Sunshine Week Highlights Open Government March 15-21

News media and open-government groups across the country will field events March 15-21, 2015, to emphasize the importance of freedom of information to democratic government.

There will be exposés. There will be glory. There will be legal analysis. There may inevitably be some embarrassment. There will be schmoozing. And in at least one instance, there will be beer.

Some media outlets pick Sunshine Week, as it is called, to publish investigations they have been working on for months, often with the help of open-records laws like the Freedom of Information Act. Stay tuned for further revelations. If you want to get plugged in or take part, check out the Sunshine Week website.

Here is a short preliminary list of some major Sunshine Week events already scheduled.

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation will award its Foilies 2015 prizes to the most outrageous and absurd FOIA experiences submitted by contestants. Winners announced on the EFF website.
• OpenTheGovernment.org and the American Library Association will have their annual FOI Day forum at the Newseum (a cosponsor) in Washington, DC on March 13. More info.
• The Chicago Headline Club will host its FOIAfest 2015 at a daylong workshop at that city's Loyola University March 14, featuring Bruce Brown of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and IRE dean and U. of Illinois prof Brant Houston.
• The National Press Club and its Press Freedom Committee will hold its FOIA Faster workshop featuring Lisette Garcia with tips on getting better FOIA results in DC on March 16.
• The Minnesota Newspaper Association and state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, along with an army of j-students, will be doing a weeklong audit of private contractors doing public business.
• Other Sunshine Week events will be posted on the Sunshine Week events website.