This is great! I often request records but have never come up with a great use case!
Under Florida public record law, source code produced by state employees is, in very narrow circumstances, a non-exempt public record (the code can't process sensitive data, etc.). I'm considering a future endeavor where I periodically request the code to such projects until the I.T. department decides it's worth the effort to open source it.
I like to think this is a step towards consolidating publicly funded code and reducing duplicate effort. Ahh, imagine making a pull request to your city's website! But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Interesting - any idea what the other circumstance are? Is there a statute for this? Have you considered requesting some specific source code and publishing it yourself? Might make sense to start small here.
I have a lot of experience in making public records requests and would be happy to help.
Under Florida public record law, source code produced by state employees is, in very narrow circumstances, a non-exempt public record (the code can't process sensitive data, etc.). I'm considering a future endeavor where I periodically request the code to such projects until the I.T. department decides it's worth the effort to open source it.
I like to think this is a step towards consolidating publicly funded code and reducing duplicate effort. Ahh, imagine making a pull request to your city's website! But I'm getting ahead of myself...