Open Civic Data
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Current Status | In Development; rapidly maturing; broad adoption in software but limited publishing by local and state legislatures |
| Version Number | Last updated 2015 |
| Key Contacts | James Turk, Sunlight Foundation [email protected] |
| Implementing Agencies | Government agencies, election commissions, government information services, Google Civic Information API, Popolo Project, Granicus, Cicero |
| Documentation | Open Civic Data API:http://docs.opencivicdata.org/en/latest/api/index.html |
| Founding/Sponsoring Organizations | Google, OpenNorth, Sunlight Foundation |
Background
The Open Civic Data project is a collaborative effort to define schemas and provide tools for collecting and disseminating information on government organizations, officials, legislation and events. Building off the work of the OpenStates project, the Sunlight Foundation sought to create a standard that would enable users to more easily digest election and government information. It is not one standard but rather six that cover several aspects of the democratic process. The most active implementations have been related to OCD IDs (divisions).
Analysis
The Open Civic Data project seeks to define a schema for the following:
- Division - A political geography such as a state, county or congressional district.
- Jurisdictions - A governing body that exists within a division, such as the PA House of Representatives.
- Civic Events - A legislative event, such as a meeting or hearing.
- Persons, Organizations, Posts and Memberships - A politician or government official, a group of people (such as a city council, state senate or committee). The Popolo specification (see above) is the basis for this OCD component.
- Bills - A legislative document and its history, may technically be a resolution, appointment, or contract.
- Votes - The record of a vote taken on a motion, such as a confirmation or passage of a bill.
Additional Resources
- GitHub Repository: https://github.com/opencivicdata
- Pupa – software project for scraping OCD data: https://github.com/opencivicdata/pupa
- OCD ID Lookup Tool for Canada: http://opennorth.github.io/ocd-id-viewer/
- Master List of OCD IDs: https://github.com/opencivicdata/ocd-division-ids/tree/master/identifiers