FYI, guys --

Of course the fact that nearly half of the counties failed to reply means
there's still a lot more enlightenment to be brought to the public
administrators in the Golden State.

-tj

*From:* Bruce Joffe [mailto:GIS.Consultants@...]
*Sent:* Thursday, October 19, 2006 5:56 PM
*To:* bruce@...
*Subject:* Open Data Consortium progress report October, 2006


Dear ODC Supporter and Friend,

Back in March, 2006, 26 people co-signed a letter to each of California's
counties asking them to state their policy on distributing their digital
parcel data (GIS basemap). Thanks to their collaboration, our campaign to
assure that these data - created and used by government agencies - be made
available according to the California Public Records Act (CPRA), has made
significant progress.

31 of California's 58 counties responded to our survey. Our current tally
of the counties' data distribution policies indicates:

14 Provide Parcel Data at No Cost
22 Sell Parcel Data at the Cost of Reproduction
13 Sell Parcel Data for More Than the Cost of Reproduction
9 Are Not Releasing Parcel Data (claim it is not ready yet)

More importantly, nine counties have changed their data distribution policy
this year, since the Attorney General's opinion stated that digital parcel
data was subject to the CPRA. Those counties include Contra Costa, Humbolt,
Los Angeles, San Bernadino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Santa
Cruz, and Shasta, with three more in process.

The Open Data Consortium campaign continues working to improve public access
to our public agencies' geospatial data because such access is necessary to
our democracy: it helps keep our government's actions accountable to the
people. The ODC campaign is supporting five strategies to improve geodata
access while also helping public agencies to afford the cost of maintaining
their geospatial databases.

* Support Enforcement of the Public Records Law
* Promote Use of Standard Data Distribution Policies & License
Agreements to Harness the Private Sector for Distributing Data
* Recommend Procedures to Capture the Value of Using Geodata and
Allocate a Portion to Geodata Maintenance
* Help to Formulate Legislation to Provide State Government Incentive
Payments (perhaps in the form of a property transfer fee dedicated to
geodata maintenance)
* Encourage Building Geodata Repositories for Emergency Response

Your support, suggestions, and encouragement really have helped this
campaign. One of our ODC colleagues informed the California First Amendment
Coalition (CFAC) of the campaign. They decided that public access to
geodata was important enough to exercise their right to request Santa Clara
County to provide their GIS basemap for the cost of duplication, as the
Public Records Act requires. The county refused, asserting that the PRA
does not apply (the Attorney General's opinion being only advisory). CFAC
has insisted on preserving the public's right to this data by filing a law
suit to enforce compliance according to the law. CFAC's press release is
included at the bottom of this message.

I hope this progress report will stimulate your thinking about ways you
might assist the campaign. Here are some specific suggestions:

* Please send me any documentation you have describing how others have
used public geospatial data to monitor and understand specific public agency
decisions (for example, land use decisions, zoning variances, property
assessments, police service deployments, social service deployments, etc.)

* Please send me any references you have to similar public record
legal challenges, particularly concerning a public agency's claim to
copyright protections.

* Please let other people who may be helpful know about the Open Data
Consortium campaign.

* Please send me your ideas and suggestions regarding the five
strategies outlined above.

and, of course,
* Please let me know about prospects for your material, financial, and
labor support.

Thank you.
Keep in contact.

Bruce Joffe
ODC Organizer
510-238-9771
GIS.Consultants@...

--
==========================================
J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism -- Santa Fe, NM USA
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c) 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com tom@...

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the
existing model obsolete."
-- Buckminster Fuller
==========================================


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