ryanwold.net - Civic Tech, Bitcoin, and Open Government Innovation

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/popolo-standard

data dictionary for governments

w3c
popolo
schema.org
microformats

Business Plan / Business Case

Background: This is my work toward a project called DemocracyMap.  DemocracyMap is projected to be a complete (nation-wide), open database of public officials, jurisdictions, and organizations.  This project is unique because of its comprehensive approach and moreso, local focus.  Specifically, the goal is to compile public officials and organizations for every city, county, and jurisdiction in the United States.  Similar work has been done for the federal level, such as GovTrack.us.

Goals: To be a complete and open database of public officials, jurisdictions, and organizations.  The database will also have an API, which can be used to develop additional, local focusing tools.  Additionally, standard widgets will be created for users to embed in third-party applications and websites.  Additionally, a backend system to curate, moderate, and update the information is essential to ensure the data remains up-to-date.

NOTES

There are 3 primary interactions on the site:

enter address
see results
update and add data

Develop a clear strategy to source this data on a consistent basis:

Agencies
Governing Bodies
Elected Positions (Board Members)
Scraping
Crowd-sourcing

Moving Parts
DMap is split into 2 broad parts:  the API and the UI.  Each application has several parts as well, which are documented below.

API
UI
Website
enter an address, query for the geocode, respond and update a geocode elements and initiate the loading of additional elements, query for shapes, respond and update shape elements and initiate the loading of city, county, and city agencies, governing bodies, and positions
the website is currently scoped to CA, to focus my efforts

dmap.gem
In ruby, a dev can query the API website like this:
DMap::Site.query(q)
DMap::Site.shapes(q)
DMap::Site.dmap(q)
DMap::Site.search(q)
=> each method returns a Hash in Ruby.
 Open a Draft and New Questions
Find quotes and graphics that are relevant to the problem

Endorsements

A fundamental tool to build on.

# 1 interface for media to source information from
easy ballot lookups!

js plugin to link any supervisor issues.

MySQL Database
Geoserver
API
/geocode?q=<geocodeable address>
simple geocode.  Provide an address, receive a geocode .json object
/shapes?q=<geocodeable address>
Provide an address, receive shapes the relate
/dmap?q=<geocodeable address>
Provide an address, receive a City, County, and State's: Agencies, Governing Bodies, and Positions
http://pastie.org/private/dznfxqqoquptwmdy7ncohg
/search?q=<geocodeable address>
Provide an address, get the geocode, shapes, and DMap entities as a .json feed
geoserver.gem
In ruby, a dev can call Geoserver.query(lat, lng, "dmap", "ca_congressional_districts"), receiving a Hash

Project Context & Authority

Requirements
8 Principles
Accuracy
Complete
Authentic (CRC)
Contextualized
Usable
Timely

Paperwork Reduction Act
TREAD Act
Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy
p297 of OpenGov book - Transparency Posters & Employee Training
Federal Funding Accountability Act of 2006
Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board
Washington’s Public Disclosure Act
Privacy Act
Yugop XML Tree for OPML/Tree hierarchy
FOIA (Pull) / POIA (Push)

Status

Series