Political EIdentity: Campaign Funding Data and Beyond

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Political E-Identity Campaign Funding Data and
Beyond

• David Wolber
• University of San Francisco
• Department of Computer Science

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Whats on Tap?

• Whos Funding Whom in San Francisco
• Student developed visualization software
• USF San Francisco Ethics Commission
• Whosfundingwhom.org
• Comprehensive Political E-Identity
• Collaborative software
• peoplicious.com

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The Problem E-Rummaging
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The Dons in Shining Armor Project Origins

• Stephen Privett, USF President
• Leo McCarthy and the McCarthy Center for Public
  Service and the Common Good.
• Art Agnos
• Joe Lynn, SF Ethics Commission
• Community Connections

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City and University Collaboration

• Fill the gap in resources for city.
• Students work on real projects.
• Encourage public service.
• Build some real software to help city/community.

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City and University Collaboration Challenges

• Students graduate
• Software Maintenance
• Sustainability

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Campaign Funding Data Starting Line

• Input is focus, but still not compliant with new
  legislature.
• Output (Data visualization) is even worse.
• sfgov.org/ethics
• Limited resources in SF ITS Department

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Fed and State solutions

• Federal opensecrets.org
• Center for Responsive Politics
• State Washington, California Highly Rated
• http//www.pdc.wa.gov/
• http//cal-access.ss.ca.gov/campaign/

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USF ProjectPhase I Accomplishments

• Landing Page-- Not a blank search screen
• Relational Database-- not form based
• Graphs-- Birds-eye view of funding trails
• Filing Data Administrator-entered data.
• Also implemented first on-line lobbyist filing
  system.

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Demonstration

• See http//whosfundingwhom.org

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Landing Page
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Individual Records
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Graph
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Next Steps Expand Administrator Input

• Aliases
• Haight Street Mortgage
• Haight Street Mortgage, Inc.
• Lists
• Amazons listmania, jeteye

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Next Steps Integrate Databases

• Campaign Funding
• Lobbyists
• Political Consultants

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Next Steps Mashup of Multiple Data Sources
10000
David Wolber
Joe Contributor
Employee Of
City Department X
Problem No web service (XML) access to data
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Next Steps

• Flag potential violations
• Mine data for hidden relationships
• Special Election/Filing Date views

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Next Steps Whosfundingwho- Can it Scale?
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Comprehensive Political E-Identity Strategies

• XML, Web Services, and Aggregators
• Collaboration, Public Participation, and the
  power of the many

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Collaborative Software

• Wikipedia
• Del.icio.us, Flickr
• Politicalfriendster.com
• Theyrule.com
• Record/share your Googling work
• The Power of the Masses

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Issues with Public Participation

• Input of False/Misleading Information
• John Seigenthaler controversy
• Senator Feinstein Staff
• Nature study of Wikipedia/Britannica
• 4 error vs. 3 error
• On the other hand
• Information kept up-to-date by the many
• Not a single perspective

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Peoplicious.com

• People-marking
• Organize the people of a domain, e.g., Politics
• Create lists and put people in them
• E-Identity
• What a person says
• Blog, bookmarks
• What is said about a person
• Articles concerning
• Interviews, etc.

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Peoplicious.com

• http//peoplicious.com
• Early prototype, but need feedback.

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Coming SFPoliticos.com

• Peoplicious for the Political Domain
• One-stop shop to find info from/about politicians
• Expand out of San Francisco ???

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Summary

• University CS Departments can fill a void
• Code is Law
• Need Oliver Lubys Brain in Code
• Web services and Collaborative Software have
  great potential in educating voters.
• Open information can change the behavior of our
  politicians!

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Thank You

• whosfundingwhom.org
• David Wolber (wolber_at_usfca.edu)

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Co-Sponsors
The project has been funded by the Leo T.
McCarthy center and the City of San Francisco.