You are invited to a Public Forum:"Freedom of Information in a Digital Age" Nov. 14

THE DELAWARE COALITION FOR OPEN GOVERNMENT
In partnership with
Delaware Press Association
The League of Women Voters of Delaware

PRESENTS

A “We the People” Program

Freedom of Information in a Digital Age: The Current FOI Landscape

Speaker: Ken Bunting, NFOIC Executive Director

University of Delaware’s Goodstay Center
2600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Wilmington, Delaware

Monday, November 14, 2011
6:30 p.m. - social gathering / light refreshments
7 p.m. - program
FREE and open to the public

(Scroll down for directions to the Goodstay Center and to Register)

Ken Bunting, Executive Director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, will give an overview of the free flow of information nationwide and will explore how the ability to share public information electronically in a modern digital age affects access to open government and open records. He also will focus on increasing costs to access public records in Delaware, general weaknesses in Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act, state lobbying law reforms and more.

The program also will feature brief comments by a committee that will illuminate the results of the United States Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) report “Following the Money,” in which Delaware was listed 31st in an emerging status report. Mr. Bunting’s talk and the PIRG commentary will be followed by questions from the audience.

Bunting is a former Pulitzer Prize judge and former associate publisher and executive editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer where he was in charge of responses and strategy regarding legal matters involving the newspaper and its staffers, including copyrights and trademarks as well as First Amendment and access issues.

Please join us. Collectively, we can exert a powerful force for good here in Delaware. If we the people are willing and eager to work together, we can help to bring about government of the First State that not only is of the people, by the people and for the people, but also is open to the people.

Directions to the Goodstay Center, 2600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Wilmington
Head north on Route 52 (Pennsylvania Avenue) from Wilmington for approximately one and a half miles. Turn left onto UD’s Wilmington campus at the first traffic light after the light at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue (Route 52) and Greenhill Avenue. Heading south on Route 52 from Pennsylvania, pass the Greenville Shopping Center on the left, cross Route 141 and continue for 1/4 mile. Look for the UD sign on the right by the Tower Hill School pedestrian overpass. Turn right at the traffic light onto the Wilmington campus. The Goodstay Center is the first building on the left. Ample free parking on site.

Please Register at http://www.delawarepressassociation.org/calendar.htm#NOVEMBER

The program is free and open to the public. Join us at 6:30 p.m. for networking and light refreshments. The program will begin at 7 p.m. To ensure enough seating, please let us know by November 9 if you’ll be coming. Guests are welcome.

To register, simply click Reply and send: 1) your name, 2) guests’ names and 3) a phone number to DelcogData@aol.com.

This program is partly funded by a grant from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Get more information.

You are welcome to distribute the attached flyer.

I hope to see you on November 14.

John

John Flaherty, DelCOG President
302-319-1213
JDF0000@aol.com

DelCOG, an affiliate of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, is a statewide coalition of journalists, attorneys, representatives of civic associations, individuals and elected officials whose mission is to improve and increase public access to government.

Keeping Government Accessible . . . and Accountable