Presented at Ruby Hoedown 2009.

1. Civic Hacking
Luigi Montanez
luigi@sunlightfoundation.com

2. Question? @LuigiMontanez
I am here to
recruit you.

5. Question? @LuigiMontanez
“Transparency”

6. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Everyone Wants
Transparency

7. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Questions for me?
@LuigiMontanez

8. Question? @LuigiMontanez
“Civic Hacking”

9. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Participatory
Democracy

12. Question? @LuigiMontanez
But today...

16. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Just plain lame!

17. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Something not
lame...

19. Text
Civic Hacking

20. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Some Guiding
Principles...

21. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Electoral Politics

22. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Electoral Politics
Governance

23. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Closed Source

24. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Closed Source
Open Source

25. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Civic Side Projects

26. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Open Source + Open Data
=
Better Government

27. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Government as a
wholesaler, not retailer

30. Question? @LuigiMontanez
.fec? .wtf?

32. Question? @LuigiMontanez
High Quality Raw Data
✴ First: Raw data in XML, JSON, or CSV
✴ Second: RESTful APIs in JSON/XML
✴ Third: Nothing really...

33. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Civic Hacking
Defined

34. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Federal
Government

35. Credit: vgm8383 on Flickr

39. Question? @LuigiMontanez
APIs about Congress
✴ Sunlight Labs API - Bio and contact info
✴ OpenSecrets.org - Contributions
✴ GovTrack.us - Bills and Vote Records
✴ MAPLight.org - Vote Influence

56. Question? @LuigiMontanez
U.S. Courts System
✴ Supreme Court (1)
✴ Courts of Appeals (12)
✴ District Courts (94)
✴ Courts for Patents, International Trade,
Bankruptcy

61. Question? @LuigiMontanez
States
✴ Not much yet...
✴ FollowTheMoney.org
✴ 50 State Project - transform legislative data
for all 50 states into a common format

62. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Cities
✴ Washington, D.C. - api.dc.gov

63. Question? @LuigiMontanez
A CITY HAS
AN API!!!

65. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Cities
✴ Washington, D.C. - Data Catalog, Open
311 API
✴ New York City - Big Apps contest, Open
311 API
✴ San Francisco - DataSF.org, App Store

66. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Getting Involved
✴ groups.google.com/group/sunlightlabs
✴ #transparency on Freenode
✴ github.com/sunlightlabs
✴ @sunlightlabs on Twitter
✴ SunlightLabs.com

69. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Project Lifecycle
1. Explore
2. Design
3. Implement/Test
4. Deploy

70. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Deployment?

72. Question? @LuigiMontanez
GAE Daily Quotas
✴ 1.3 million requests
✴ 1 GB bandwidth outgoing
✴ 1 GB bandwidth incoming
✴ 6.5 CPU Hours
✴ 10 million calls to the Datastore
✴ 1 GB in the Datastore

75. $ sudo gem install google-appengine
$ sinatra-gen mycivicapp

76. # Inside config.ru
require 'appengine-rack'
AppEngine::Rack.configure_app(
:application => 'mycivicapp',
:version => 1)
require 'mycivicapp'
run Sinatra::Application

77. $ appcfg.rb gem sources
$ appcfg.rb gem sources --add
http://gems.datamapper.org
$ appcfg.rb gem install sinatra dm-appengine

78. Question? @LuigiMontanez
WEB-INF Directory
✴ XML and YAML config
✴ .jars for:
✴ AppEngine SDK (holds webserver,
Datastore)
✴ JRuby, RubyGems, jruby-rack
✴ Our installed gems

79. $ appcfg.rb --help
usage: /usr/bin/appcfg.rb [options] <action> <app-dir> [<output-file>]
Action must be one of:
help: Print help for a specific action.
request_logs: Write request logs in Apache common log format.
rollback: Rollback an in-progress update.
update: Create or update an app version.
update_indexes: Update application indexes.
version: Prints version information.
update_cron: Update application cron jobs.
run: run jruby in your application environment.
gem: run rubygems for your application.
bundle: package your application for deployment.
The 'gem' and 'run' commands assume the app directory is the current
directory.

80. $ dev_appserver.rb .
=> Booting DevAppServer
=> Press Ctrl-C to shutdown server
=> Installing JRuby
=> Retrieving jruby-rack
=> Installing appengine-sdk
=> Generating configuration files
The server is running at http://localhost:8080/
^C
$ appcfg.rb run -S irb
$ appcfg.rb update .

81. Question? @LuigiMontanez
GAE Limitations
✴ No ActiveRecord
✴ No ImageMagick
✴ No Sphinx
✴ No Ruby gems with C extensions

82. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Consider Civic Hacking
✴ Enhance your skillset
✴ Get noticed
✴ Low risk, high reward
✴ Another TDD framework? Really?
✴ Local/state govts. an untapped market
✴ Solve a hard problem

83. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Thanks!

84. Question? @LuigiMontanez
Questions?