95-40de-a33a-765197df72d5@a1g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> On May 14, 7:35 am, "Brian Selzer" selzer-software.com> wrote:
>> "Dr Quite Evil" evil.com> wrote in
>> messagenews:Xns9A9E6E4506418evil@85.214.90.236...
>>
>>
>>
>>> It would be interesting to hear your comments and opinions on the
>>> following.
>>
>>> Essentially, I'm struggling with the problem that when we want to get
>>> information out of the government, it can be difficult because we don't
>>> know if the information exists or if it's in the right format.
>>
>>> My tentative solution is to turn the idea of having a database full of
>>> information on its head. Instead, we would have a database describing
>>> information we don't have but would like to have.
>>
>>> The problem is that there seems to be a distinct obstacle to holding ...
Show full article (5.03Kb)
no comments