Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Open source law

New Zealand police act review logoNew Zealand is using a wiki to create a publicly editable draft of its new police act. The draft is here while the homepage describing the project can be found here. According to the site, the project is being monitored by a review team, presumably to prevent vandalism. Here’s a description of the motivation for the project:

The Police Act Review has maintained an open process throughout, and wiki technology offers a novel way for people to have a say in the law-drafting process as well. This may well be one of the first pieces of legislation ever developed in New Zealand with the aid of such an online tool

This project appears to be incredibly open; the government is even soliciting alternative versions of the law:

To help get you started, we've included some headings and a few example clauses. But don't feel constrained. For instance, if you'd prefer to work offline and upload a complete Act for others to comment on, by all means add it beneath the one we've started (there's a space provided under the "Alternative versions" heading).

It will be interesting to see how this project is received and what it produces.

via Boing Boing

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