OpenGovernment (beta) launches today

[David Moore :: OpenGovernment]

Hi all,

We're very excited to announce that OpenGovernment is launching in
beta today ::

http://opengovernment.org/

... with information for the five state legislatures previously
mentioned: CA, LA, MD, TX, and WI.

Our team is hard at work making tweaks already in response to user
feedback and doing outreach to our data partners & allies, so more to
come. For now, here's the official blog post announcement, please feel
free to share widely ::

http://bit.ly/OG_announce

... and I'm highlighting some early (and quite appreciated) blog/press
coverage on my micro-publishing account ::

http://twitter.com/#!/ppolitics

... most of all, this Group exists as a discussion forum to hear what
you think, so I look forward to corresponding here. I won't belabor my
point that we're truly a community project, and as with our Miro
software app and the OpenCongress web app itself, your beta-testing &
user interface input & bug reports will have an impact. PPF is a small
team, the equivalent of just four full-time folks at the moment, all
working remotely, so we appreciate all the help we can get.

First, developers (developers developers): Carl Tashian, our Director
of Technology and (as one might expect) the technical lead on OG, made
it as relatively frictionless as possible to set up a version of OG.
Check out our hub w/ more links & getting-started how-to
instructions ::

http://opengovernment.org/pages/developer

... our public-facing wish-list of data & features, in early bullet-
point format ::

http://opengovernment.org/pages/wish-list

... we're definitely interested in hearing more detailed suggestions
for data, design, and feature enhancements to this beta version. The
best way to get started (and the most efficient for us, we appreciate
the help) is to first create a free account with our Pivotal Tracker
and check the "wishlist" tag ::

https://www.pivotaltracker.com/projects/64842

... and then submit your user stories (e.g., "a user should be able
to ...") on Pivotal as a new story. If you haven't used this
particular project management system before, it looks a bit heavy at
first, but of course it ends up being pretty lightweight, hopefully
proves to be sufficiently intuitive. But it's not necessary to dive in
to the Tracker, as we welcome ideas & discussion here on this G-Group,
or over email or IRC anytime ::

http://opengovernment.org/pages/contact

... for routine bug reports (e.g., page formatting glitches), please
submit new issues to me on ZenDesk:

http://opencongress.zendesk.com/anonymous_requests/new

... and don't forget to help spread the word about our launch to your
online communities. Looking forward to rolling out OG to all 50 states
and beyond together. Let us know what you think about this beta
version!

Thanks,
-David

m: (917) 753-3462
AIM / Jabber / Skype :: davidmooreppf
IRC: davidrussellmoor in #opengovernment on freenode.net
http://participatorypolitics.org

http://opengovernment.org/pages/about