The Colossus Rebuild

Colossus ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Sale
Keyword(s):  
National Archive ◽  
Science Museum ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Post Office ◽  
Freedom Of Information Act ◽  
Cad System ◽  
The Us ◽  
First Time ◽  
Second World ◽  
Original Construction

In 1991, some colleagues and I started the campaign to save Bletchley Park from demolition by property developers. At this time I was working at the Science Museum in London restoring some early British computers. I believed it would be possible to rebuild Colossus, but nobody else believed me. In 1993, I gathered together all the information available. This amounted to no more than eight 1945 wartime photographs of Colossus (some of which are printed in this book), plus brief descriptions by Flowers, Coombs, and Chandler, and—crucially—circuit diagrams which some engineers had kept, quite illegally, as engineers always do! I spent nine months poring over the wartime photographs, using a sophisticated modern CAD system on my PC to recreate machine drawings of the racks. I found that, fortunately, sufficient wartime valves were still available, as were various pieces of Post Office equipment used in the original construction. In July 1994, His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent opened the Bletchley Park Museum and inaugurated the Colossus rebuild project. At that time I had not managed to obtain any sponsorship for the project, so my wife Margaret and I decided to put our own money into it, to get it started. We both felt that if the effort was not made immediately there would be nobody still alive to help us with memories of Colossus. Over the next few years various private sponsors came to our aid and some current and retired Post Office and radio engineers formed the team that helped me in the rebuild. In 1995, the American National Security Agency was forced by application of the Freedom of Information Act to release about 5000 Second World War documents into the US National Archive. A list of these documents was put onto the Internet. When I read it I was amazed to see titles like ‘The Cryptographic Attack on FISH’. I obtained copies of these documents and found that they were invaluable reports written by American servicemen seconded to Bletchley Park when America entered the war. I was also fortunate enough to be given access to the then still classified General Report on Tunny (parts of which are published for the first time in this book).

Sharing Knowledge With the Government

2019 ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
G. Scott Erickson
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Personal Privacy ◽  
Freedom Of Information Act ◽  
Privacy Concerns ◽  
Business Information ◽  
Private Knowledge ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
The Government ◽  
Information Requests

This chapter assesses the reliability and predictability of government departments as partners of private knowledge management systems. The specific topic is knowledge availability under the US Freedom of Information Act, but the general implications apply to governments at all levels around the world that hold business data, information, or knowledge assets. By comparing processes related to US freedom of information requests across departments and across time, separated by two dramatic changes in presidential administrations and attitudes toward governmental openness, this study examines the relative reliability of agency processes. In particular, reports on the handling of confidential business information provide us with specific insights on this topic as do reports on releases of records with personal privacy concerns. In the end, there appears to be little predictability in the process, even with clear instruction from the highest levels.

From our Own Correspondent … the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) in Context: FoIA, Privacy and Public Records

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-113
Author(s):  
Dave Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Complete Picture ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Freedom Of Information Act ◽  
Public Records ◽  
The Past ◽  
Private Collection ◽  
The Us ◽  
Public Record ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The U.S

The US Freedom of Information Act is a tool that can be used with success, but the current climate makes it less effective than it has been in the past. Privacy Acts are set up to protect the citizenry from untoward governmental scrutiny, but even with current legislation in place private collection of information from governmental public record resources and a variety of private resources can compile a relatively complete picture of many individuals in the U.S, from where Dave Rogers from Sidley Austin in Chicago sends us this report.

Tweeted, deleted: An exploratory study of the US government’s digital memory holes

2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482093403
Author(s):  
Muira McCammon
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Freedom Of Information Act ◽  
Government Employees ◽  
Digital Memory ◽  
The Us

Deletion is part of the Internet’s history and predates Twitter. Today, research on the laws underlying and facilitating government social media use and deletion practices has remained limited. The question of how government agencies create their own Twitter archives and subsequently institutionalize cultural memory has also been largely unexplored. Drawing on a US case study, I argue that the lack of a standardized federal policy has led to the creation of myriad digital “memory holes” of varying porosities. I show that, when systematically drafted and deployed, research based on the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) can serve as a generative method of unearthing deleted tweets and memory narratives that might otherwise be inaccessible. Finally, I build on the US case study by offering pathways for other new media scholars to examine and trace tweeting and deleting by government employees in other jurisdictions.

scholarly journals Do political donors have greater access to government officials? Evidence from a FOIA field experiment with US municipalities

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas R. Jenkins ◽  
Michelangelo Landgrave ◽  
Gabriel E. Martinez
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Wait Time ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Preferential Treatment ◽  
Freedom Of Information Act ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
State Laws ◽  
The Us

Whether political donors have greater access to government officials is a perennial question in politics. Using a freedom of information act (FOIA) compliance field experiment with US municipalities in California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania, we fail to find evidence that political donors have greater access to government officials compared to engaged citizens. We contribute to the lobbying literature by testing for preferential treatment towards political donors in municipal government. Consistent with the extant FOIA literature, we do find that a formal FOIA request increases compliance rates and decreases wait time before an initial reply. This is an important contribution because, although many polities have FOIA laws, it cannot be taken for granted that FOIA laws will lead to transparency in practice. Testing the effectiveness of FOIA laws in the US is particularly important because state laws vary substantially.

Information Rights and the Internet

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Data Protection ◽  
Common Law ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Freedom Of Information Act ◽  
Digital Rights ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Common ◽  
Online Traffic

Lord Sumption has said that the Freedom of Information Act 2000 was a landmark enactment of great constitutional significance. Chapter 1 identifies the separate regimes for obtaining access to information: the FOI Act; the Environmental Information Regulations; and the Data Protection Act 1998. It explains the differences between them and the part which is also played by the common law. Following Edward Snowden’s revelations about the surveillance undertaken by the US, the chapter outlines the conflict between surveillance, privacy, and information rights. The chapter concludes, first, by looking at the European Court’s decision in the Digital Rights case that Directive 2006/24/EC is invalid. It provided for the mass retention and disclosure to policing and security authorities of individuals’ online traffic data. Second, the chapter looks at the Court’s decision in the Google Spain case that, on the internet, an individual has a right to be forgotten.

scholarly journals UKRAINIAN CAUSE IN WASHINGTON DURING THE COLD WAR (FROM THE ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS OF THE MANUSCRIPT DIVISION OF THE VASYL STEFANYK NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY OF UKRAINE IN LVIV)

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 174-184
Author(s):  
Yaroslav Senyk
Keyword(s):  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Historical Materials ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
First Time ◽  
Second World

The article examines activities of the Ukrainian community in Washington in the 1950s and the 1960s. The relevant historical materials kept in the archives of Omelan and Tetiana Antonovych are submitted for scientific circulation for the first time. The papers relate to the activities of the Association of Ukrainians in Washington, headed by O. Antonovych, and of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, headed by L. Dobriansky, as well as to their cooperation with the US Congress in support of the Ukrainian cause. The Ruthenians (Ukrainians) were already mentioned in the Senate document of the 61st US Congress in 1911. After the Second World War, the Ukrainian question came up on the agenda in connection with the formation of the United Nations. The center of Ukrainian political emigration has moved to the US. At that time L. Dobriansky kept continuous contacts with members of the Congress. In 1959 both Houses of the Congress passed the Captive Nations Week Resolution submitted by L. Dobryansky. On June 7, 1960 the House of Representatives decided to issue the brochure known as “Europe’s Freedom Fighter. Taras Shevchenko. 1814–1861 as an official House document”. On June 27, 1964 President D. Eisenhower inaugurated the monument to Taras Shevchenko in Washington, DC. The US Congress celebrated the anniversary of the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence on January 22, 1918 on annual ceremonial meetings with prayers for free Ukraine delivered by the Ukrainian priests. The US Senators and Representatives regularly included statements and letters from the Ukrainian organizations in the Congress Records.

The US Freedom of Information Act

1991 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 25-25
Author(s):  
Ruth H Londman
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Freedom Of Information Act ◽  
The Us

Troubling histories: Re-viewing documentary production and surveillance through the Freedom of Information Act

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-353
Author(s):  
Daniel Grinberg
Keyword(s):  
American Art ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Security Measures ◽  
Freedom Of Information Act ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
State Surveillance ◽  
Production History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Affective Dimensions

This article examines the variety of risks that critical independent filmmakers have confronted to expose government abuses. It considers the threats to the documentarians and their documents, as they chronicle incidents of state surveillance while they are themselves under state surveillance. It does so by constructing an alternative production history of Laura Poitras’ (2014) documentary film Citizenfour in relation to the antecedent case of Emile de Antonio, Mary Lampson, and Haskell Wexler’s 1976 film Underground (Whitney Museum of American Art, 2016). These production histories are primarily based on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) files that the filmmakers extracted from the US government agencies that targeted them. The article argues that these official files provide an under-explored vantage on the logistical and affective dimensions of making a dissident film. In addition, this article re-views the films the documentarians created under precarious labour conditions to investigate how state intimidation and interference perceptibly impacted these archival records. It examines how the mechanisms of censorship and filmmakers’ counteractive security measures registered significant visible traces in the films. Consequently, it argues that the troubling histories captured in both the files and the films can also trouble the authority of official historiography.

Presidential Privilege and the Freedom of Information Act

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin M. Baron
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Freedom Of Information Act ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Government Secrecy

Executive privilege (EP) as a political tool has created a grey area of constitutional power between the legislative and executive branches. By focusing on the post-WWII political usage of executive privilege, this research utilizes a social learning perspective to examine the power dynamics between Congress and the president when it comes to government secrecy and public information. Social learning provides the framework to understand how the Cold War's creation of the modern American security state led to a paradigm shift in the executive branch. This shift altered the politics of the presidency and impacted relations with Congress through extensive use of EP and denial of congressional requests for information. When viewed through a social learning lens, the institutional politics surrounding the development of the Freedom of Information Act is intricately entwined with EP as a political power struggle of action-reaction between the executive and legislative branches. Using extensive archival research, this historical analysis examines the politics surrounding the modern use of executive privilege from Truman through Nixon as an action-reaction of checks on power from the president and Congress, where each learns and responds based on the others previous actions. The use of executive privilege led to the Freedom of Information Act showing how policy can serve as a congressional check on executive power, and how the politics surrounding this issue influence contemporary politics.

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