About Public Notice
Public Notice is not the prying eyes of nosy neighbors. It is the concept of public participation in active government. If we want to help make decisions about what government does on our behalf we better know what government is doing. Public Notice is the idea that government ought to provide a “heads up” when important things are happening.
What is public notice?
The government is required to alert citizens of government or government-related activities that may cause a citizen to take action, such as community changes, government transactions, fraud and dishonest businesses. These alerts are called Public Notice.
Traditionally, public notices are announced through newspapers that are intended for general circulation, published regularly at short intervals and contain intelligence of current news of general interest. Today however, state governments are slowly changing public notice laws to adapt to the digital world. With more than 30,000 public notice laws among the states and federal government in the United States of America alone, it is important to track how the definition of public notice is being changed.
A public notice must often fulfill four requirements to be considered official:
- The notice must be published from an independent party accredited by the guidelines of laws.
- The publication must be archivable.
- The publication must be accessible
- The publication must be verifiable.
The Public Eye 