Arkansas Blog

Why should we the people have to hire lawyers for this purpose at all? I think this type of communication should be published and made available on the web as it happens.

Email is the way business gets done in the knowledge age, unfortunately. Nine times out of ten, it's much more efficient and effective.

Meetings when everything is discussed and decided right then often lead to bad decisions from groupthink. They're often dominated by the strongest personality. There's always someone who can't make it. Etc.

I personally much prefer marinating in an email discussion for a week, understanding and reaching consensus. Maybe Eureka Springs has the right answer - put all the email on the web.

So what you're saying here Max, is that it would be a good idea to include a line in every email sent....like Show me your tits, baby! That way if I ever get in any trouble my emails will not be released thanks to our nutty nutty state Supreme Court?

If that little trick works, I might start taking advantage of that "signature" thing that is an option at the bottom of your email. I've never messed with it before...but automatically adding smut to each email I send out could really pay off in the long run. I'm guessing this loophole in the FOI laws would also cover naked pictures. If I attached a little picture of my Crimson Darth Vader in every email I sent...no nosy news hound could touch it! Brilliant!

If only there was something I could write or attach to my checks that would stop the bank from charging me 27 bucks every time I bounce one. What if I spray paint some sex words on the cover over my water meter? Think that will keep them from ever turning off my water again? And here all these years I thought there was no magic to magic words!

ARK. BLOG: Magoo, you've done it again.

Many critics of the ways in which government activities are conducted argue that government should be run like a business, but most of these same people would scream if their businesses were subject to the FOI laws. If all e-mail exchanges by government employees are subject to FOI disclosure, shouldn't we also record their phone conversations and make them available? What about the stuff written on sticky notes and attached to letters and documents?

In some ways an e-mail is the 21st century equivalent of a letter (and in some ways, not material here, it's not, but bear with me), and the originating e-mail account is in some ways (authenticating the source and sender, for instance) the equivalent of letterhead.

Would we ever suggest that a letter written on government letterhead is not subject to the FOI Act?

Then again, as I have been reminded in this blog, there is the fact that the language of the Act is pretty clear, and my commonsense view of what is what isnt' relevant.

But consider: what is the difference between the filing cabinet of last century and the e-mail program of today that "keeps" copies of e-mail "correspondence" arranged by date and sender? Is that difference -- volitional preservation of the document -- significant?

I was going to suggest submitting FOI requests for every officials' email - that way you could confirm who was diddling around and how often - but then DBI spoiled it all by telling them how to beat the system . . .

Soon after e-mail became a common business tool, someone advised me to treat all e-mail as if it might be read by my mother, the governor, or God. To that list of unintended readers I added the name of Sister Mary Gertrude, who continues to monitor my spelling, grammar, punctuation, and syntax from her teacher's desk in the sky. I would advise any government or quasi government employee to adopt a similar rule of thumb. I invite anyone to read all e-mail that I have generated at work. It would be a boring experience. Any time I feel it necessary to say something that might be sensitive, I take out my cell phone, which I pay for myself, and call the person I want to talk to.