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Noted: that at work we process a pretty large number of request per year under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA for short, or for even shorter, FOI.) There’s a lot, but most are pretty routine, so it’s not overwhelming.

Also noted: some of these requests are for information that should be publicly release-able without going through the FOI process.

Strictly speaking, I shouldn’t be processing those. I should be returning applications and fees back to the requesters, and telling them who in the various city departments to contact instead. But often I simply do the requests like any other.

The reason is the same reason why these requesters are going through the FOI process rather than just asking: many people feel much more comfortable dealing with a neutral third party.

Say you’re an average citizen, living a quiet life. And then something happens that you care very much about, to the point where you need to speak up. So now you’re writing the newspaper, you’re organizing protest groups, you’re making deputations to Council, talking to City administration about your issue. In order to do a decent job of it, you need information — you need the same information that your political opponents have access to. And the people you need to get the information from are the ones you believe to be against you.

I am not saying that City staff are hostile, or have been refusing to release information that should be public. But when tensions are high, you need someone who can take a neutral stance. Requesters like that I’m someone they’ve never met before, working in a different physical location, and sticking to provincial law by meeting deadlines and keeping them anonymous. It makes for, I think, a much safer-feeling environment when going up against bureaucracy. And I’ve been told that quite directly, a number of times: “I’d rather just pay the application fee and deal with you guys instead.”

The third way, of course, is releasing much more information proactively.

I got to attend ACA 2010 in Halifax last week. I’ve for years strongly believed ACA to be the best conference ever, and I was not disappointed. It’s got a perfect combination of sessions, workshops, and social events both scheduled and casual. I was in good company last week.

Session summaries will be showing up on this site over the next little while.

As part of the Outreach Committee, I was involved in the ACA 35th Anniversary Oral History project — which meant that I spent most of the refreshment breaks and several session periods out on the balcony, talking with some of the people who have made archives in Canada what they are. (Missed some sessions, sure, but probably learned far more than I would have otherwise.)

This was my third ACA, but the first I attended as a fully-graduated, working professional. The first (2006) I was a student, the second (2007) I was months out of school, working a tenuous contract barely related to my skill set. So the thing at the back of my brain ~constantly~ was: will I be getting a job out of this?

(Answer: no, but not for lack of trying.)

So it was much, much better to be there as a normal, working delegate, to approach strangers are a colleague rather than as a supplicant, to be able to relax and hang out with the people I wanted to be with rather than worrying about where I should be at any given time.

A great conference, and once again demonstrated that I get more out of things when I stop trying so hard and just enjoy the experience.