Political E-Identity: Campaign Funding Data and Beyond

1. Political E-Identity: Campaign Funding Data and Beyond David Wolber University of San Francisco Department of Computer Science

2. What’s on Tap? • Who’s Funding Whom in San Francisco • Student developed visualization software • USF + San Francisco Ethics Commission • Whosfundingwhom.org • Comprehensive Political E-Identity • Collaborative software • peoplicious.com University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

3. The Problem: E-Rummaging University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

4. 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 University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

5. 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. University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

6. City and University Collaboration: Challenges • Students graduate • Software Maintenance • Sustainability University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

7. 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 University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

8. 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/ University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

9. USF Project:Phase 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. University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

10. Demonstration See http://whosfundingwhom.org University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

11. Landing Page University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

12. Individual Records University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

13. Graph University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

14. Next Steps: Expand Administrator Input • Aliases • Haight Street Mortgage • Haight Street Mortgage, Inc. • … • Lists • Amazon’s listmania, jeteye University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

15. Next Steps: Integrate Databases • Campaign Funding • Lobbyists • Political Consultants University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

16. 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 University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

17. Next Steps… • Flag potential violations • Mine data for hidden relationships • Special Election/Filing Date views University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

18. Next Steps: Whosfundingwho- Can it Scale? University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

19. Comprehensive Political E-Identity: Strategies • XML, Web Services, and Aggregators • Collaboration, Public Participation, and the power of the many University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

20. Collaborative Software • Wikipedia • Del.icio.us, Flickr • Politicalfriendster.com • Theyrule.com • Record/share your “Googling” work • The Power of the Masses University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

21. 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 University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

22. 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. University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

23. Peoplicious.com • http://peoplicious.com • Early prototype, but need feedback. University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

24. Coming: SFPoliticos.com • Peoplicious for the Political Domain • One-stop shop to find info from/about politicians • Expand out of San Francisco ??? University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

25. Summary • University CS Departments can fill a void • Code is Law • Need Oliver Luby’s Brain in Code • Web services and Collaborative Software have great potential in educating voters. • Open information can change the behavior of our politicians! University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

26. Thank You • whosfundingwhom.org • David Wolber (wolber@usfca.edu) University of San Francisco whosfundingwhom.org

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