4 ms·

Is Sunlight Labs shutdown the death knell for open government?

16 points by nnnnnn 10y ago

emilpitkin 10y ago
Hey there. I'm Emil, the CEO of GovPredict. If you use Sunlight's repos, send me a note (emil@govpredict.com). I'd love to hear from you.
salbertson 10y ago
I used their openstates repo a while back and found it amazing how well they could distill the data. I had tried writing scrapers before for the same purposes, but it took forever just to get a fraction of what they had. Best of luck to sunlight devs in the transition.
nnnnnn 10y ago
Posting this for two reasons -- First of all, these organizations don't pop up or maintain themselves magically, it takes a leader to get this started and a smart team to keep it going. They deserve to be recognized for truly great work. Second, I think having open government data in a truly ACCESSIBLE format is extremely important. If you've ever tried to look up data on the FEC site, you'll know what I mean. Not to take away from the FEC data site -- it's an incredible data resource, but tech companies certainly do a better job productizing these large amounts of data from the government.
- mpenn 10y ago
  Could someone turn this into a business? Then it would hopefully survive on its own.
  - emilpitkin 10y ago
    Sharp thinking. Our business (GovPredict) is built around structuring fragmented government data. We've profited a great deal by it, and have some bandwidth and the inclination to now perform a public service and give the public access to a good deal of formerly unnavigable data.
kumarski 10y ago
Jesus, thanks for picking up the tab and maintaining it. surprised nobody is making a ruckus aobut it.
- emilpitkin 10y ago
  Thank you. Maintaining the whole project would be a herculean task, but we're happy to do our part.
maplematch 10y ago
Fascinating. I wonder how the future firms will leverage FOIA requests to continue building the database.
- emilpitkin 10y ago
  So do we. Until then, there is such an expanse of publicly available data that hasn't been touched: local ordinances, lobbying at the state level, campaign contributions at the state level, just to name a few.
abhir 10y ago
Government data is so incredibly messy - good on you guys!
- emilpitkin 10y ago
  Thank you! Always great to hear from someone with the same outlook.

16 points by nnnnnn 10y ago

Hey there. I'm Emil, the CEO of GovPredict. If you use Sunlight's repos, send me a note (emil@govpredict.com). I'd love to hear from you.

salbertson 10y ago

I used their openstates repo a while back and found it amazing how well they could distill the data. I had tried writing scrapers before for the same purposes, but it took forever just to get a fraction of what they had. Best of luck to sunlight devs in the transition.

nnnnnn 10y ago

Posting this for two reasons -- First of all, these organizations don't pop up or maintain themselves magically, it takes a leader to get this started and a smart team to keep it going. They deserve to be recognized for truly great work. Second, I think having open government data in a truly ACCESSIBLE format is extremely important. If you've ever tried to look up data on the FEC site, you'll know what I mean. Not to take away from the FEC data site -- it's an incredible data resource, but tech companies certainly do a better job productizing these large amounts of data from the government.

mpenn 10y ago
Could someone turn this into a business? Then it would hopefully survive on its own.
- emilpitkin 10y ago
  Sharp thinking. Our business (GovPredict) is built around structuring fragmented government data. We've profited a great deal by it, and have some bandwidth and the inclination to now perform a public service and give the public access to a good deal of formerly unnavigable data.

kumarski 10y ago

Jesus, thanks for picking up the tab and maintaining it. surprised nobody is making a ruckus aobut it.

emilpitkin 10y ago
Thank you. Maintaining the whole project would be a herculean task, but we're happy to do our part.

maplematch 10y ago

Fascinating. I wonder how the future firms will leverage FOIA requests to continue building the database.

emilpitkin 10y ago
So do we. Until then, there is such an expanse of publicly available data that hasn't been touched: local ordinances, lobbying at the state level, campaign contributions at the state level, just to name a few.

abhir 10y ago

Government data is so incredibly messy - good on you guys!

emilpitkin 10y ago
Thank you! Always great to hear from someone with the same outlook.