Bill > HB1274

This bill mandates that if a public agency publishes a public record to an Internet site, it must do so in an "open format," meaning the information is platform-independent, machine-readable, and freely reusable. Additionally, any public agency with an Internet site must publish catalogs of the public records it makes available online, and these catalogs themselves must be in an open format. The Office of Technology will then maintain a central Internet site that aggregates these catalogs from all public agencies, making it easier for both people and computer programs to find public records available online. The bill defines "Internet site" broadly to include websites, web services, and file transfer protocol sites, and "open format" as a format that doesn't restrict the reuse of information.