About Open Campaigns
Project Description
Open Campaigns is a project of the University of San Francisco's Computer Science department in consort with the University’s Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good. The project was formerly known as the Transparency in Government Project.The project directors are professors David Wolber (wolber@usfca.edu) and Chris Brooks (brooks@cs.usfca.edu). Many USF students have contributed to the project as part of the university's service learning mission. The project is currently being funded by the Alexander Gerbode Foundation. It has also been funded by the City of San Francisco and the Leo T. McCarthy Center.
Project Mission
The project's goal is to inform and engage citizens by making politics and the money involved more transparent. We seek to un-scatter the political web-- the people, the relationships, and the money. Our method is to bring together databases that previously didn't talk to each other and people that previously didn't collaborate. By using computers and humans to "connect the dots", we can make the political process more transparent. Such transparency will help us choose better leaders and lead to our leaders behaving better.Where Does the Data Come From?
The project brings together campaign finance data from all 50 states and a few cities. Based on the Open Campaigns API, we plan to include many more cities in the near future. The source for state data is the National Institute for Money in State Politics . City data comes from each municipality. The software is based on a service-oriented architecture and a web service API. This means that any governmental organization can have their campaign data displayed here by publishing it in the API format we have devised.Contact Info
Dr. David Wolber, Project Director: (wolber@usfca.edu)Project Members
Project Director - Dave Wolber
Project Director - Chris Brooks
Research Assistant- Dave Rice
Research Assistant- Serene Chong
Research Assistant- Priyanka Daultani
Research Assistant - Derrick Camerino
Research Assistant - Taehee Lee
