New Technology Committee Members Needed

If you are a government Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) professional with an interest in technology and innovation, we need you!

In response to a recommendation from the 2016-2018 term of the FOIA Advisory Committee, the Archivist of the United States proposed that the Chief FOIA Officers (CFO) Council partner with the Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council to establish a technology subcommittee to study the use of technology in FOIA programs across agencies, and identify best practices and recommendations that can be implemented across agencies.

The CFO Council established the Technology Subcommittee (recently renamed the Technology Committee) in September 2018. The Committee is co-chaired by senior FOIA professionals at the Department of State and the Veterans Health Administration at the Department of Veterans Affairs.  The Committee recently published its Best Practices and Recommendations report.

Membership on the Committee has included FOIA professionals from the Departments of Homeland Security and Interior, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Library and Museum Services, the American Battle Monuments Commission, the Social Security Administration, the Air Force Declassification Office and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We are very grateful for their service, but as the Committee starts a second term, we will have some vacancies to fill. 

Please consider signing up and contributing your knowledge and expertise to a number of topics the Committee will explore this upcoming year. Areas of inquiry will include various ways that technology plays a role in the FOIA process, how requests are submitted to agencies, how agencies interact with the public on the status of requests, how agencies search for, review, and redact records for disclosure. The Committee members will also explore developments in artificial intelligence such as machine learning and technology-assisted review, as well as ways technology can provide equal access to records for people with disabilities as required by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. 

If you are a government FOIA professional interested in serving on the Technology Committee of the Chief FOIA Officers Council, please email OGIS Director Alina M. Semo.