OpenGov Foundation
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| Founded | June 2012[1] |
|---|---|
| Founder | Seamus Kraft and Darrell Issa |
| Type | 501(c)(3) |
| Focus | Open source software development |
| Location | |
|
Area served
|
United States of America |
| Website | OpenGovFoundation.org |
The OpenGov Foundation is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that is working to build a 21st century democracy by bridging the gap between citizens and government.. The organization conducts research, develops free and open source software, and helps governments put civic data such as laws and legislation online. It was co-founded by Congressman Darrell Issa and Seamus Kraft in 2012, and it is funded primarily by the Shuttleworth Foundation and the Knight Foundation. The organization is based in Washington, D.C.
The OpenGov Foundation grew out of the 2011-2012 protests against SOPA and PIPA. It received a $200,000 grant from the Knight Foundation in 2013, an additional $750,000 from Knight in 2014, and over $700,000 from the Shuttleworth Foundation since 2014.[2]
Contents
Projects
Madison
Madison is a government policy co-creation platform that opens up laws and legislation. Issa's congressional team launched Project Madison in December 2011 to support opposition to SOPA and PIPA in the U.S. Congress. A group of U.S. representatives and senators used Madison to develop alternative legislation, the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act.[3]
Fast Company described the Madison beta version as "a stripped-down interactive blogging platform, which allows citizens to select individual passages of legislation, and strike or add their own language, with comments for each suggestion. Citizens are encouraged to like or dislike each change, with the most popular suggestions rising to the top."[4]
Madison has since grown and been adopted by governments across the country and globe, including Washington, DC, the federal government of Mexico, and the United Nations. In February 2015, The White House used Madison to crowdsource its Public Participation Playbook.[5]
The State Decoded
The State Decoded is an open source platform that displays legal codes, court decisions, and information from legislative tracking services to make it all more understandable.[6] It was originally created by Waldo Jaquith for the Commonwealth of Virginia.[7] The OpenGov Foundation subsequently launched a version for the state of Maryland in May 2013[8] and followed with Baltimore, MD, launched with the Baltimore Mayor's Office in July 2013.[9] It has since launched in a total of eight city and state governments across the country, including San Francisco, Chicago, Florida, and Washington, DC.[10]
Hack4Congress
In early 2015, The OpenGov Foundation partnered with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation to organize a series of civic hackathons across the country, dubbed "Hack4Congress." The events, held in Cambridge, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, drew hundreds of participants, including over a dozen Members of Congress, to build open source software prototypes to make Congress more efficient.[11]
Work in Maryland
The OpenGov Foundation has worked in Maryland and its largest municipality, Baltimore, to custom develop software and data sets that increase government transparency, help citizens participate in their state and city governments, and hold them accountable. The Baltimore Sun described OpenGov’s work as a "test case for trying to make state and local government more transparent and participatory using technology."[12]
The OpenGov Foundation's work in Maryland is funded by a grant awarded in 2013 by the Knight Foundation.[13]
Work in Chicago
In March 2015, The OpenGov Foundation partnered with the City of Chicago to launch ChicagoCode.org, a product of The State Decoded, to make the city's laws and regulations more accessible to citizens.[14]
People
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Board
The OpenGov Foundation board of directors includes Congressman Darrell Issa, Executive Director Seamus Kraft, Lead Developer Chris Birk, City of Los Angeles Chief Technology Officer Abhi Nemani, Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier, former Virginia Congressman Tom Davis, and attorney James Lacy.[15]
Staff
The OpenGov Foundation team includes Executive Director Seamus Kraft, Chief of Operations Aaron Bartnick, Lead Developer Chris Birk, and Senior Developer Bill Hunt.[16]
References
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