At a public meeting in Oakland, California, early in 2014, an analyst with the city's Public Ethics Commission proposed the idea of building an app that would help residents understand who actually puts money into campaigns at the local level.
Five months later, after hundreds of hours of research and development, the city's tech-savvy civic advocacy group, OpenOakland, launched an app called Open Disclosure, which makes obscure and complex campaign finance data intelligible to average citizens. Their process is described in greater depth in Government Technology's article, "Oakland App Sheds Light on Campaign Finance."
Oakland's Open Disclosure is one of many user-friendly applications being developed across the country that transform individuals' ability to meaningfully participate in government. Continue>>>
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