Group, I've publicly posted some of the screen-scraping Perl scripts GovTrack uses to collect its data. I'll be adding my scripts to the Subversion repository...
347
damianmont
Jul 5, 2007 6:05 pm
... Thank you Josh as always. Any way you could just document what each file does? Here's list: database.people.sql database.tables2.sql database.tables.sql ...
348
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer
Jul 5, 2007 6:30 pm
... Sure. ... MySQL table schema and data for "people" table of all people that have served in Congress (name, birthday, etc.), and "people_roles" table for...
349
Jeremy Dunck
ralinon
Jul 6, 2007 2:16 pm
I suspect anyone on this list using Python will be interested in this: http://holovaty.com/blog/archive/2007/07/06/0128...
350
damianmont
Jul 6, 2007 2:52 pm
Can I have your opinion Joshua (and anyone else that wants to chime in) Your excellent code points to you checking the most recent bill action at: ...
351
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer
Jul 6, 2007 3:15 pm
... http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r110:@FIELD(FLD003+h)+@FIELD(DDATE+20070629) ... I happen to write something about that a few days ago: ...
352
tay199
Jul 7, 2007 12:16 am
YEAH! Thanks Josh. I'll keep the group posted on any patches or things of value we find and can contribute. Taylor...
353
Kevin Henry
severian43
Jul 8, 2007 11:46 am
Great, thanks Josh... I didn't do much scripting (proper) for http://www.whereabill.org/, but since Josh has started the ball rolling, I'll add in the one ...
354
damianmont
Jul 10, 2007 7:40 pm
Kevin, Love that www.WhereaBill.org site. You use the information from josh's xml files? Love the mashup, very well done....
355
Peggy Garvin
pgrvn
Jul 10, 2007 9:31 pm
I'd like to know, too. I am writing a brief article (right now, due tomorrow) about some of the new legislative info projects and want to mention whereabill as...
356
Kevin Henry
severian43
Jul 11, 2007 1:30 pm
Peggy and Damian, Thanks, glad you like the site. I'm getting all the data from govtrack. Specifically, I'm using the following files: - the bill status data...
357
Nathan Hawks
perly_white
Jul 24, 2007 5:40 pm
Hi all, Just wanted to drop a quick line of introduction. I was turned on to the list at Josh's recommendation. I am a 30-year-old PHP programmer and writer...
358
tay199
Jul 26, 2007 8:54 pm
Hello, Alaska is taking over my map!!! http://72.32.197.213/govit/Pages/search/mapchartforgovleader.aspx I'd really like to decrease the size of Alaska, and...
359
tay199
Jul 26, 2007 8:56 pm
Howdy, Nice to meet you too. My name is Taylor and I'm a web project manager from San Francisco. That means I was not a good enough coder to be a programmer,...
360
Josh Tauberer
tauberer
Jul 27, 2007 3:26 am
... You'll need to choose a better map projection (better than just using lat/long as x/y, for sure), and possibly render Alaska (etc.) from a different point...
361
Nathan Hawks
perly_white
Jul 27, 2007 4:06 pm
Rather than wait till I make time for a real mini-proposal, I'll just throw some stuff out there. BTW, thanks Taylor and Andrew for the welcome. scratchList: A...
362
Nathan Hawks
perly_white
Jul 27, 2007 4:20 pm
Another thought, what about a cache? - Script that uploads cached pages offsite after the thomas grab - Instead of the Site Offline message, do a JS pull from...
363
Nancy Berry
oaktree1860
Jul 27, 2007 4:31 pm
http://www.hamiltontaftandcompany.com Read the truth of the continued abuse of political power supported by over 1,000 government documents Nancy Berry ... ...
364
Joshua Tauberer / Gov...
tauberer
Jul 27, 2007 4:50 pm
... Ok, let's keep actual issues off the list. :) - Josh...
365
Joshua Tauberer / Gov...
tauberer
Jul 27, 2007 4:54 pm
... You're talking about caching GovTrack pages, right? Mostly, I hope to just fix the problem... Hopefully some improvements will be made in the next few...
366
Nathan Hawks
perly_white
Jul 27, 2007 5:00 pm
A rolling cache, perhaps? Everything that ever gets clicked on, each time it's updated, gets submitted to the morning upload queue? Sans wikis and...
367
Josh Tauberer
tauberer
Aug 3, 2007 7:56 pm
... Actually, I already cache pages that have no user-specific content (if the user comes with no GovTrack cookies set), and I wonder if I could just spew...
368
Josh Tauberer
tauberer
Aug 3, 2007 9:05 pm
Some time in the last few months the House and Senate updated their websites with full committee and subcommittee membership info, and this is now available on...
369
Marjorie Roswell
margieroswell
Aug 4, 2007 1:59 am
Thanks for the update. Can you provide the full URL? I seem to be getting a little lost trying to find it. ... Thanks for the update. Can you provide the full...
370
Josh Tauberer
tauberer
Aug 4, 2007 2:08 am
... http://www.govtrack.us/data/us/110/committees.xml (It's 310kb so beware when loading it in a browser. Firefox takes a while to render it.) -- - Josh...
371
Leonard Linde
llinde
Aug 6, 2007 1:30 am
I'm using your excellent dataset for some analysis and noticed that Paul Broun isn't in the people.xml file, and that votes in which he participated have a...
372
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer
Aug 6, 2007 2:09 am
... Yeah, I'm not sure what's up. I added him into my master database a few weeks ago, but I also noticed recently that he's not getting recognized in various...
373
Josh Tauberer
tauberer
Aug 6, 2007 12:54 pm
Hi, all. Going in a slightly new direction, I am wondering if you all would join me in making a pledge regarding transparency in Congress. Specifically, if you...
374
Leonard Linde
llinde
Aug 9, 2007 2:33 am
Whatever you did fixed it. Thanks very much. ... h2007-757.xml....
375
Josh Tauberer
tauberer
Aug 9, 2007 2:54 am
If you’ve used GovTrack at all lately, you’ve probably noticed the chronic outages that have grown considerably worse over the last few months as traffic...
