Technology
From Illuminated Budget Wiki
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[edit] Technologies to Tame the Budget
The information that defines our society has reached an unmanageable level of complexity. Imagine searching today’s Internet with tools from the 1970’s: a professional could do it but anyone else would be lost. In the same way that Web browsers opened the Internet to everyone, the appropriate tools could give everyone the ability to understand, and contribute to, the government process.
These tools are outlined here. The first target for this toolset will be the US Federal Budget.
[edit] Data
The data we need exists in the public domain: The federal budget, lists of relevant committees and committee members and information about lobbyists and donations. To use this data we will import it out of its current, bulky, formats, break it into discrete pieces or “fragments”, and store these in our database. These information fragments provide the starting point and a framework for community-generated content, which can then be used to guide policy.
- The database’s content and schema will be managed under version control, giving us the safety to change the database and to roll-back to previous versions as needed.
- The database will be media aware, allowing users to embed audio, video, and other forms of documentation.
- The schema, and a public database API, will be documented and disseminated to encourage other organizations and developers to use our database as their platform.
- All information in the database -- the fragments, commentary, associations between entries, and user identities -- can be tagged and rated along multiple dimensions by the community.
[edit] Identity
Like other online information systems, our tools will have a login interface and provide social networking features. Unlike other systems, our identities allow hierarchical associations, such as when a corporation recognizes a subset of individuals as representatives of its official voice.
- You can aggregate your federation of identities from compatible social networks, providing a common login.
- An identity can have multiple aliases, such as when a person is speaking for an organization versus with their personal opinion, as an expert in a field, or anonymously.
- Aliases share in the reputation of your core identity, giving even anonymous commentary accountability and authority.
[edit] Reputation
Everything created with our toolset is linked to an identity. Users can tag and rate content, and this in turn reflects on the content's originating identity, creating a formal, numerical “reputation”. Your reputation is valuable; it reflects how people see you in the system, and it adds weight and context to the everything you create.
- Accountability borne from a persistent reputation gives an incentive to be thoughtful in your contributions.
- Reputation rubs off; the reputation of the members of a group define the reputation of the group. People will judge you by your reputation and the reputation of the friends you keep.
[edit] Display and Navigation
The database will initially have a simple user interface to import data fragments, display them, create links between fragments, and add commentary. This interface may be similar to a Wiki or other hyper-linked content system. Specialized graphical interfaces will then provide more intuitive access for different [link: ./usecase.html] use cases.
- Association viewer/editor will illustrate the web of associations around a fragment.
- Comment manager will filter, rank, and organize comments into meaningful views.
- Consensus interface will lock a fragment for closed-group access until voting indicates it is ready for public use.
- Tagging and rating tools mark and filter content, commentary, associations, and users along multiple dimensions.
- Searching and filtering tools highlight, hide, and group fragments along a wide range of attributes.
- Revision viewers illustrate changes in content over time.
- Search tools for internal fragments and relevant external databases will find and import information.
- Calendar event-triggers coordinate group activities.
- “Watch” tools and RSS feeds notify users when relevant content changes.
[edit] Usability and Usefulness
Considering the tools outlined in the [link: ./technology.html]“Technologies to Tame the Budget” white-paper, and being defined in more detail on the wiki.illuminatedbudget.com website, several questions leap to mind.
[edit] Can they be built? Will these tools be useful? Why would anyone want to use them?
First the easy answer: yes, they can be built, and without needing to find software super-geniuses. All of the technologies in these tools, all of the user interfaces and visualization capabilities they will implement, have been done before. The “new” aspect of this project is in how these features and technologies are assembled and applied, not in the features themselves.
Will these tools be useful? Absolutely. Every problem space, every type of data, has a method of interaction that is natural for it. Using the right tool for a problem makes it easy, and using the wrong tool makes it hard. We are creating the right tools for this problem space, to highlight aspects of this data that we believe are important. As part of our solution, we are creating a platform that other organizations can use to highlight the aspects that they think are important.
[edit] Will people use these tools? We think so...
[edit] Open Philosophy
Our toolset is being created with open-source principles so that not only the US Federal Budget data is being opened up to the world, but the tools themselves will be released to everyone. Any organization would be free to modify and adjust these tools for their own special needs and to apply them to their own particular interests.
[edit] Community Access
Software tools already exist to organize and manage the Federal Budget and legislation information, though they may do this less elegantly than what we propose. Some organizations pay a lot of money for access to these tools. Our tools will give these same capabilities, and more, to small organizations, to individuals, to everyone. We are giving power to the broader community.
[edit] Connections
As individuals use our tools to research and comment on the Budget, they will find other people with similar interests, and they will start working together. As existing organizations use these tools, they will find they have common ground with other organizations. The very act of using these tools will highlight the connections and common interests between people and organizations; communities will form and grow, and these communities will amplify the efforts of their members.
[edit] Identity Consolidation
People have identities on many systems these days, whether it is a simple login or an intricate node in a social network. By using our tools, they can begin to consolidate their federation of existing identities and friends, providing easier access to, and a consolidated view of, their presence in the online world.
[edit] Reputation
The reputation that people accumulate based on their actions on this system, and imported from their identities on other systems, gives them an incentive to be active and to be mindful of how their activity affects their reputation. This reputation has visibility in a large, and socially meaningful, community and this in turn gives them reason to treat it with care.
As a footnote, during the development of these white-papers, there were times when this toolset could have been used. For example, the petition could have been managed under the consensus interface, and the commentary system will in fact be used to manage user feedback about the tools, once developed. We are writing these tools, in part, because we want to use them ourselves. The only surprising thing is that someone hasn’t created them already. Someone has to be first, and it seems that this “someone” could be us.
[edit] Current Projects
Our software is being built through contributions from our strong volunteer community. Here are some of our current projects. For more information, or if you are interested in contributing your time and effort, please join our Mailing List or contact Silona.
[edit] Entity-based Social Network
A social network that is based on "entities" rather than individuals. A node in the network might be an individual, a business, or some other organization. In the LoTV context, the social network will facilitate communication and collaboration in our target community and our hierarchical entity-based representation within the social network allows non-profit and advocacy groups to participate as visible, named entities.
[edit] Connect-the-Dots ("CtD") legislation browsing tool
CtD is a visual user interface that is used to easily browse the connections between pending legislation, sponsoring legislators, budgetary contributions, earmarks, and so forth. CtD is designed to clearly and intelligently display any information about the meaning of these connections. This meaning will be assigned by the community, using our tools which are designed from the ground up for this purpose.
[edit] Consensus wiki ("C-wiki")
C-wiki is a wiki [1] with integrated tools to enable defined groups to build a consensus on its contents. This tool is useful for drafting formal whitepapers that reflect the combined opinion of a group of authors. In the LoTV context, this is an important format to influence legislators.
[edit] Event Calendar
The LoTV Event Calendar is an hCalendar compliant event calendar to facilitate event planning and other means of collaboration among users of the LoTV community. This calendar should accept hCalendar RSS feeds as a form of automated input and/or output. Ideally, visitors should also be able to subscribe to receive an email digest of the day's posts in the categories of their choice.
