NY Bill Would Require Online State Records 76
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Micah Kellner, the New York State assemblyman who last year submitted a bill to provide a tax credit to open source developers, has now proposed the 'Open New York Act,' a law that would make it mandatory for state agencies to put almost all of their public records on the Internet. According to Kellner's office, the law would 'revolutionize the relationship between New Yorkers and their state government, requiring all state agencies to make their records available through a central website — where the data can be used by activists, entrepreneurs, and others to create a host of applications useful in everyday life.' The Open Government Foundation, Citizens Union, and New York Public Interest Research Group all support the bill."
Re:Oh my, the possibilities for disaster (Score:4, Informative)
You can already get much of that data pretty easily from the federal government [census.gov], e.g. your hypothetical racial map for Chicago [wikimedia.org].
I do think there are probably bad things one can do with demographic data as opposed to good ones, but I'm not sure you can do much by simply hiding the data. De-facto racial segregation in housing exists long after the eradication of de-jure segregation, and even if you hid the data, people who live in a city are going to notice that neighborhoods have different demographics, and if they were going to avoid neighborhoods with races they don't like, they can (and do) already do it without the app.
Re:well, why not? (Score:3, Informative)
Have you ever gone down to a government office and tried to get information on anything? A government clerk does the search.
Yes, actually. Unless it's a pending court case, I don't have to speak to anyone. But the docket listings for each week are routinely published online, so if you want to be completely thorough, there you go. In my state (Minnesota) every public record since 1973 is searchable by going to the courthouse in Minneapolis and using one of two computer terminals that are free to the public. Before that, records are stored on microfische(sp?) and date back to the mid-1800s. there is a small fee to pull the relevant records. Be aware... Searching for anything on those antiquidated systems takes hours. They only charge for copies made either by computer or MF. That same database is available for a fee to private investigators and other people who have a bona fide reason to access public records regularily, and those fees support its maintenance.
New York, frankly, is a bit behind the times.
Re:well, why not? (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry, but $2-36 billion in subsidies for the entire oil industry (from both links, the first I'm pretty sure is extremely inflated given the fact that even Greenpeace gives $35 billion as their highest estimate) doesn't seem that significant, considering Exxon alone paid $30 billion in taxes in 2007.
I don't know about that, but in 2009, Exxon paid $0 in US income taxes, and Chevron only paid $200M. [forbes.com]