whosfundingwhom.org usf transparency in government project campaign finance disclosure/visualization...
Post on 20-Dec-2015
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whosfundingwhom.org
USF Transparency in Government Project
Campaign Finance Disclosure/Visualization
David Wolber, University of San Francisco
whosfundingwhom.org
Co-Sponsors
The project has been funded by the Leo T. McCarthy center and the City of San Francisco.
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Outline
Motivation for Project Funding data at federal/state
levels Demo of whosfundingwhom.org Issues and Future Directions
whosfundingwhom.org
Disclosure and Accessibility: Current Status On-line Disclosure (getting there)
Implementation behind law, in SF Loopholes, e.g., late filing, addendums
Data visualization (output) is far behind. sfgov.org/ethics
Limited resources, especially software developers.
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Accessibility is Limited
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Limited Accessibility
Journalists
Watchdog organizations Only most egregious violations
checked
Voters
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Campaign Transparency:Needs More on-line filing Visualization tools
Graphs, e.g., funding trails Views that integrate various data Automatic flagging of potential
violations Data mining– Analyzing the data to
find interesting things.
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Fed and State solutions Federal: opensecrets.org
Center for Responsive Politics
State: http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/campaign/ http://cal-access.ss.ca.
gov/Campaign/Candidates/list.aspx?view=name
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Idea behind our project: 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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Current Status of Project Lobbyist database and on-line forms
deployed this April. Campaign funding Visualization
whosfundingwhom.org Relational view of funding chains
Tabular Graph
“Launch” April 1. Basis for data mining, integration,etc.
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Demonstration
See http://bay.cs.usfca.edu/tgpGraph.htm
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Future Goals
Integrate multiple data sources Flag potential violations Mine data for hidden relationships Allow users to input
data/associations Special Election/Filing Date views
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Integrating Data
David Wolber
City Department X
Joe Contributor
Employee OfAwarded Contract By
$10000
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Integrating Data Sources
State Filings
Other Cities and Counties
Data Standards?
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Integrating Lobbyist and Campaign Finance Data
Does a contributor employ a lobbyist? If so, what issue is the lobbyist hired to promote?
Lobbyists must report if they’ve prompted someone to make a contribution.
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Data within Ethics Commission.
Independent Expenditure Database 461 Major Donors Political Consultants
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Contracts/Voting
City Contracts/Permits Awarded Voting Records
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Flagging Possible Violations
Sometimes duplicative filings are required. e.g., cross-checking RCPT database
with Independent Expenditure DB. Are RCPT committees contributing
to other committees (a violation) Negative cash balances
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Geographical Queries
For instance, funding by neighborhood or district.
Note that this information is not in the redacted data now online at Ethics Commission.
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Potential Projects
Identify on-line data sources Appointees, employed_by,
contracts_awarded. Use whosfundingwhom.org and
suggest modifications, additions, and directions.
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Trends in Information Systems Collaboration and the power of the
many e.g., wikipedia, del.icio.us, slashdot Collect and organize now scattered data All kinds of legal issues (Feinstein case,
Kennedy assasination accusations) How to moderate Who is liable?
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Trends in Information Systems XML and web services
Standard data formats Separate presentation from data Mashups/aggregators
E.g., Craigslist/Google maps
Semantic web
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Human input of Data The Internet has a lot of data that
is free text, not structured. e.g., voting on issues, news
Administer/Researcher/Expert/public can identify and input data (e.g., wikipedia)
Objectivity Issues
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Thank You
whosfundingwho.org David Wolber ([email protected])
(415) 422-6451 Email us or come by and see us –
we want detailed feedback and ideas