MyReps

[Vcambranes]

What problem are we trying to solve?

We want to ensure voters in Brooklyn have all the resources they need to educate themselves about their representatives' voting record and campaign finances on a federal, state and city level. Having a clear view of who represents you and what they represent is vital to a healthy and engaged democracy.

Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from this project?

Kings County active voters (1.4m), voters who are registered but inactive (655k), and unregistered voters (600k). The goal is to get 2m eligible voters registered and educated about their representatives so that they are comfortable and ready to vote come Election Day. The secondary goal is to become an educational resource for high school and college students, and to get them registered when they are eligible.

Where can we find any research/data available/articles?

WEBSITE | API INFORMATION

api.open.fec.gov/developers/ | FEC Campaign Finance records for federal, state and city

labs.loc.gov/lc-for-robots/ | Library of Congress legislative records for Congress and Senate

nyopengovernment.com/NYOG/API.html | Assembly & State Senate legislative records

council.nyc.gov/legislation/api/ | City Council Legislative records

developers.google.com/civic-information/ | Civic Information API allows address search to find representatives

What help is needed at this time?

We need help with data visualization for the representative profile pages. We have API and bulk data available on each representative, and are looking for interesting, easy and engaging ways to display voting history data and campaign finance data for everyday voters.

What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?

We are in the brainstorming stages, which is a very exciting place to jump in! At the moment, we have all the API keys and bulk data downloaded, and so it is a matter of cleaning up, sorting and choosing how best to represent the most vital data for voters. This will require some out of the box thinking and excellent data visualization skills.

How can we contact you outside of Github(list social media or places you're present)?

You can connect with us on the Progressive Hacknight Slack channel, or contact us directly at:

Victoria Cambranes
victoria@victoriacambranes.nyc
917-202-8466

Deidre McMullen
dmarie.mcm@gmail.com
914-391-6054

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Project management

Checklist for NEW ideas 👶

Hey, you're official! You're now part of the growing Progressive HackNight community. Here's a few things to get started (a couple you've probably already done).

• Create this idea issue
• Flesh out the who, where, and what questions above
• Start the conversation about this new idea on Slack (this project uses #general )
• Respond with at least one update on this issue within the next month

Checklist for ACTIVE projects 🔥

Let's get this project started! When this idea starts taking off, the Progressive HackNight Team will start helping this project's lead(s) out with project management and connecting you to resources you may need. To get there, please complete and check off the following:

• Post an update at least once a month to this issue. Use BASEDEF for ideas, but it's ok even if your update is just "nothing new happened this month" or "we saw a small increase in traffic to our app this month". If there's no activity for two months, that's no problem, life happens. We'll just label this as backlog so others know you'll get back to it when you have the time. If nobody hears from you at all in more than two months, we may mark it as abandoned so that others can pick up this idea and run with it.
• Create a GitHub repository and Slack channel for work.
• Create issues to describe each task that you plan to do or need help with and how a contributor can get started on that task. You might start and stop a lot, so consider issues as your to-do list.
• Create a team for your core contributors
  • This will make it easier for you to manage your github repo access. People on a team have the same level of access. Admin access will allow your trusted contributors to make changes as needed.
  • You can remove and add people to your team as needed.
  • Note: You can also allow collaborators outside of your team and give them more limited access.
• Create a Google Drive, Dropbox, or other cloud storage to share larger files
  • Github and Data.World are good for code and data, respectively, especially when you need version control. But they're not good for very large files, documentation, articles, etc. A cloud storage option will allow you to easily share, create, and collaborate on documents with your team and help organize ideas and thoughts.
  • Doing this early on can help your team stay organized and to onboard new contributors who wouldn't have access to files you all have shared over email.

If you get stuck at any point, feel free to reach out to the leadership team with an email to steering@progressivehacknight.org or come find an organizer at a HackNight. We're here to help bring great ideas to life!