[open-government] OpenGovernment.org (beta) launches - local versions of OpenCongress.org

Wed Jan 19 23:26:45 UTC 2011

Hello OKFN list,

David with the Participatory Politics Foundation here, a U.S.-based  
501(c)3 non-profit. We make OpenCongress.org, the government  
transparency site for tracking the U.S. Congress.

Ever since we conceived of OpenCongress back in 2004, we recognized  
that its model of aggregating official government information with  
other data sources could be productively applied to government at all  
levels: state, city, local, and especially, internationally.

Since OC launched in 2007, we've continually received the question,  
"When will there be an OpenCongress for my country?" Or, "How can I  
create a version of OpenCongress for my locality?" Our code has always  
been 100% open, but now there's an even more modular version that will  
hopefully provide a solution. Yesterday we announced the beta version  
of our next major project, OpenGovernment ::

http://opengovernment.org/

... free & libre & open-source as always. The web app itself is built  
in Ruby on Rails, and powered by the open-source GovKit API wrapper ::

http://opengovernment.org/pages/developer

http://github.com/opengovernment

http://opengovernment.org/pages/about/#our_data_sources

... which can of course be remixed for other data inputs -- meaning  
that, given programming time & data wrangling, OpenGovernment can be  
customized for any country or city, creating in essence a local  
version of OpenCongress.

For our part, we've started with U.S. state legislatures, with  
official state-level government info on OpenGovernment from the  
community-driven Open States Project, coordinated by Sunlight Labs ::

http://openstates.sunlightlabs.com/

... but we're not U.S.-centric, and we're excited -- very much so --  
to help facilitate localization of OG to other countries as quickly as  
our resources allow. Carl Tashian, PPF's Director of Technology and  
the lead on OG, is a member of this mailing list and we're happy to  
answer questions. Developers: we've made it as easy as possible to get  
set up with OG, check it out and see what we have to play with ::

https://github.com/opengovernment/opengovernment/blob/master/README.md

We're actively seeking non-profit funding support to continue to roll  
out OpenGovernment to all 50 U.S. states, major cities, and -- this is  
the key point -- other countries! So if you're in touch with any  
foundation funders or philanthropists who can support our work and  
help us scale up, please be in touch. Here's a .pdf copy of our non- 
profit funding prospectus to download and circulate (1.6 MB) ::

http://opengovernment.org/images/OpenGovernment_prospectus_1-18-10.pdf

... my full contact info & Skype handle are below, of course I'd love  
to be in touch with anyone who can help us expand our open-source  
development capacity. We're a small team (the equivalent of four full- 
time folks, all working remotely), easy to reach & happy to talk. We'd  
love to partner with anyone here in order to make OpenGovernment for  
other countries a reality as soon as possible.

Below I've pasted our announcement from yesterday on our OG Google  
Group, a link to which is included below. Let us know what you think,  
and please be in touch if you're interested in setting up a version.  
In the meantime we're continuing to build out this beta version and  
add from a long wish-list of data & feature enhancements. If any  
volunteer developers care to contribute time, it's much appreciated.

Don't hesitate to ping me anytime, glad to be in touch with everyone  
here. Let us know what you think of our latest version of a public- 
facing web app for engaging with all the data we're opening together.

Thank you,
-David

###

We're very excited to announce that OpenGovernment is launching in
beta today ::
http://opengovernment.org/
... with information for the five state legislatures previously
mentioned: CA, LA, MD, TX, and WI.
Our team is hard at work making tweaks already in response to user
feedback and doing outreach to our data partners & allies, so more to
come. For now, here's the official blog post announcement, please feel
free to share widely ::
http://bit.ly/OG_announce
... and I'm highlighting some early (and quite appreciated) blog/press
coverage on my micro-publishing account ::
http://twitter.com/#!/ppolitics
... most of all, this Group exists as a discussion forum to hear what
you think, so I look forward to corresponding here. I won't belabor my
point that we're truly a community project, and as with our Miro
software app and the OpenCongress web app itself, your beta-testing &
user interface input & bug reports will have an impact. PPF is a small
team, the equivalent of just four full-time folks at the moment, all
working remotely, so we appreciate all the help we can get.
First, developers (developers developers): Carl Tashian, our Director
of Technology and (as one might expect) the technical lead on OG, made
it as relatively frictionless as possible to set up a version of OG.
Check out our hub w/ more links & getting-started how-to
instructions ::
http://opengovernment.org/pages/developer
... our public-facing wish-list of data & features, in early bullet-
point format ::
http://opengovernment.org/pages/wish-list
... we're definitely interested in hearing more detailed suggestions
for data, design, and feature enhancements to this beta version. The
best way to get started (and the most efficient for us, we appreciate
the help) is to submit them via our LighthouseApp project management  
system ::

https://participatorypolitics.lighthouseapp.com/projects/47665-opengovernment/overview

... registering is free, signup is in upper-right. But it's not nec.  
to dive in there, as suggestions are welcome anytime on our Google  
Group ::

http://groups.google.com/group/opengovernment

... or over email or IRC (#opengovernment on Freenode) anytime ::

http://opengovernment.org/pages/contact
... for routine bug reports (e.g., page formatting glitches), please
submit new issues to me on ZenDesk:
http://opencongress.zendesk.com/anonymous_requests/new
... and don't forget to help spread the word about our launch to your
online communities. Looking forward to rolling out OG to all 50 states
and beyond together. Let us know what you think about this beta
version!
Thanks,
-David
m: (917) 753-3462
AIM / Jabber / Skype :: davidmooreppf
IRC: davidrussellmoor in #opengovernment on freenode.net

http://participatorypolitics.org
http://opengovernment.org/pages/about

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.okfn.org/pipermail/open-government/attachments/20110119/95dac4e5/attachment.html>