Federal Government Information Technology

Hacking congressional culture: technologists take aim at legislative problems

Federal Times:The turnout for and participation in the third Congressional Hackathon reveals a growing community and culture committed to improving the legislative process through technology, according to event attendees and organizers.

“Each hackathon we’ve had has grown in attendance and it’s [including] a lot of the same people,” said Steve Dwyer, senior adviser to Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and one of the organizers of the hackathon, held November 30. “It’s really about the community that the hackathon has helped foster, the community of technologists that care about Congress.”

The first hackathon was held in 2011 and focused on releasing big data from the legislative branch to the public, such as through the website Congress.gov, which launched in beta in 2012 and provides machine-readable and downloadable data on the legislative process to the public.

Read article