RECAP in the Los Angeles Times and Elsewhere

Monday's Los Angeles Times has a great article talking about the growing movement for government transparency. It focuses on three of our favorite transparency advocates: Ellen Miller, co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation; Josh Tauberer, a regular at CITP conferences, and Carl Malamud, whose non-profit, public.resource.org, is a key RECAP partner.

The article discusses RECAP in some detail, describing it as "a sort of digital Kumbaya." We're always happy to have news outlets help spread the word about RECAP, and we're also glad that the article makes clear that RECAP is part of a broader movement for web-enabled government transparency. Folks like Carl, Josh, and Ellen have been pushing the envelope on these issues longer than we have.

One minor correction that's worth noting: the article refers to "the courts' PACER revenue of $10 million a year." In reality, the expected revenue for 2009 is $87 million. This and many other details about PACER's budget can be found in RECAP co-author Steve Schultze's recently-released paper on the subject.

RECAP has been a subject of discussion in other venues as well. Ars Technica discussed the courts' reaction to RECAP in its story about the PACER service offering MP3s of court proceedings. And if you happen to be a subscriber to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly or New Jersey Law Journal, you can see their write-ups of RECAP here and here, respectively.