Governor pushes for increased access, transparency

Hawaii Gov. David Ige has urged all state department heads to “strengthen efforts to increase access to public information, ensure that government business is conducted as openly as possible, and enhance government accountability.”

The executive memo, issued without fanfare on Aug. 25, reiterates Gov. Ige’s push for more openness and public input, but more specifically reminds government officials of the importance and aim of the Uniform Information Practices Act, first adopted into law in 1988 and amended by the legislature most recently in 2016. Gov. Ige gives department heads seven specific directives, including posting data online, appointing an official point of contact for information requests, and minimizing request costs passed onto requesters.

These directives didn’t materialize out of thin air, of course. The memo was nearly three years in the making, spearheaded by Brian Black, Executive Director of the Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest.

Brian convened a coalition of like-minded organizations and individuals (including Hawaii Open Data) in October 2014 that were interested in advancing “a culture of public access at the state level.” Even before we knew who would be Hawaii’s next governor, work began to draft a joint letter. Finally sent to Gov. Ige in December, the letter called on the state’s chief executive to “speak out strongly in favor of government transparency.”

“We have seen rising public demand for openness and increasing public suspicion of institutions that respond to scrutiny without comment or full disclosure,” explains the letter, which puts forth three suggested priorities that “would have a profound impact on access to government information.”

• State agencies should presume that government documents are public and invoke exceptions to disclosure only if they must, not simply because they can.
• Each State agency should post contact information for the public to easily ascertain how to submit requests for records.
• Requests made in the public interest should be charged, at most, only copying costs.

Since then, Black had been checking with the Governor’s office and the office of the state Attorney General, encouraging the state to take action on the letter. It was only yesterday, however, during a meeting on another subject, that he learned that the Governor had issued the executive memorandum.

“The executive memorandum addresses the issues outlined in our letter,” Black wrote in an email to coalition members. “There certainly are things that could have been stronger, but I hope you all agree that this is a positive development.”

He notes that the letter applies only to state agencies under Gov. Ige’s administration, thus potentially excluding the University of Hawaii or Office of Hawaiian Affairs. It also doesn’t apply to county governments.

“We must remain vigilant when dealing with State agencies on public records that the agencies take these principles to heart,” he adds. “I am excited to see where this takes us.”

 

You can download the executive memorandum from the state website, and I’ve also uploaded and embedded it via SlideShare.

Implementation of the Uniform Information Practices Act from Ryan Ozawa

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Microsoft Announces ‘Project Honolulu’

Microsoft has again invoked the Aloha State for a product name, this week announcing “Project Honolulu.”

Project Honolulu is described as a “flexible, locally-deployed, browser-based management platform and tools” recommended as a “graphical management solution” for Windows Server.

In announcing the tool, Microsoft doesn’t explain how or why it chose the name. But the company does share a number of customer reviews, which are amusing to read out of context:

I use Honolulu to manage hyperconverged cluster based on Storage Spaces Direct and what a tool. Honolulu provides me metrics, alerts and ease of management from a web interface. I can now easily manage my volume and get the state of my infrastructure. Honolulu looks like really flexible and Microsoft can add features really quickly.

This isn’t their first Hawaii shoutout. Back in 2010, Microsoft announced “Project Hawaii,” which included the “MAUI Project.”

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VR Junkies Comes to Hawaii

There’s a newly opened virtual reality gaming shop at Ala Moana Center called VR Junkies Hawaii. It’s actually part of a national chain, which Opapo Fonoimoana discovered in Utah and brought back to Honolulu. We were introduced to Opapo by local software developer Evan Nagle, and interviewed him about VR and his business on Hawaii Public Radio. It was great to hear how he saw gaming as just the entry point, and that he had a broader vision for bringing VR to the masses.

Before the show, Burt Lum and I headed down to check it out in person:

 

It’s not easy to maintain a retail storefront for any product, let alone something relatively new like virtual reality. Last year, my son Alex and I checked out “Lost Inside,” which was launched by local entrepreneur Rod Nakama in Kaimuki. He closed up shop a few months later, but continues to run The T-Shirt Lab.

With the official VR Junkies Hawaii grand opening coming up in a few weeks (hopefully after adjacent mall construction), here’s hoping Opapo and his colleagues can make this work.

I took my sons back to VR Junkies yesterday, and although it was expensive, my kids certainly felt it was worth it! There is a 10 percent across-the-board discount in place now, with a rewards program and additional pricing options planned.

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