Editing User:Sj/FOIA me

Here are a few notes on the FOIA-me project.
http://piratepad.net/Q7zUeEbi0E

This is a rough overview of what triggers state FOIA coverage:
http://www.sunshinereview.org/index.php/Private_agency,_public_dollars

Legal questions break down into ~3 categories:
1) FOIA:  What is FOIAable? Which unis and works are covered?  Can
individuals respond directly to requests or must an assigned agent do
it?  Can individuals delegate agency, or must their institution
determine it?  How does agency delegation work - to contractors or
otherwise - and what are its limits? What limits exist on the assessed
costs?  Does federal FOIA law ever apply to federally-funded work at
unis (say, at public-funds-receiving private unis s.a. Harvard)?

2) Copyright:  How can FOIA requests be shared - a) when authors do
not have (c) [in CA? in TX?], b) when authors have copyright and want
to freely license it, and c) when they have it and do not want to
license it at all?

3) Legal practice:  How do unis and their counsels deal with this in
practice?  How can we make this as easy as possible for them?  What is
involved in researching how they respond to a FOIA, and how could
well-worded requests and providing them with background make their
lives easier?

Three good states to start with:  CA, TX, MA.  (the first 2 due to
their policies)

Ideally we would end up with

 - a brief covering the legal facts above (broadly & in at least one state)
 ++ a list of state details that need to be analyzed, to produce a
state-specific version of the brief.  [divide and conquer!]

- a sample "good university policy" that supports efficient FOIA
responses, including allowing people to respond at the lowest level.
 - a sample "good FOIA request" that makes it as easy as possible for
both the author and the author's institution to review, locate fitting
material, and respond.
 ++ a list of uni details that need to be analyzed, to produce a
uni-specific summary of policy and a streamlined request

At which point interested implementers could repeat the analysis
regionally and locally in more detail.

I'd love to hear what you think.   I met Adam Berry yesterday and
talked with him about it at more length today; he seems interested.

== Asides ==
* http://www.thetangentbundle.net/wiki/TheTangentBundle:Community_Portal
* http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html