{"id":1933,"date":"2013-07-23T08:43:01","date_gmt":"2013-07-23T12:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.equipmentlink.org\/blog\/?p=1933"},"modified":"2013-07-23T08:43:39","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T12:43:39","slug":"baltimorecode-org-72313","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.equipmentlink.org\/blog\/?p=1933","title":{"rendered":"Baltimorecode.org, 7\/23\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contributed by Joel Zimba, Special Projects Coordinator, MDTAP<\/em><\/p>\n

There is a great new Website–http:\/\/baltimorecode.org\/<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s all of the city’s codes and statutes laid out and available for anyone.\u00a0 It’s true that all of this information had been available previously.\u00a0 But often it required sifting through monolithic PDF files.<\/p>\n

Baltimorecode.org and it’s companion site marylandcode.org<\/a> are powered by an application called The State Decoded.\u00a0 Basically, the intent is to bring together the actual state and local codes with all kinds of other related legal information.\u00a0 Court briefings,\u00a0 opinion pieces, extensive law dictionaries and other publications.\u00a0 The entire thing is available to anyone and can even be downloaded.\u00a0 Sites using the State Decoded also seem to be highly accessible.\u00a0 This is great, as the aforementioned PDF files, while somewhat useable were not particularly user-friendly.<\/p>\n

Best of all, the entire repository is searchable.\u00a0 This was previously quite difficult to achieve with the state codes provided on Maryland Websites.\u00a0 That’s right,\u00a0 you are free to search and analyze to your heart’s content.\u00a0 So now, perhaps, you can try to prove that\u00a0J. K. Rowling also wrote the Maryland Constitution.<\/p>\n

Baltimorecode.org says it is still in “beta” phase but is ready for use by the public at large.\u00a0 There will probably be changes and bug fixes.\u00a0 This is a great service, and I imagine we’ll see every state following soon.<\/p>\n

And perhaps The State Decoded will also help out the General Assembly for this Spring’s Legislative Session.\u00a0 This would finally allow all Marylanders equal access to the legislative process.<\/p>\n

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