So far: 17 states, 8,495 miles, 35 sessions, 584 people (see schedule)

Washington, D.C. – It’s amazing what you can find in the buried properties of electronic records.

Tip No. 33: Make sure to ask for electronic files in their “native format.” So if they were Word documents, as for copies of the original Word documents. Then check the properties of the file to see who created it, who changed it, when it was changed, etc (on  PC, right-click on the file icon and pick “properties,” then look at the various tabs of info). You might find that the file was edited or changed by someone.

In Arizona the state Supreme Court ruled that the embedded information in electronic files are part of the records so they are subject to the public records law just like other parts of the recorded record. If an agency says it doesn’t have to provide you the “meta-data” then you probably will have a good chance of challenging and winning.

Power of preaching: Some kind words from Michael Koretzky to the SPJ board in an e-mail following the stop in South Florida last week:

… Dave drove into South Florida Thursday night and completely kicked ass … this wasn’t a dry recitation of how to acquire arcane documents. Dave psyched up and out those journalists.

One of my students even emailed me well after midnight that he was “up late on an FOI buzz,” researching a whole bunch of crap online that he learned from Dave four hours earlier. And he found two story ideas he’s already pursuing.

Dave Cuillier doesn’t just give a lecture, he delivers a call to arms. He explicitly shows what you can do with those damning documents you unearth, and he ends with an impassioned, damn-the-torpedos exhortation. The high-tech clickers are cool, too.

Now, I don’t post this to brag, but rather to show the power of some FOI evangelism. I’m hoping we can continue this sort of programming for journalists and citizens for years to come. And I’m looking forward to the last three weeks of this tour!

Monday: Today (Sunday) I drove to Washington, D.C., in preparation for a session with the SPJ DC chapter Monday night. It’s fun to be in D.C. – what a place of history. I love seeing the original Bill of Rights – the original First Amendment. Beautiful words:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So far: 16 states, 8,165 miles, 34 sessions, 552 people (see schedule)

Jacksonville, Fla. — Joe Adams loves answers, and he is great at helping others find them.

Joe is an editorial writer at The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and vice chairman of the SPJ Freedom of Information Committee. I had lunch with Joe today (Friday) on my way from Miami to North Carolina.

Joe Adams

Joe is phenomenal. Everyone in Florida knows him. He’s talked to just about every class and media organization about FOI. He wrote the Florida Public Records Guide, hands-down the most comprehensive state FOI guide in the nation (I collect them). He’s created great classroom tools for college journalism instructors. But more important, Joe has created a great Web site that helps citizens access their records. It’s called idiganswers.com, and it includes his “hit records” as well as tips for backgrounding dates. This is the best way to spread freedom of information.

Tip No. 31: Publish a weekly column in your newspaper or on your Web site about “Records for Everyday Life,” providing each week a cool record that people can use to improve their lives. Jennifer LaFleur, formerly of The Dallas Morning News and now with ProPublica, used to write a column like this, called Citizen Watchdog. It was awesome. Every paper should do this. Not only is it news-you-can-use that citizens appreciate, but it fosters public support for government records because they see the practical utility of them.

Saturday: I’ll drive from Dunn, N.C. to Richmond, Va., where I’ll give a talk to the Virginia SPJ pro chapter. Thanks for having lunch with me, Joe! Tip for travelers: I have a tough time finding postcards for my kids. But I found that trucker travel centers usually have them – so far “Pilot” centers along the interstates always have them. Most other places are hit or miss.

So far: 16 states, 7,428 miles, 34 sessions, 552 people (see attached)

Boca Raton, Fla. — Today (Thursday) I spoke with the South Florida SPJ pro chapter at Florida Atlantic University and had the chance to hear from students who struggle to get information from administrators.

University officials are notorious for dinking students around over records. It can be tough to exert authority when administrators consider themselves all-powerful (and forget that they are public servants).

Michael Koretzky

Michael Koretzky, an SPJ national board member and adviser to the FAU student newspaper, said he found that universities won’t usually listen to journalists or open-government organizations, but they will listen to other universities, particularly bigger, more prestigious universities.

Tip No. 30: If an agency doesn’t believe you that a record is public, provide open-government manuals from official entities they would respect, such as the state attorney general’s office or the state’s association for cities and towns. Often those entities provide guides to cities and other local jurisdictions. The cities might not believe you, but they might believe their peers or the AG, the highest government attorney in the state.

Darcie Lunsford

It was good to chat with Darcie Lunsford, who is secretary-treasurer for the national SPJ board of directors and associate editor of the South Florida Business Journal. She’s covering the real estate market – a tad busy in recent years! I also had the chance today to chat with Eric Newton, vice president for the journalism program at the Knight Foundation in Miami. The Knight Foundation provided some of the funding for this tour, via the National Freedom of Information Coalition, so I’m grateful for a group that believes in journalism and freedom of information. Check out all the cool programs they fund for journalism. I talked to Eric about some of what I’ve seen so far, including the huge need for training at small papers. A lot of journalists don’t learn how to access records in college, and some of them aren’t getting it on the job. We need to figure out ways to make sure every community has hard-charging, knowledgeable journalists and citizens fighting for good governance and accountability!

Friday: I start heading north again up the East Coast for sessions in Virginia Saturday, in D.C. on Monday, and beyond. I’ll have lunch Friday with Joe Adams, vice chair of the SPJ FOI Committee, who is an editorial writer for the Jacksonville, Fla., newspaper and authored Florida’s public records handbook. It’s been a lot of fun in Florida – I saw a wild alligator in some water near the highway. Crikey!