Center for Responsive

Politics

OpenSecrets.org

Susan AlgerInformation Technology

Director

Who We Are

• The nation’s premier research group tracking money in U.S. federal politics.

• Our goal is to create a more educated voter, an involved citizenry and a more responsive government.

• Our web sites:

– OpenSecrets.org provides a personal investigation kit for anyone inquiring about money’s impact on elections and public policy

– CapitalEye.org provides analysis

What We Do

• We gather raw data from the FEC , IRS, SOPR and others

• We standardize and code millions of individual contribution, expenditure and lobbying records using automated processes, research and manual edits.

• We make this information available on our web sites and via specialized research requests to journalists, advocacy groups, academics and the public

Core Databases

New Databases

How We Do It

• 16 full time staff3 Administration2 Communications7 Data coding and Research4 Technology (IT Director, Systems Administrator,

DB Manager and Web programmer)

• $1.3 million annual budget

Challenges• Maintaining our core functions

– Shrinking, insufficient resources– Expanding data sets– New data sets

• Meeting/exceeding the expectations of the public, our board, our funders and ourselves

• Making HUGE data sets accessible, meaningful and interesting

• Limited funding sources

Got Some – Need More!

• Social Networking• RSS

• Mash Ups• APIs• Mapping

In the Works

• Databank• Pivotability

• ASPs• Personalization• Power Searching

Considered – but Rejected

• Blogs• Distributed Networking• Wikis

What’s Worked

• Hire well and leverage talents• Automate• Open source and low cost specialty tools• Partnerships• Teamwork

Guiding Principles

• Hire brightest creative self-learners• Focus on the organization mission• Keep your core strong• Insist on maintainability• Cross-train and cultivate• Learn from your mistakes

Center for Responsive

PoliticsOpenSecrets.org

Susan AlgerInformation Technology Director

salger@crp.org