Phases

The project will progress through several phases; each of which requiring contributions from various persons, with a wide range of skills.

Phase 1. Platform Development

Primary contributors during this phase will be software developers. During this phase we will work to develop the software platform that will serve as the foundation for the remainder of the project.

Deliverables:

  1. A software platform that supports the needs of the following phases.

Phase 2. Deployment

During this phase, we will deploy the software platform, making it available to the general public. This phase will likely require a substantial financial investment to provide the server processing power and up-time required by the platform. Again, software developers will largely be contributing during this phase, however, we may (and probably should) reach out to the general public for financial support.

It is vital that we get the word out about the project during this phase. Possible avenues are social media, and other crowd-sourced information sharing sites (and possibly investment sites) such as kickstarter.

Deliverables:

  1. A publicly accessible platform that users can access and interact with.
  2. Enough funding to cover hosting, and any other fees/costs associated w/ running a website.

Phase 3. Data Collection

Contributions during this phase will largely come from the general public. It is during this phase that we are collecting information on various public representatives. At the very least, we should be tracking congressional voting records, bill contents/summaries, etc, all of which will be coming from data input from users.

During this phase, software developers continue to develop the platform, adding new features and addressing issues as they arise.

Deliverables:

  1. A collection of information regarding elected officials, their voting histories, and any other information that is deemed useful to the end user.

Phase 4. Data Mining/Processing

Once a substantial amount of data has been collected, we can begin using data mining techniques to further analyze the data. The goal here is to provide citizens with a more interactive experience, and more valuable information.

Deliverables:

  1. The platform can provide the user with candidate suggestions, potential outcomes of votes, etc.