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The FOI Advocate is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The blog relies on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

An Interesting Look At Texas E-Mail Saga

An open source site takes a look at one man's drive to open the e-mail of Texas Gov. Rick Perry to public scrutiny:

John Washburn takes public records seriously. Recently, the 45-year-old computer software tester from Wisconsin decided to take on Texas Gov. Rick Perry over his e-mail retention program -- or lack of one.

Perry's office automatically deletes virtually all its e-mails every seven days, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Washburn, who viewed the retention period as "obnoxiously short," developed a computer program that every four days automatically requests all e-mails sent to and from Perry's office staff. When he received the first batch more than 8,000 e-mails covering four days -- he promptly posted them online.

More here.

2 comments:

Dan said...

Washburn's Blog

http://washburnsworld.blogspot.com/2007/11/messin-with-texas.html

National Freedom of Information Coalition said...

Thanks for droppin' by, and keep us posted!

cd