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Transparency in Government Project
Visualizing Campaign Finance Datain
San Francisco
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Introductions
USF Students SF Ethics Commission McCarthy Center Community Connections
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Tonight’s Program
Goal is to gather ideas, directions, action plans, collaborators
Quick Intro to Project Demo of Current Prototype Some basic directions of future
work
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Campaign Transparency: Current Status
Filing required by law. Organizations such as SF Ethics
Comm. leading the way in implementing.
Too little resources, especially software developers.
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Campaign Transparency:Needs More on-line filing Visualization tools Views that integrate various data Automatic flagging of potential
violations Data mining– Analyzing the data to
find interesting things. Human input of associations/data
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Big Picture Solution: City and University Collaboration
Fill the gap in resources for city. Students can work on real projects. Encourage public service. Build some real software to help
city/community.
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Current Status of Project Lobbyist database and on-line forms
(Hope to deploy early summer) Campaign funding Visualization
whosfundingwho.org Relational view of funding chains
Tabular Graph
STILL IN BETA– THIS IS NOT A LAUNCH Basis for data mining, integration,etc.
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Future Goals
Integrate multiple data sources Flag potential violations Mine data for hidden relationships Allow experts to input
data/associations Special Election/Filing Date views
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Integrating Data
David Wolber
USF Computer Science
Joe Contributor
Chairperson OfAwarded Contract By
$10000
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Integrating Data Sources
State Filings
Filings from other Cities/Counties
Data Standards?
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Integrating Lobbyist and Campaign Finance Data
Does a contributor employ a lobbyist? If so, what issue is the lobbyist hired to promote?
Lobbyists must report if they’ve prompted someone to make a contribution.
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Data within Ethics Commission.
Independent Expenditure Database 461 Major Donors Political Consultants
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Contracts Awarded
City Contracts/Permits Awarded Was a contract awarded in return for
contribution? City, School board, etc.
Voting Records Was a vote swayed from a
contribution?
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Flagging Possible Violations
Sometimes duplicative filings are required. e.g., cross-checking RCPT database
with Independent Expenditure DB. Are RCPT committees contributing
to other committees (a violation) Negative cash balances
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Data Mining Ideas:Time-Based Queries
Suggested by Wade Randlett Working groups often contribute in
bunches, often near the time of an event.
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Geographical Queries
For instance, funding by neighborhood or district.
Note that this information is not in the redacted data now put online at Ethics Commission.
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Human input of Data
There’s a lot of data available that is free text, not a database e.g., voting on issues, news
Administer/Researcher/Expert can read and enter into a database.
Objectivity problems?
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Special Election/Filing Date views
Side-by-side comparisons of candidates
Late-Period filers
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Thank You
whosfundingwho.org David Wolber ([email protected])
(415) 422-6451 Come by and see us – we want
detailed feedback and ideas