Ed Week: School Board Transparency a Challenge in Digital Age

...Maryland is among several states that are taking other steps to bring such laws into the 21st century.
The legislature set up a joint committee on transparency and open government in 2011 to examine how Maryland can promote government transparency—in the state capital, Annapolis, and locally. Committee members evaluate current policies and practices on meetings and records and make recommendations on future legislation. 

According to state Sen. Bill Ferguson, the chairman of the committee, it's hard for state governments to have laws that capture all the situations communities are facing today in complying with meetings and records regulations. But while the particulars of state laws vary, in general, he said, he thinks technology is making government more transparent than it was in the past. 

"So much of open government is cultural habit; there are cultures within agencies—if the agency's day-to-day culture promotes transparency, new opportunities to increase openness are willingly adopted," said Mr. Ferguson, a Democrat. 

"But as more modern communications and collaboration tools become cheaper and more accessible, public agencies will naturally become more transparent, and cultures will inevitably start to change," he said...

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/04/17/28openmeetings_ep.h32.html?tkn=VOOFn0pvp6bVvUghVM2MHukoWEA%2FvDY04o2w&cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS1