Influence Explorer
| Influence Explorer lets you browse those who have contributed to US campaign finances | ||
| Home page | http://influenceexplorer.com/ | |
| Approach | Influence Explorer helps you browse through real-time data streams containing economic contributions on the federal made my corporations, individuals, etc. It also indexes real-time lobbyies registrations. The website provides an API and bulk downloads. | |
| Phase | Released | |
| Tags | lobbies, US, lobbying spenders, lobby tracking, power relationships, political structure, stories, who's who, database, and Sunlight Foundation | |
| Practices | Publish | |
| Partners | Center for Responsive Politics, the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Taxpayers for Common Sense, the Project On Government Oversight, and the EPA and USASpending.gov. | |
| Project Start Date | 2010 |
|---|---|
| Most Recent Update | 2015 |
| Update Frequency | Yes but shut down on the 31st of december 2015 |
| Thematic Focus | Lobbying |
| Issue addressed | Traceability |
| Geographic Focus | US |
Experience
How does a user interact with and navigate the project?
| Query | true |
|---|---|
| Lists | true |
| Other Visualisation | true |
| Raw Data | true |
Description
Summary of the project and its approach
| Influence Explorer provides an overview of campaign finance, lobbying, earmark, contractor misconduct and federal spending data. | |
| Approach (How?) | Influence Explorer helps you browse through real-time data streams containing economic contributions on the federal made my corporations, individuals, etc. It also indexes real-time lobbyies registrations. The website provides an API and bulk downloads. |
| Language | English |
| Commissioner | Sunlight Foundation |
| Publisher | Sunlight Labs |
Impact
Indicators of reach and impact of the project.
Target Audience : Online Audience Reached : Large Network Twitter : ( followers) Publisher's Twitter Followers : 44.3K Online Rank : Google: 5 Alexa: 523291 OSE Domain Authority Rank: 67 /100 Marketing Grader Rank: 79/100 () Online Rank (Publisher) : Google: Alexa: News Source : High Offline Audience Reached : National Outcome : Last updated : 17/10/2015 Attempts against the project : /Technology
What tools and code were used to create the project?
Tech Best Practices: : Strong technical ecosystem and standard adoption : Development of Client Libraries : Code Repository : https://github.com/sunlightlabs/influence_explorer : Tool : Data Commons : Brisket : Read_FEC : Database : : Frontend : : : : : Backend : Django : : : Python : Data Format : CSV : Data Standard : CSV Technical Documentation URL : : Technical Architecture Documentation : Schema Documentation : http://realtime.influenceexplorer.com/about/#data_dictionaries Design Documentation : API Documentation : http://sunlightlabs.github.io/datacommons/#endpointsData Sources
Data Sources : http://opensecrets.org/ : http://followthemoney.org/ : http://taxpayers.net/ : http://www.usaspending.gov/data : http://www.epa-echo.gov/echo/idea_download.html : http://www.fara.gov/Team
Team size and expertise
Team Size : Large Team Experience : Research : None Data Science : Dedicated Engineering : Dedicated Design : DedicatedProject Methodology
What strategies were in place for managing the project?
Project Methodology : Open Source : true Open Data : false Budget : Contracting : Risk Planning : No planning Sustainability Planning : UpdatedDocumented Practices
Documentation about project practices
Collect OrganisePractices
How projects handle different aspects of data management
Data Modeling : Complex Ethical Collection : No guidelines Ethical Storage : Data Collection : External Sources Data Collection : Data Verification : Corroborated Data Cleaning : Data Analysis : Classification / Tagging / Categories / Linking Data Description : Detailed Data Licensing : Public Ethical Publishing : Cited Sources Ethical Publishing : Data Publishing Mode : API