From: Catherine Bracy <catherinebracy(a)gmail.com> Date: October 9, 2013 at 3:06:23 PM PDT Subject: [berkmanfriends] Code for America Oakland project: public records requests Hi Berkfriends, Our Code for America team in Oakland this year has built a pretty cool tool to streamline and make more transparent public records requests: http://www.codeforamerica.org/2013/10/01/recordtrac-easy-access-to-public-r… Some of you may be wondering how this is different from the FOIA Machine that the Center for Investigative Reporting is building after their successful Kickstarter campaign. I love their idea (I'm a backer, in fact) but RecordTrac serves both the citizen AND the government entity. Turns out many times the slowness in responses to FOIA requests isn't nefarious it just happens to be a real pain in the ass for government employees. RecordTrac makes it easier, and allows employees and requestors to have a conversation about the process. If anyone wants to know more (or even wants to help redeploy it somewhere else!) I'm happy to connect you with the team. Catherine Bracy Organizing and Engagement Director Code for America ----------