Members of the Congressional Data Coalition will be headlining a SXSW panel entitled: “Your Laws, Your Data: Making Government More Open.” Join us on Friday, March 13 from 12:30-1:30 in room Room 10AB at the Austin Convention Center. Speakers include Daniel Schuman, Congressional Data Coalition co-chair; Molly Schwartz, associate fellow, R Street Institute; Molly Bohmer, data curator, Cato Institute ;and Rebecca Williams, policy analyst, data.gov.
Here’s a summary of the panel:
Two decades ago, Congress began publishing some of its activities online, revolutionizing access to essential public information. The system was called THOMAS, after our third president. Managed by the Library of Congress, it aimed to serve as a central hub to find bills and resolutions, the Congressional Record, committee reports, treaties and so on. States and municipalities followed suit, building out data sets that are essential to a large variety of applications and services.
While technology has changed a lot since the mid 1990s, the quality of data coming from Congress and other branches of government has not kept up.
Creating a more open and comprehensive system of public data — not only from Congress, but throughout government — would make a variety of powerful new applications possible.
Join us for a discussion of how better data can empower citizen activists and public interest groups to make government more accountable, and more responsive.
