civic participation
OpenCongress.org :: Track Congress with Social Data
The U.S. Congress produces thousands of bills every year -- so it’s difficult to figure out which are significant, and which aren’t so much. Some data is available on official government websites, but usually without real-world context for determining which bills affect the things you care about. Non-profit organizations and issue-based groups could use more helpful ways to follow their interests in Congress.
OpenCongress.org is a free and open-source public resource that combines official government data with news and blog coverage about Congress. Recently, we launched a set of new features for tracking and sharing the best info about bills, issues, and Members. But this is just the start of how social data on “My OpenCongress†can bring you closer to what’s really happening in Congress.
New data mashups on “My OpenCongress†will allow users to customize the stream of info they receive about their tracked items. In other words, it can be a lot easier to separate the signal from the noise on Capitol Hill-- to figure out what bills and votes are important or meaningful to you. Users will have access to a wider variety of content, more streams of helpfully-curated data about their interests, and more social wisdom from around the web.
Here’s an example of how these mashups would work: a user reads about a bill of interest, and adds it to her “My OpenCongress†profile as a tracked item. On her page of Tracked Bills (view sample), she would then be able to choose from a few simple options for how much info to display for that bill: every news article and blog post that mentions it, or just those rated highly from different data sources, or blends of the various options.
Adding this social data would enhance the value of peer-to-peer communication throughout the site and make "My OpenCongress" a more useful public resource (register or login). These mashups can serve as tools for greater government transparency, combating the influence of corruption, and opening up our democratic process.
“My OpenCongress†already offers ways to track and comment on any bill, issue, or Member of Congress, as well as social networking and more. These changes will create new ways for users to customize the stream of updates they view and share on their profiles.
First, Open Calais makes it possible to access rich metadata about tracked items. For example, if a user is tracking a Senator, data from the Open Calais API can inform you by automatically displaying associated organizations, facts, and events – “This Senator was appointed the Chairman of this committee on this date, click here to view more connectionsâ€.
Second, Daylife makes it possible to access professionally-moderated news coverage of tracked items. For the example of a tracked Senator, the Daylife API can suggest related stories, articles, images, and topics – “Daylife Editors selected four news articles about this Senator in the past month, click here to view themâ€. Instead of following every news mention of a bill or issue (higher-volume), users could choose to receive only featured content (lower-volume).
Our open-source development team welcomes input on these two API's, especially from their programmers, and suggestions on other data sources to consider. (Obviously, there are lots of viable options out there.)
OpenCongress is a joint project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation. OpenCongress is used every day by individuals and organizations as a one-of-a-kind resource that aggregates official goverment data alongside useful social wisdom. Already in the past two months, thousands of people have created "My OpenCongress" profiles to engage with the bills, issues, and Members of Congress they care about -- read more ways to use these new features.
OpenCongress has been covered widely: political blogs such as TalkingPointsMemo and Instapundit; technology blogs such as Mashable and SmartMobs; cultural blogs such as BoingBoing and Metafilter; public media such as “On The Media†and “FutureTenseâ€; and many more.
First, we seek to add programmers to our open-source development team who have experience with API’s and adding other external data (XML, semantic tags, etc.) into Rails code. Of course, the collaborative development process would start with a survey of targeted API’s and their data offerings.
Second, we seek to parnter with web designers to create a user-friendly interface for the mashups. Designers would work on “My OpenCongress†profile pages to illustrate options of the various types of content offered by each source. For example, one goal is for users to be able to see responsive visualizations (e.g., an EKG) of their settings (e.g., a higher- or lower-volume of updates).
Finally, we seek the assistance of experienced database administrators to optimize our sizable database (currently it's in postgres) and ensure zippy site performance.
My Polling Place
The goal of MyPollingPlace is simple: to make it easier for people to exercise their civic rights by serving as a quick and easy source of information on where and how to vote.
Many people have good intentions to vote that can be hampered by small but significant obstacles: they can't easily figure out where they should go to vote, or how to get there. They don't know what type of identification they'll need to cast a ballot. Or they're intimidated by a lack of knowledge of the voting machines or ballot format they'll have to use at the polls.
Surprisingly, as of now there isn't a website out there that brings all this information together for voters.
The high turnout throughout this year's presidential primaries indicates that the fall elections may see very healthy turnout levels, including a sizable number of new voters heading to the polls. An informational site like MyPollingPlace.com could do much to help make the process as easy and painless as possible and thus encourage civic participation.
As a one-stop shop for voting-day logistical information, MyPollingPlace will allow people to interact with the following information:
- Where to vote
- Polling place data from secretaries of states' polling-place databases, county election boards, and third-party databases of polling place information
- How to get there
- GoogleMaps mashup with polling place data
- What they'll need to bring
- State requirements for voter identification
- How to cast their vote
- For each state, information on what kind of voting machines or ballots are used and instructions on how to use them
A 501(c)(3) organization, People For the American Way Foundation conducts a number of non-partisan efforts to facilitate civic participation, including:
- past incarnations of MyPollingPlace.com (focusing only on providing polling place location data)
- election monitoring to ensure that every citizen is able to exercise his or her right to vote
- the provision of an election-day hotline for citizens requiring help or information
For more information on PFAWF's election protection efforts, visit our Election Protection website.
We would need:
- A user interface designer/web developer to help create an easy-to-use site through which visitors could access all this information
- A database programmer to integrate the existing polling-place databases
- A graphic designer to help make it look pretty
We've got resources here at PFAWF to compile research on voter ID requirements, voting machines and ballot types, etc.
Polling Place Location Data: (example); GoogleMaps. State Requirements for Voter ID: (example). Voting Machine Info: (example).















