Politics

iPhone + OpenCongress = Real Time Congress

By Sunlight Foundation & Participatory Politics Foundation

Today our friends at Sunlight Labs released an iPhone/iPod Touch App that gathers data about what’s happening inside Congress in an easy-to-use package. Real Time Congress features committee hearing schedules, Whip packs for both parties, and the live floor proceedings of both chambers of Congress. In addition, there’s news from several sources (including the OpenCongress blog), and a wealth of other information offered: reports from the Congressional Research Service, Congressional Budget Office and Government Accountability Office, and policy statements from the Republican and Democratic policy committees and the Obama Administration.

Now, if you pay enough money, there are commercial firms out there that can compile all this information for you. Or, if you do enough digging, you can probably find it all yourself. But, in conjunction with OpenCongress, Real Time Congress takes all the hassle out of following what’s happening in Congress, and for the price (it’s free) it can’t be beat. If you’d like to see it in action, here’s a short video at YouTube.

Sunlight Labs will continue to improve on the app, just as OpenCongress will continue to improve the features here. After all, we share a mission of putting the information you want and need in your fingertips. OpenCongress has always been a great source of information on who Congress is and what they’re working on, and this new tool brings even more data to light on the how and why. In the coming months, we’ll be turning our focus on improving the way our users connect with one another, and in the months after that we’re going to turn our attention to the states.

In the meantime, try out Real Time Congress. And if you have any suggestions on how to improve this site, let us know.

Full post as published by Open Congress on January 13, 2010 (boomark / email).