One of the biggest problems I faced this most recent election season was determining who was lying and who was lying more. I feel there is a need in the US for...
8
sc0ttbeardsley
Jan 9, 2005 11:19 pm
Oops... s/govtrack.org/govtrack.us/g...
9
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer
Jan 10, 2005 12:05 am
... Hi, Scott. Thanks for joining the list and sharing your thoughts. When I first started working on GovTrack my intention was only to create a service for...
10
Aaron Huslage
ahuslage
Jan 10, 2005 2:17 am
I think unification of all of the data is possible, but you're right that it's going to take actually getting it in its raw form and then normalizing it. I've...
11
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer
Jan 10, 2005 3:01 am
Hi, Aaron. ... Well, abstracts are a start. There is value in anything you can get together, so definitely keep working on it. The more states that have ...
12
Scott Beardsley
sc0ttbeardsley
Jan 12, 2005 1:56 am
... I'm in the process of gathering California State Assembly and Senate info now. I found a brutally slow anonymous FTP site to get almost everything I need ...
13
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer
Jan 12, 2005 2:36 am
... Okay, good. ... I'm not tracking changes at that level of detail now. It's a little bit beyond the scope of what I think people would generally find...
14
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer
Jan 16, 2005 11:08 pm
Speaking of putting together California data, it looks like www.aroundthecapitol.com, by Scott Lay, already has the data. I hope he will be interested in...
15
Scott Beardsley
sc0ttbeardsley
Jan 17, 2005 2:19 am
Excellent! Thanks for the tip. It looks like he's getting data from the same place I'm getting mine. I've emailed him to see if he needs some help. A couple...
16
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer@...
Jan 17, 2005 1:36 pm
... Wow, good luck. That would be great to have online. ... That's a good point. There isn't a way on GovTrack to see who held what positions before this...
17
Scott Beardsley
sc0ttbeardsley
Jan 17, 2005 11:42 pm
... Hah, I don't know why people keep telling me that; maybe I'm about to find out. I've just found PURL (http://purl.org/) from reading a bit on RDF. It'd be...
18
Scott Beardsley
sc0ttbeardsley
Jan 21, 2005 6:48 pm
I'm curious about the nature of the data you have/I am collecting. I'm pretty sure that most of what I've collected has been entered into the public domain. ...
19
Aaron Huslage
ahuslage
Jan 21, 2005 8:29 pm
I think you're right. The raw data is naturally in the public domain unless utherwise noted by the publisher. It's my assumption that since you've...
20
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer@...
Jan 21, 2005 8:59 pm
... The text of legislation and the status of legislation are fair game. Official information like that is not copyrighted (in my non-lawyer understanding)....
21
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer@...
Jan 21, 2005 9:00 pm
... That's not the general rule. Everything is copyrighted by default, with all rights reserved. You need to see a specific "I allow you to do this" message...
22
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer@...
Jan 23, 2005 3:19 am
For those curious, here's what's happening behind the scenes lately. First, a blurb in the New York Times about GovTrack is supposed to appear one of these...
23
Scott Beardsley
sc0ttbeardsley
Jan 24, 2005 8:31 pm
... I think this is very sad but also very true. ... I think our biggest hurdle (with respect to copyright) will be the Legislative Counsel which is...
24
Scott Beardsley
sc0ttbeardsley
Jan 24, 2005 8:31 pm
I also wanted to add that I think many people (particularly those currently serving as elected officials) may feel threatened by govtrack and its spawn....
25
Scott Beardsley
sc0ttbeardsley
Jan 24, 2005 8:33 pm
... Congrats. That's excellent news. I'm happy to see mainstream media catching up with what's happening. ... Is this the govshare that I've been seeing random...
26
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer@...
Jan 24, 2005 8:51 pm
... I think it's pretty fair. Before the ~1979 changes to copyright law, you had to pay a fee and formally register works with the goverment to obtain a...
27
Scott Beardsley
sc0ttbeardsley
Jan 25, 2005 8:04 pm
Anyone heard of these guys/gals? They seem to be a group with similar interests. What is better is that they are an official non-profit org. We need to verify ...
28
Aaron Huslage
ahuslage
Jan 26, 2005 1:17 am
They're a great organization and have gained quite the reputation as a stand-up non-partisan group in the last few years. They've got a great source of data...
29
Joshua Tauberer / Gov...
tauberer
Jan 26, 2005 11:23 pm
Since we were talking about copyrights, here's the case that decided that the law cannot be copyrighted. It was a circuit court ruling, not the Supreme Court,...
30
sc0ttbeardsley
Jan 27, 2005 12:19 am
... Try to email the governor... He seems to be pro open source maybe he'll also be pro open government. Did you see this yet: ...
31
Joshua Tauberer
tauberer@...
Jan 27, 2005 3:00 am
It's not much and it's hard to find on the website, but it's factually accurate (except a minor nuance) and in the Times, so I'm ecstatic. ...
32
Aaron Huslage
ahuslage
Jan 27, 2005 3:37 pm
Congrats! A great win for you and govtrack! ... -- I have decided to move from the planet. I'm sorry but I simply cannot remain on a world where Paris Hilton...
I'm glad I found this site and am intrigued by the intent of the originators. Congratulations to this fine organization and its' recent award. I hope that...
35
Joshua Tauberer / Gov...
tauberer
Jan 29, 2005 11:29 pm
... Hello, and thanks! I'm not sure how much intrigue there could be about GovTrack, unless you think I might have some ulterior profit motives. My intent was...
36
Jeremy Dunck
ralinon
Feb 11, 2005 10:38 pm
I'm thinking of doing a similarly large-scale data reporting service, and was wondering if you have any tips on getting good data loaded? Specifically, I'm...
