There’s big news from today’s Legislative Branch Bulk Data Task Force meeting. The United States Senate announced it would begin publishing text and summary information for Senate legislation, going back to the 113th Congress, in bulk XML. It would join the House of Representatives, which already does this. Both chambers also expect to have bill status information […]
Continue reading... December 18, 2014
Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellowship
Mozilla is launching the new Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellowship – a 10-month program designed to find emerging technical leaders who have a passion for Internet policy and advocacy. They’re in the midst of recruiting qualified applicants. Here’s a bit more about the program: Good candidates are developers, technologists, hackers and data crunchers – policy and […]
Continue reading... December 10, 2014
Congressional Data Coalition Joins “Free Law Founders”
The Congressional Data Coalition is pleased to join the Free Law Founders, a nation-wide organization that shares resources and expertise around opening up laws, legislation, and the lawmaking process online. From their website: The Free Law Founders is a nation-wide, collaborative effort open to all people who want to improve how laws and legislation are […]
Continue reading... December 9, 2014
Save the date: Bulk Data Task Force meeting
The next meeting of the Bulk Data Task Force will be Thursday, December 18, from 1-3 in the Capitol Visitor Center, room HVC-200. More information to come.
Continue reading... December 5, 2014
Federal Snow Storm Aid, Self-Government and CRS Reports
(Crossposted from R Street) The Federation of American Scientists recently posted a copy of a report titled, “Major Disaster Declarations for Snow Assistance and Severe Winter Storms: An Overview.” The document was produced by the Congressional Research Service, an agency where I worked for a decade. The report is fascinating on a few counts. First, […]
Continue reading... December 2, 2014
Electronic Toolbox for Congress
(Cross-posted from DanielSchuman.com) Here is a rundown of free digital tools any self-respecting congressional staffer, Member of Congress, journalist, or public advocate should consider using. All are free, run on information published by Congress or cobbled together from official sources, and most are built on open source code. (Many of the developers are members of […]
Continue reading... December 1, 2014
Save the Date: 1st of 2 Multidisciplinary Hackathons on U.S. Congressional Data & Processes
Boston Kickoff Weekend Co-Hosted by Harvard University’s Ash Center and The OpenGov Foundation; Finals on Capitol Hill Spring 2015 The weekend of January 30, 2015, The OpenGov Foundation and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government will host a multi-disciplinary hackathon to design what the future of the US Congress should look like. The event will bring […]
Continue reading... November 25, 2014
Collection of CRS reports released to the public
Something rare has occurred—a collection of reports authored by the Congressional Research Service has been published and made freely available to the public. The 400-page volume, titled, “The Evolving Congress,” and was produced in conjunction with CRS’s celebration of its 100th anniversary this year. Congress, not CRS, published it. (Disclaimer: Before departing CRS in October, […]
Continue reading... September 18, 2014
Opengov groups call on legislatures around the globe to embrace open data
(via Sunlight) Sunlight is thrilled to mark Global Legislative Openness Week with our global legislative transparency campaign, which culminated earlier this week in a joint letter from the world’s parliamentary monitoring organizations (PMOs) sent to national legislatures across the globe. The letter calls for increased legislative transparency and parliamentary open data, and affirms the importance of legislative […]
Continue reading... September 18, 2014
Publish the Constitution Annotated as Data
Dear Library of Congress and Government Printing Office, For decades, you have jointly published a handy compendium that explains the U.S. Constitution as it has been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court. It took a couple of letters from the Senate (and repeated nudging from the public interest community—2009, 2010,2011, 2012, 2013) to move you to publish the Constitution Annotatedonline more than once […]
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