civic hacking @ la rubyconf 2010
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Civic HackingLuigi Montanez
[email protected] RubyConf 2010
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I am here to recruit you.
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“D.C. is Hollywood for ugly people.”
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“Transparency”
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Questions for me? @LuigiMontanez
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“Civic Hacking”
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Participatory Democracy
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Umm, we’re software
developers...
Text
Civic Hacking
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Some Guiding Principles...
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Electoral Politics
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Electoral Politics
Governance
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Closed Source
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Closed Source
Open Source
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Civic Side Projects
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Open Source + Open Data =
Better Government
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Government as a wholesaler, not retailer
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.fec? .wtf?
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High Quality Raw Data
✴ First: Raw data in XML, JSON, or CSV✴ Second: RESTful APIs in JSON/XML✴ Third: Nothing really...
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Civic Hacking Defined
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Federal Government
Credit: vgm8383 on Flickr
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APIs about Congress
✴ Sunlight Labs API - Bio and contact info✴ OpenSecrets.org - Contributions✴ GovTrack.us - Bills and Vote Records✴ MAPLight.org - Vote Influence
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U.S. Courts System✴ 1 Supreme Court✴ 12 Courts of Appeals✴ 94 District Courts✴ Courts for Patents, International Trade,
Bankruptcy
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StateGovernments
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Other State Efforts✴ FollowTheMoney.org✴ 50 State Project - transform legislative data
for all 50 states into a common format
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Cities✴ Washington, D.C.✴ New York City✴ San Francisco
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311 API
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What about my city?
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Getting Involved✴ groups.google.com/group/sunlightlabs✴ #transparency on Freenode✴ github.com/sunlightlabs✴ @sunlightlabs on Twitter✴ SunlightLabs.com
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Consider Civic Hacking✴ Enhance your skillset✴ Low risk, high reward✴ Another testing framework? Really?✴ Local/state govts. an untapped market✴ Solve a hard problem
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Ask not what your country can do for you.Ask what you can do for
your country.
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Thanks!
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Questions?