Sunshine Week March 12 -18, 2006

The second annual Sunshine Week is being held from March 12 - 18, 2006. The purpose of Sunshine Week is to focus attention on the public's right to access to information about what their government is doing. For example, the PBS program "NOW" will devote an hour on the issue. (The same program has links on its website to information from earlier shows on the same topic, including commentary from Bill Moyers who was in the White House when FOIA was first signed into law. It is very interesting reading.)

The Sunshine Week blog has more information about the specific plans for the week, but anyone can get involved. It is a perfect time for people to start talking to their local government officials about putting more public documents online for easy access by the public. I have decided to use it as a starting point in my community to convince the town officials to post the important town documents online. I will report here on my efforts. Hopefully, my experience will help others get started where they live.