At our meetup this past Monday, October 20th, Gregory Foster presented on the asymmetry in data flow between United States government entities and the public. Communities like MuckRock have arisen to streamline open records requests, but scaling and improving the data dialog remains difficult, and many agencies have become cautious about ‘Government 2.0’ efforts post-Snowden. How can we “Think globally, act locally” on these issues here in Austin? We discussed these and related topics — ComputerCOP, IMSI Catcher detectors, and Automated License Plate Readers.
Big thanks to Capital Factory for hosting us and providing this recording. (Note: You can use the bottom-right button to toggle between Greg and the room. Neat!)
Further Reading:
- List of US Government APIs (Data.gov)
- MuckRock API Examples (GitHub)
- Secrecy News (Steven Aftergood)
- Seattle Ordinance on Use of Surveillance (Seattle.gov)
- Open Austin (Volunteer Organization)
- Austin City Data (Austin.gov)
- Austin 10-ONE Plan (Austin.gov)
- Austin Police Department ALPR Usage (MuckRock)
- Longer Paper on IMSI-Catcher-Catchers (SBA Research)
- “Phone Firewall Identifies Rogue Cell Towers” (WIRED)
