Sunlight Labs has a new app called “Congress” that will help keep you in the loop with your legislature, who they are, and what they’re doing. It will show you how to get in touch with your specific representatives, show you what bills are being voted on, and how they’re voting. It’ll also track lawmakers’ tweets and give you access to videos, etc.
I’m downloading it as soon as I finish writing this, because I think it sounds awesome. If you like to follow these things, search the market for “congress” or scan the QR code below. Hit read more for the full press release.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 27, 2010
Contact: Gabriela Schneider 202-742-1520
WASHINGTON, DC – After months in public beta, the Sunlight Foundation today officially announced the free ‘Congress’ application for Android phones as the best way to comprehensively follow congressional activity. ‘Congress’ allows users to easily find their members of Congress by GPS, zip code or name and track their latest activity.
“This truly puts Congress in your pocket,” said Tom Lee, director of Sunlight Labs, the technology arm of the Sunlight Foundation that developed the ‘Congress’ app. “You can quickly find out how to get in touch with your lawmakers and keep up-to-date with news coverage or their most recent tweet. We are committed to improving citizens’ relationship with government, and building better tools for valuable engagement.”
Beyond simple contact information, ‘Congress’ allows users to follow key votes, explore committee membership and map every district. Legislation can be examined and tracked through every stage of the process right in the palm of your hand.
Since ‘Congress’ first opened as a public beta late last year, over 250,000 Android owners have downloaded this congressional directory app. Computerworld named ‘Congress’ as one of the ’10 free Android apps for staying in the know,’ and the Congress app was also featured on the Google Android Marketplace and the T-Mobile’s Android Channel. Beltway insiders can use the application to track legislators’ votes and find their offices while citizens around the country can call their representatives or track them on Twitter and YouTube.
The ‘Congress’ app is built on the Sunlight Labs Congress API and GovTrack.us. Like all Sunlight projects, ‘Congress’ is open source software to encourage developers to play with the code at Github, the social code host. Sunlight will continue to add exciting features, such as real-time push notifications, in the months to come. For iPhone users, check out the Sunlight Foundation’s ‘Real Time Congress’ application that allows users to access government documents and activity as they go live.
The Sunlight Foundation is a non-partisan non-profit that uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Visit SunlightFoundation.com to learn more about Sunlight’s projects, including TransparencyData.com and Party Time.
[via Sunlight Labs]
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