One of the big splashes of Sunshine Week was the launch of the new FOIA.gov last Monday by the Department of Justice. Nate briefly editorialized last Tuesday: “A crystal bowl is nice. But the proof is in the pudding.”
The new FOIA.gov is certainly an attractive website and does a tremendous job aggregating FOIA data. Based on my own personal experience with the FOIA audit, trying to get this kind of aggregated data is downright frustrating. Before the new FOIA.gov, the only options for getting these kind of numbers was to either check the wildly inconsistent (in content and availability) FOIA report summaries from the FOIA Post or sitting down and going through each agency FOIA report with a calculator and Job’s patience.
I will openly admit that I approached the new FOIA.gov with a high level of skepticism. The flashy, Obama campaign-inspired graphics are aesthetically pleasing, but like Nate wrote, the proof is in the pudding. After spending some time exploring the website, the new pudding is relatively good. (more…)
