Councilmatic Allows Chicagoans To Watch The Watchmen
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 5, 2013 4:00PM
Want to know what legislation is in the works in City Council, what your alderman is voting for or against and how often those votes are in lockstep with Mayor Emanuel’s agenda? Check out Chicago Councilmatic, the latest open data app created by Derek Eder and Forest Gregg, the duo responsible for Chicago Clear Streets, CAPSure, the Share My Share CSA app, Chicago Public School Tiers, How’s Business and others under the Open City Apps umbrella.
Here’s how Councilmatic works: Eder and Gregg have taken the legislation available for viewing at Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza’s website, streamlined it and made searching for it much easier than navigating the Clerk’s web presence. You can search for legislation or changes to the by ward, alderman, type of legislation, appointments to committees and even what the city is paying to settle lawsuits.
The data collected by Councilmatic goes back to January 1, 2010, meaning you can see what passed in the later days of the Daley administration and curse the former Elective Majesty’s name once more. Want to see what Ed Burke is wasting air endorsing on the Council floor? You can do that.
Eder and Gregg debuted the app last weekend during the National Civic Day of Hacking, a White House-supported event in over 90 cities encouraging developers, designers and interested citizens to use "code and technology to solve challenges relevant to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our country."