Have you wondered who runs the Star Tribune? It is Thompson (Tom) Dean, CEO of Avista Capital Partners. You can view an interview of him in which he discusses the Star Tribune acquisition.

GOVERNMENT SECRECY: YOUR GOVERNMENT IS HIDING FROM YOU

More and more public information is being withheld from the public. This is not about security, it’s about secrecy in state and local government – reports and activities kept behind an opaque veil of bureaucracy and political expediency. MnDOT’s engineering and administrative reports on the I-35W bridge are merely one example of public employees refusing to disclose information that could save lives, injuries, and money. Contracts and deals are struck without bidding or scrutiny and reports of dangerous infrastructure flaws are kept under wraps. Who will break open the political cocoon that is becoming our government and let the butterfly free to allow citizens to access and control their government once again? Join TTT’s Andy Driscoll and Lynnell Mickelsen for a discussion with Minnesota’s most prominent advocates for open government, access and a free press.

GUESTS:
JOHN R. FINNEGAN, retired Editorial Page Editor, St. Paul Pioneer Press

DON GEMBERLING, Attorney and Retired Administrator, Minnesota Data Privacy Office
OTHERS TBA

The following announcement was published in the Minnesota State Register September 24, 2007

Office of Enterprise Technology
Chief Information Officer
Notice of Intent to Collect Stakeholder Input on Preservation of Electronic Documents

Under the provisions of Minnesota Laws 2007, Chapter 148, Article 2, Section 77, the state’s Chief Information Officer, Gopal Khanna, is to undertake a study related to preservation of electronic documents. The pertinent legislative language reads:

The chief information officer of the state, in consultation with the state archivist and legislative reference librarian, shall study how electronic documents and the mechanisms and processes for accessing and reading electronic data can be created, maintained, exchanged, and preserved by the state in a manner that encourages appropriate government control, access, choice, and interoperability. The CIO must report back through the CIO to the Legislature on findings and recommendations by January 15, 2008.

The law further requires that: The chief information officer shall solicit comments from stakeholders, including, but not limited to, the legislative auditor, attorney general, librarians, state services for the blind, representatives of the Minnesota Historical Society, other historians, and the media. The chief information officer shall also solicit comments from members of the public. To allow all citizens and stakeholders equal opportunity to submit comments, a web-enabled process will allow for structured input by use of an electronic survey accessible from the Office of Enterprise Technology (OET) website:
http://www.state.mn.us/portal/mn/jsp/home.do?agency=OETweb
or directly from the URL below.

The survey instrument will be available from Monday, September 24, 2007 until Monday, October 15,2007. At the conclusion of the survey period, all comments will be published on the OET website. To use the survey, go to http://survey.oet.state.mn.us/surveys/eds_stakeholder.htm