whosfundingwho.org

Transparency in Government Project

Visualizing Campaign Finance Datain

San Francisco

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Co-Sponsors

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Introductions

USF Students SF Ethics Commission McCarthy Center Community Connections

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Tonight’s Program

Goal is to gather ideas, directions, action plans, collaborators

Quick Intro to Project Demo of Current Prototype Some basic directions of future

work

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Campaign Transparency: Current Status

Filing required by law. Organizations such as SF Ethics

Comm. leading the way in implementing.

Too little resources, especially software developers.

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Accessibility is Limited

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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. Human input of associations/data

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Big Picture Solution: City and University Collaboration

Fill the gap in resources for city. Students can work on real projects. Encourage public service. Build some real software to help

city/community.

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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

STILL IN BETA– THIS IS NOT A LAUNCH Basis for data mining, integration,etc.

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DEMO

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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

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Integrating Data

David Wolber

USF Computer Science

Joe Contributor

Chairperson OfAwarded Contract By

$10000

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Integrating Data Sources

State Filings

Filings from other Cities/Counties

Data Standards?

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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.

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Data within Ethics Commission.

Independent Expenditure Database 461 Major Donors Political Consultants

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Contracts Awarded

City Contracts/Permits Awarded Was a contract awarded in return for

contribution? City, School board, etc.

Voting Records Was a vote swayed from a

contribution?

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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

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Data Mining Ideas:Time-Based Queries

Suggested by Wade Randlett Working groups often contribute in

bunches, often near the time of an event.

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Geographical Queries

For instance, funding by neighborhood or district.

Note that this information is not in the redacted data now put online at Ethics Commission.

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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 problems?

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Special Election/Filing Date views

Side-by-side comparisons of candidates

Late-Period filers

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Thank You

whosfundingwho.org David Wolber (wolber@usfca.edu)

(415) 422-6451 Come by and see us – we want

detailed feedback and ideas