The idea comes from [1], where like you say, a journalist/requester can work with the government IT folk to craft a SQL query. A big problem comes, though, from the burden and staffing required to write the query. To add to that, FOIA often requires cost estimates prior to starting a request - which, in the case of writing code, can muddle estimations... which have to be paid on the onset. My position is that if the requester understands the schema, then the burden required to write the query is essentially nullified. That way, the only cost would then be the review of the query, which is trivial in comparison to writing one from scratch.
There's a lot of prereq knowledge needed before submitting a request for code. That, and there's generally a potential for penalty against a public body that doesn't run a full search. So in many ways, there isn't really a need for a requester to submit their own SQL from the onset.
It is possible! For example, I recently received [1] a mysqldump of Chicago's "data dictionary" database, which is a collection of database schemas from databases throughout Chicago.
That said - it's not always simple. The big problem is that information being released through FOIA still needs to be reviewed by a person, which can be time consuming and expensive. Especially so when a technical person gets involved. It's often just much easier (for everyone) to request specific information.
The "data dictionary" database dump was only easy to get only because I knew for a fact that the database was already reviewed through a process that matched FOIA's.
Nooo! Think of the untold millions of potential FOIA requests you're eliminating!
At least that's the ideal case scenario. Practically speaking, that would require an in-depth, contextualized review of every single row of every single column in every single schema.
So, the answer is probably yes, pursuant to the "associated costs" field of the request being at least 5 figures, and probably 6.
The idea comes from [1], where like you say, a journalist/requester can work with the government IT folk to craft a SQL query. A big problem comes, though, from the burden and staffing required to write the query. To add to that, FOIA often requires cost estimates prior to starting a request - which, in the case of writing code, can muddle estimations... which have to be paid on the onset. My position is that if the requester understands the schema, then the burden required to write the query is essentially nullified. That way, the only cost would then be the review of the query, which is trivial in comparison to writing one from scratch.
There's a lot of prereq knowledge needed before submitting a request for code. That, and there's generally a potential for penalty against a public body that doesn't run a full search. So in many ways, there isn't really a need for a requester to submit their own SQL from the onset.
[1] http://illinoiscourts.gov/Opinions/AppellateCourt/2018/2ndDi...
(not a laywer, etc)