whosfundingwho.org Transparency in Government Project Visualizing Campaign Finance Data in San Francisco

whosfundingwho.org Co-Sponsors The project has been funded by the Leo T. McCarthy center and the City of San Francisco.

whosfundingwho.org Outline Motivation for Project Demo Campaign Finance Visualization Lobbyist Input forms Future Directions

whosfundingwho.org Campaign Transparency: Current Status Filing required by law. Organizations such as SF Ethics Comm. leading the way in implementing. Limited resources, especially software developers.

whosfundingwho.org Accessibility is Limited

whosfundingwho.org Campaign Transparency: Needs More on-line filing Visualization tools Views that integrate various data Automatic flagging of potential violations Data mining– Analyzing the data to find interesting things. UI for input of associations/data

whosfundingwho.org Big Picture Solution: City and University Collaboration Fill the gap in resources for city. Students work on real projects. Encourage public service. Build some real software to help city/community.

whosfundingwho.org Current Status of Project Lobbyist database and on-line forms (Hope to deploy early summer) Campaign funding Visualization whosfundingwho.org Relational view of funding chains Tabular Graph “Launch” early summer Basis for data mining, integration,etc.

whosfundingwho.org DEMO

whosfundingwho.org Future Goals Integrate multiple data sources Flag potential violations Mine data for hidden relationships Allow experts to input data/associations Special Election/Filing Date views

whosfundingwho.org Integrating Data David Wolber City Department X Joe Contributor Employee Of Awarded Contract By $10000

whosfundingwho.org Integrating Data Sources State Filings Other Cities and Counties Data Standards?

whosfundingwho.org Integrating Lobbyist and Campaign Finance Data Does a contributor employ a lobbyist? If so, what issue is the lobbyist hired to promote? Lobbyists must report if they’ve prompted someone to make a contribution.

whosfundingwho.org Data within Ethics Commission. Independent Expenditure Database 461 Major Donors Political Consultants

whosfundingwho.org Contracts/Voting City Contracts/Permits Awarded Voting Records

whosfundingwho.org Flagging Possible Violations Sometimes duplicative filings are required. e.g., cross-checking RCPT database with Independent Expenditure DB. Are RCPT committees contributing to other committees (a violation) Negative cash balances

whosfundingwho.org Data Mining Ideas: Time-Based Queries Suggested by Wade Randlett Working groups often contribute in bunches, often near the time of an event.

whosfundingwho.org Geographical Queries For instance, funding by neighborhood or district. Note that this information is not in the redacted data now online at Ethics Commission.

whosfundingwho.org Human input of Data There’s a lot of data available that is free text, not a database e.g., voting on issues, news Administer/Researcher/Expert can read and enter into a database. Objectivity Issues

whosfundingwho.org Special Election/Filing Date views Side-by-side comparisons of candidates Late-Period Data

whosfundingwho.org Thank You whosfundingwho.org David Wolber (415) us or come by and see us – we want detailed feedback and ideas