Re^2: If I had a Free Two Months...

[samizdat]

That sounds like an awesome project. With OSS, too, it can be propagated so fast that any OSS *NIX box could have it. Of course, it's not just the tools, it's access to the data of concern. There does seem to be a growing tendency to ignore Open Meetings and FIA requirements these days, with the blessing of "our" congresscritters.

[tphyahoo]

I assume you meant FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request. I have a little FOIA saga of my own, where I requested original data for treasury financial reports, and was told, absoutely. Only, it would cost me fifty thousand dollars.

The treasury FOIA compliance office backed down later, kind of, sort of... But my conclusion was that this was a wakeup call that fixing things towards transparency is not something that some "hero" can accomplish alone, it requires collaboration from a large group of people, outsiders with day jobs, and insiders who have access to the data but are too scared to whistleblow. This means collaboration, and collaboration tools, and this is the infrastructure that needs to be put in place.

Nix or windows, thanks to Active State perl and windows dummy install Apache Friends, I say who cares about the OS. Tools should be web enabled, and the work distributed in a wiki like way. If you build it they will come...

See also my solaridatabank space, where I discuss FOIA troubleshooting, the demise of and hamilton software, and other matters related to such a scheme as this.