The Glass Capitol
The Glass Capitol is a public data and media aggregator that helps you rate your representatives and influence their actions. Our goal first and foremost is to build a more transparent, accountable, and responsive government. We’re asking for donations to achieve that goal.
In this age of technology and open data, it is still far too difficult to get unbiased information on government and politics. Many news and media outlets contradict each other using snippets of data that fail to tie together a full picture. The frenzy of misinformation is divisive, stripping the citizenry of its cohesive power to guide their representatives. The Glass Capitol is the solution.
The Glass Capitol increases transparency through easy access to public data. We aggregate and visualized data sets from a variety of different government sources, and we’re constantly expanding our data pool!
Furthermore, The Glass Capitol increases accountability by providing the means to rate and contact your representatives. Our system requires the guidance of an informed citizenry to be its best and we believe in the American public!
The Glass Capitol increases responsiveness by putting all of that knowledge and power at your fingertips so you can respond to the issues of the day quickly as they happen. We can lower the barrier to entry of our political discourse and empower entire communities to demand action on the issues that plague our nation!
Our Project Thus Far
The Glass Capitol is focused on making every individual’s experience with politics straightforward, interesting, personally relevant, and easy to take part in. We will accomplish this through increased accessibility to data, unbiased education about the data being presented, and the ability for users to discuss and act on this data. Though we strive for non-bias and decreased partisanship, The Glass Capitol team fights against bigotry, anti-intellectualism, racism, sexism and blatant disregard for facts. The Glass Capitol consists of a small but highly talented team currently working pro-bono in our minimal free time. We are in pursuit of the best way to organize and communicate facts. We aggregate data published by the government and research entities.
In less than 6 months, 1.3 GB worth of data (basically giant spreadsheets of numbers) have been made user-accessible with an easy to understand interface - all while striving for objectivity. Examples include House and Senate vote records, summaries and congressional progress of bills, and national economic standing since 1961. All of this information will be filtered to display results based on the user’s selected priority of major issues.
The first key interactive we have developed is the ability for any user to keep track their representatives. It includes ways to 1) measure your representatives using statistics and 2) influence - using direct communication via tweets, email, or mailing address - your representatives and the decisions they make on your behalf. In creating a comprehensive way to view and interact with legislation on an online platform, The Glass Capitol hopes to not only provide a better way for citizens to tell their representatives how they feel about issues, but also a way for representatives to have a clear idea of what their constituents think of them and their decisions.
In the Works
We are continually working to increase our data sets. Future functionality already in the works include election tracking, campaign finance breakdowns per candidate, and complete logs on the money spent by the government domestically and abroad. We are also expanding to integrate a full social media platform for discussions. We aim to create healthy communication channels within the user base and with government representatives. Underlying all of our efforts is a commitment to continuously improve users’ interactive experiences so there will be frequent site updates and the improvements for full mobile-functionality.
While website development on data aggregation and communications are full steam ahead, we wish to dedicate more to the educational components. We need to reach out to those who have given up on politics and show them there are still ways to be proactive and productive in government matters. To do so, we need to expand our outreach and social media operations. We also plan to create 2-minute-videos summarizing opposing viewpoints on new bill legislation. It will eventually grow to include coverage on the possible outcomes of supreme court cases and executive orders. The intent is to break down news echo-chambers so people can be informed on all of the varying thoughts, reasons and fears behind any given issue. Only then can we can work together to come up with real solutions. But to have substantial effects, we need to back up our research team with high-quality video production.
The base of our funding will go to the above. Anything more will go to increasing website development and our greater goals of expanding to include data on the state and local level - where citizens are even less likely to know who their representatives are. The amount of work required to incorporate this is truly tremendous, but funding will go a long way towards achieving our goals.
How You Can Help
The Glass Capitol team works tirelessly to achieve the goals of government transparency and accessible civic engagement. We are looking for funds to grow The Glass Capitol to its fullest potential. If you believe in the people’s right to take part in government; if you want to help bridge the gap between the people and its government, please consider donating. We also hope you utilize our services to learn more about the national government, how it’s affecting you, and how you can affect it. You can check out our work-in-progress through the Beta at www.glasscapitol.org.
A democracy is only as good as its people, so, we strive to give the people the information they need to be a well-informed constituency. In a world where information is power, data is information in its purest form. The Glass Capitol is giving that power back to the people. Thank you for any help and support you can provide.
Kind regards,
The Glass Capitol Team
