Joshua Tauberer

Last updated
Joshua Tauberer
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Princeton University (BA)
University of Pennsylvania (PhD)
Occupation(s)Civic hacker
Software developer
Technical advisor
Notable work Mail-in-a-Box
Website razor.occams.info
www.govtrack.us
mailinabox.email

Joshua Tauberer is a civic hacker, [1] open government activist, [2] entrepreneur, and author. He is the creator and maintainer of the website GovTrack, [1] a portal for information about legislation in Congress, and developer for EveryCRSReport.com, [3] which makes Congressional Research Service Reports available to the public. Tauberer is also the lead developer for Mail-in-a-Box, an Open Source software project for mail server hosting. [4]

Contents

Early life

Tauberer attended Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School in Plainview, New York, before going on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Princeton University in 2004. [5] After Princeton, he earned a Doctorate in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. [6]

GovTrack

Tauberer created GovTrack in 2004 to make legislative information more easily accessible to everyone, [7] providing research and tracking tools but also raw data feeds that third parties use to create other services. [8] He conceived the idea for GovTrack during his freshman year at Princeton. [9] The utility of the data that Tauberer made available on his site (and later became available on other sites) was part of the inspiration for Congressman Mike Honda's legislation to provide new sources of legislative data; [10] [11] Congress is now publishing legislative information as data. [12]

Policy and activism

Tauberer has occasionally used these technical tools and others to advise policy, including publication of uses of GovTrack by Congressional IP addresses [13] and FOIA requests regarding the DC government's open data administration. [14]

Career

Tauberer is the president of Civic Impulse, LLC, [15] a consultant to GovReady PBC, and a senior technologist at LARSA, Inc. [16]

He serves as a member of the D.C. government's Open Government Advisory Group [17] [18] and the Congressional Data Coalition, [19] is the author of Open Government Data: the Book, and co-organized the now defunct yearly Open Data Day DC conference. [20] Among his notable writings are "So You Want to Reform Democracy" [2] [21] and "How to Run a Successful Hackathon. [22] "

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hacker</span> Person skilled in information technology

A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hacker – someone with knowledge of bugs or exploits to break into computer systems and access data which would otherwise be inaccessible to them. In a positive connotation, though, hacking can also be utilized by legitimate figures in legal situations. For example, law enforcement agencies sometimes use hacking techniques to collect evidence on criminals and other malicious actors. This could include using anonymity tools to mask their identities online and pose as criminals.

Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a Washington, D.C.–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation that advocates for digital rights and freedom of expression. CDT seeks to promote legislation that enables individuals to use the internet for purposes of well-intent, while at the same time reducing its potential for harm. It advocates for transparency, accountability, and limiting the collection of personal information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Election Day (United States)</span> Day for general elections in the USA

Election Day in the United States is the annual day for general elections of federal, state and local public officials. With respect to federal elections, it is statutorily set by the U.S. government as "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November" of even-numbered years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hackathon</span> Event in which groups of software developers work at an accelerated pace

A hackathon is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 hours. They are often run using agile software development practices, such as sprint-like design wherein computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, product managers, project managers, domain experts, and others collaborate intensively on engineering projects, such as software engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plainview – Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School</span> Public school in Kennedy Drive, Plainview, New York , United States

Plainview – Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School is a four-year coeducational public high school located on Kennedy Drive in Plainview, Nassau County, Long Island, New York. Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School is the only high school in the Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District. It is fully accredited by the New York State Education Department. This school is registered with the College Board as Plainview – Old Bethpage/JFK High School, and is often referred to as POB JFK, especially for athletic purposes, to avoid confusion with nearby Bellmore JFK. As of 2015, Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School was ranked 176th on Newsweek's list of top U.S High Schools.

The Sunlight Foundation was an American 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocated for open government. The organization was founded in April 2006 with the goal of increasing transparency and accountability in the United States Congress, the executive branch, and in state and local governments. The foundation's primary focus was the role of money in politics. The organization sought to increase campaign finance regulations and disclosure requirements. The Sunlight Foundation ceased operations in September 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Participatory Politics Foundation</span> United States non-profit organization

The Participatory Politics Foundation (PPF) is a United States non-profit organization whose mission is to preserve U.S. democracy. It works to increase public participation by, among other means, modernizing the political system through technological advancements that help connect lawmakers and citizens. The non-profit opened in February 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GovTrack</span> Website

GovTrack.us is a website developed by then-student Joshua Tauberer. It is based in Washington, D.C., and was launched as a hobby. It enables its users to track the bills and members of the United States Congress. Users can add trackers to certain bills, thereby narrowing the scope of the information they receive. The website collects data on members of Congress, allowing users to check members' voting records and attendance relative to their peers. It propagates the ideology of increasing transparency in the government and building better communication between the general public and the government.

Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) was a global community of technologists dedicated to solving problems for charities, non-profits and social enterprises by organising recurring hackathons. It was started in 2009. The organization had a presence in over 20 cities throughout 5 continents, and had 2000 participants in 2017.

The OpenGov Foundation is a United States nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. It conducts research on legislatures like the United States Congress, develops software for government officials, and claims to help governments create policies and rules that support openness and effective engagement with the public.

Jonathan Zucker is a political technology entrepreneur and campaign finance attorney best known as the founder of Democracy Engine, the first COO and second CEO of ActBlue and the founder of It Starts Today.

A Civic application is an application software designed to encourage users to participate in and learn more about government.

Civic technology, or civic tech, enhances the relationship between the people and government with software for communications, decision-making, service delivery, and political process. It includes information and communications technology supporting government with software built by community-led teams of volunteers, nonprofits, consultants, and private companies as well as embedded tech teams working within government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GovHack</span> Australias largest open data hackathon

GovHack is a significant annual open government and open data hackathon, attracting over 15,000 participants since 2009. First run as a small Canberra-based event, it quickly expanded to an international competition with simultaneous events taking place in major cities across Australia and New Zealand each year, with virtual events for remote and international participants. Since its inception, over 2,500 projects have been published by participants to demonstrate the practical value of open data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HackerNest</span> Hackathon organizer not-for-profit organization

HackerNest is a not-for-profit organization and global movement founded on January 11, 2011. The organization unites local technology communities around the world through community events and socially beneficial hackathons to further its mission of economic development through technological proliferation. It is Canada's largest, most prolific technology community with growing international reach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nextcloud</span> Free and open-source file hosting software suite

Nextcloud is a suite of client-server software for creating and using file hosting services. Nextcloud provides functionality similar to Dropbox, Office 365, or Google Drive when used with integrated office suites Collabora Online or OnlyOffice. It can be hosted in the cloud or on-premises. It is scalable, from home office software based on the low cost Raspberry Pi, all the way through to full sized data centers that support millions of users. Translations in 60 languages exist for web interface and client applications.

Election cybersecurity or election security refers to the protection of elections and voting infrastructure from cyberattack or cyber threat – including the tampering with or infiltration of voting machines and equipment, election office networks and practices, and voter registration databases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Schuman</span> American lawyer

Daniel Schuman is an American lawyer, technologist, and government transparency advocate serving CEO of the American Governance Institute. He is an expert on good government policies in the legislative branch of the United States. He was instrumental in the push to ensure public disclosure of CRS Reports, running a website called EveryCRSReport, which publishes all reports authored by the Congressional Research Service.

The g0v movement, or g0v, is an open source, open government collaboration started by Chia-liang Kao ("clkao"), ipa, kirby and others in late 2012 in Taiwan.

References

  1. 1 2 "Penn Gazette | Civic Hacker". www.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  2. 1 2 "MIT SHASS: News - 2015 - So you want to reform democracy". shass.mit.edu. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  3. ↑ "EveryCRSReport.com".
  4. ↑ "Mail-in-a-box Reviews & Product Details". G2. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  5. ↑ Data crusader, Princeton Alumni Weekly, 2008-07-16, accessed 2010-01-03.
  6. ↑ "Penn Gazette | Civic Hacker". www.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
  7. ↑ Think Your Lawmakers Don't Read Bills? Do It Yourself, The Washington Post, 2006-03-01, accessed 2010-01-03.
  8. ↑ Phillips, Amber. "Analysis | Is Kamala Harris really the most liberal senator, as Trump claims?". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  9. ↑ How Did They Vote? Updates by E-Mail of Congressional Ayes and Nays, The New York Times, 2005-01-27, accessed 2010-01-03.
  10. ↑ An API for Federal Legislation? Congress Wants Your Opinion, Wired.com, 2009-03-05, accessed 2010-01-03.
  11. ↑ Congressional Data Mining: Coming Soon?, Mother Jones, 2009-03-05, accessed 2010-01-03.
  12. ↑ "XML of House Bill Summaries Now Available in Bulk". Speaker.gov. 2014-02-04. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  13. ↑ "What does Congress care about? Check their browsing histories", Wired, 3 April 17
  14. ↑ "Emails: Ousted D.C. government watchdog frustrated the mayor’s aides", Washington Post, 5 April 2018
  15. ↑ "Civic Impulse, LLC — The Intersection of Civics and Technology". civicimpulse.com. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  16. ↑ "Joshua Tauberer's Homepage". razor.occams.info. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  17. ↑ "Here's who Mayor Bowser picked for DC's revived Open Government group - Technical.ly DC". Technical.ly DC. 2016-01-15. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
  18. ↑ "DC Announces Open Data Initiative | EfficientGov". EfficientGov. 2016-01-19. Retrieved 2018-06-07.
  19. ↑ "Congressional Data Coalition – Congress should be like an open book". congressionaldata.org. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  20. ↑ "Joshua Tauberer". National Archives. 2017-05-10. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  21. ↑ "So You Want To Reform Democracy | Dave Peck". davepeck.org. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  22. ↑ "How to Run a Hackathon (If You Must)". usopendata.org. Retrieved 2018-06-06.

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