Ocelot documents
It is a clone of this request.
| Submitted | Oct. 4, 2022 |
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Communications
From: Todd Feathers
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, I hereby request the following records:
1) All contracts, memorandums of understanding, data sharing/privacy agreements, statements of work, and successful RFP responses and bid submission documents regarding the university's contracts with Ocelot Inc. (ocelotbot.com, a.k.a. CareerAmerica LLC) since Jan. 1, 2017.
2) All user manuals, technical support documents, or comparable documents provided to the district regarding Ocelot Inc. products/services. This should include, where available, documents describing the design, training, and validation of any Ocelot Inc. artificial intelligence systems used by the university.
3) All university policies governing the use of Ocelot Inc. products/services.
4) All annual. end-of-term, or end-of-contract reports provided to the district by Ocelot Inc. regarding the company's services for the district.
5) Data libraries/dictionaries for all Ocelot Inc. databases and software used by the district. To clarify: data dictionaries/libraries list the different categories of data included in a database, they do not include the data itself.
I ask that all fees be waived as I intend to use the requested records to publish articles in the public interest and not for any commercial purpose. In the event you choose to impose fees, I request a detailed breakdown of the fees, including the hourly wage of each employee involved and an explanation justifying the employee hours required to fulfill the request.
Should you choose to reject this request or redact portions of it, I ask that you provide a detailed explanation and citations to the statutory exemptions and associated case law underlying your decision to withhold each/any portions from public review.
I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.
I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Todd Feathers
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Massachusetts Public Records Law request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 4, 2022. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: University of Massachusetts (Amherst)
Todd,
I am in receipt of your records request as detailed below.
The Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. Ch. 66, § 10, along with its associated regulations, permits the University to estimate and assess the estimated cost of searching for the requested records or segregating exempt information from non-exempt information. I estimate that your request took less than four hours to complete and there will be no copying fee charged for this request. As a result there will be no fee.
Please see responsive records attached.
Under Chapter 66 of the General Laws, you have the right to appeal our disposition of your request to the Supervisor of Public Records, Office of the Secretary of State, pre@sec.state.ma.us<mailto:pre@sec.state.ma.us> and the right to seek judicial review of an unfavorable decision by commencing a civil action in the superior court under subsection (c) of section 10A.
Regards,
Christine
=================================
Christine M. Wilda
Associate Chancellor for Compliance
UMASS Amherst
340 Whitmore Building
Amherst, MA 01003
Ph: 413-545-2148
Fax: 413-545-2114
cwilda@umass.edu<mailto:cwilda@umass.edu>
From: Todd Feathers
Hello Christine,
Thank you very much for your help with this, however I only see records responsive to item one of my request. Could you please confirm that you are still processing the other aspects of my request, or if you are not, provide the statutorily required rejection letter explaining the legal justification for why the university is withholding the requested records.
Sincerely,
Todd Feathers
From: University of Massachusetts (Amherst)
Todd,
We sent you everything we have that we believe to be responsive to this request. What we sent satisfies #1 and the implementation guide we shared is responsive to #2. The videos and all content are maintained by Ocelot and not stored in any server at UMass. UM Staff has access to log into Ocelot system to customize chatbot answers to questions with key words and run ad hoc data analytics. There is no student specific data that is shared with Ocelot. You may be thinking there is more to what we have from Ocelot than there really is, but if you can give an example of what you may have received from other Universities, it would add clarity to the request. Furthermore, you refer interchangeably to “the district” and “the university” in this request, which suggests you may be used to working with school districts and not universities. Please clarify.
Thanks,
Christine
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