Thursday, January 28, 2010

If you have to ask why the answer is because the lege said so

I don't know about where you live. Where I live the city publishes a lot of content in the classified section of the newspaper. Public, legal notices, and so on and so forth.

It's annoying to have data managed on a computer at city hall only to see it slapped on to paper where you can't do anything but read it, and the local paper charges them by the line. So it's both expensive and awkward to manipulate. Gads.

I asked the city clerk why.[1] She heaved a great sigh and said 1) people have asked her before about this and 2) it's a state law.

I stipulate this made a lot of sense not so very long ago. It makes only marginal sense now, with newspaper readership declining, internet users increasing and every other handheld widget has net access. What about a few years from now when or if we don't have a newspaper in town?

I wonder how hard it is to get the law amended so that 'newspaper' reads 'newspaper or electronic medium'?

[1] Tip o' the hat to Steve Erbach who sensibly suggested that I call the city clerk and ask.

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