Lauren Harper [snipped]: “The US was the first country to enact a modern Freedom of Information Act, and was the model other countries looked towards when crafting their own FOI laws. Now, however, the US lags behind the world’s transparency leaders, and, if the US hopes to catch up, it must embrace the technology mandates of the 1996 E-FOIA Amendments and the 2007 OPEN Government Act. The best ways for the US to do this is by posting FOIA releases online, and convert its mostly analog FOIA process to a digital one. Agencies are quick to argue why they don’t want to post FOIA releases online and why the practice wouldn’t work, and we have already dedicated a posting to rebutting these arguments, along with reasons why posting FOIA responses would not only work, but is imperative. The point of today’s posting is to observe some of the world’s best practices. Countries like Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Norway all do a better job in some respects than the US when publishing public information electronically, and the US should incorporate and improve upon their best practices…Similarly, while the UK’s FOI law has been the subject of heated debate, it does mandate the publication of its corporate FOI releases. Last September, the Wall Street Journal published an article on how US hedge funds and other commercial enterprises utilize the FOIA to “obtain potentially market-moving information about products, legislation, regulation and government economic statistics” in what the article described as an “information arms race.” Daniel Schuman of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington correctly notes that problems arise when the government doesn’t fulfill its legal obligation to publish these records after they have been requested. Currently, the US FOIA stipulates that “frequently requested” materials, which the Department of Justice defines as records that have been requested three or more times, must be posted by agencies somewhere in their electronic reading rooms. The FOIA additionally stipulates that agencies must “publish any record that has been released to any person and is likely to become the subject of additional requests.” As the Journal points out, responses to commercial requests fall into this category due to their ability to drive markets, impact the stock market, and ultimately what products become available to consumers. The US’ current practice of not releasing this desirable information manipulates markets by giving an unfair competitive advantage. To fix this, the US must begin posting commercial responses online as the FOIA mandates, and then fully fulfill the spirit of the FOIA by posting all responses online, period.”