GovHub Blog

GovHub is looking for a full-stack Rails developer to lead our team in Berkeley, CA.

Fri, 04 May 2012 13:01:25 -0700

GovHub is an online platform that aims to revolutionize the way we consume political information and how we use that information to impact policy development, without the interference of big organized interests.

We launched our initial product in late February, and now we’re preparing to embark on a new project, one that will help citizens to get their voice heard by the government officials who matter most. We’re looking for an experienced Ruby on Rails developer to spearhead this newest iteration of our site, which will include rewriting some of our current functionality as well. (We’re currently built on Symfony 1.4.)

What we’re trying to build isn’t simple, but we’re confident that with the experience of having built most of it before, and with a venerable and well-rounded developer to take the reins on the project, we’ll be able to do it well, do it quickly, and make a real impact on the space.

About us: we’re young, inexperienced, and extremely committed to this company. Currently we’re just one CTO/developer and one CEO/bizdev guy, with a few other folks helping out peripherally. Ideally, you’d be as passionate about the product as we are, and would want to join us in a full-time role. For the right person, we can offer a competitive salary, equity, and a chance to make this project as much of yours as it is ours.

Get in touch: abecker@govhub.org.

Year of the Online Political ad

Tue, 01 May 2012 20:09:13 -0700

Year of the Online Political ad:

Thanks to thedigitalcampaign.com for this graphic. So far, presidential candidates have spent seven times the amount of money spent in 2008 on digital ads. Online ad spending has doubled as a percentage of campaigns’ budgets over the same time period.

How’s that money being spent? Mostly on campaign emails, but also on display ads, sponsored search terms, audio and video ads. For those of us in the civic space, that means a lot of room for growth.

Code for America accelerator

Tue, 01 May 2012 18:39:42 -0700

Code for America accelerator:

So I just submitted our application to the Code for America accelerator and I have to say I’m excited it’s finally here. The civic space is worth over $100bn annually according to Code for America and yet there has been a significant lag in political IT development compared to virtually every other sector of the economy. A program like this will jumpstart a type of innovation in this country that is of paramount importance, how does the government actually serve us? This accelerator has the potential to completely revolutionize the relationship between government and technology and I encourage every idealist who’s good with a keypad to apply. Imagine parking spots that tell you when they’re available, city permits fully filed online, disaster coordination programs that let love ones know they’re okay even when the unthinkable happens. This accelerator has the potential to fund 911 or 411 text apps, new platforms for virtual town halls, and new campaign tools that feed on the strength of your ideals and not the weight of your wallet. The possibilities for improving government with technology are, literally, endless. So please, apply with your idea. Because if you get in, you’re not just building a company, you’re building a public service.

Thanks CalTV for the interview!

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 08:31:01 -0700

Thanks CalTV for the interview!

Pseudonyms drive communities more than anonymity or real names, according to Disqus

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:38:24 -0700

Pseudonyms drive communities more than anonymity or real names, according to Disqus:

Very interesting report and exactly what we expected to see. When we first started developping GovHub we always thought of pseudonyms as a happy middle-ground between the permanent accountability and potential blowback of posting controversial opinions under your real-name and the hateful ignorance generated by too much anonymity. By creating a pseudonym you create a digital representation of what you consider to be your true self. Considering this, it’s no surprise that pseudonym-ed posters are shown to produce both the highest quantity (not afraid to speak for fear their neighbor/bffl could see an opinion they disapprove of), and quality (again, a need to curate their online identity) of posts in online communities.

George Clooney and how the Media is broken

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:07:21 -0700

George Clooney and how the Media is broken:

So when I read this fun little article today about George Clooney being arrested at the Sudanese embassy I was initially intrigued. A famous actor gets arrested for civil disobedience against a brutal regime? At first this seemed like a great scoop so I decided I’d engage in some celebrity stalking when suddenly this catches my eye:

“Also arrested, said Mr Oglivie, were Martin Luther King III, son of the civil rights leader; Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern; Virginia Democratic Congressman Jim Moran; and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Ben Jealous.”

Suddenly, my intrigue turned to virulent disgust. Here is the BBC, arguably the finest news source in the world, and here it was, finally putting the final nail in the casket of global quality journalism. For those still unsure about why I’m so upset consider this. The BBC, unlike its American counterparts in main stream media, has always been held to a higher standard. A full legnth story on Clooney was something I’d expect to see on HLN or CNN in the middle of the day. But here’s the BBC, in a story where two sitting congressmen are arrested (not to say MLK III and Mr. Jealous aren’t also more important than Clooney) and and yet here’s the BBC spending a pithy paragraph on this actually major and important story while taking up another 10 minutes of my time on why the real story is an actor getting arrested.

So just to sum up, why am I so angry? Because the BBC, one of my sources of truly quality journalism, has instead been reduced to a tabloid that cares more about the arrest of Clooney than a handful of true public figures.

Shame on you BBC.

Social networking sites and politics

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:52:48 -0700

Social networking sites and politics:

Another great article about how diverse the political views of your friends on Facebook really are. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most vocal participants in the digital debate are the individuals on the two extremes of the political spectrum. Unfortunately, with nearly 2/3rds of the social networking community supposedly not even participating, it’s no wonder that debates in the comments section of statuses have become little more than hyper-polarized shouting matches reminiscent of two Howler monkeys flinging feces at each other.

This, along with many other factors including the often frustrating linear commenting system, is what convinced us that Facebook, while revolutionary, is still quite lacking as an effective tool for political engagement.

Unfriending Over Politics

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:28:47 -0700

Unfriending Over Politics:

This is an interesting article that highlights the problems with candidly sharing your political opinions with people you know using your true identity. The possibility of being ostracized by their peers can preclude some people from feeling comfortable with sharing their true opinions on the issues and in some cases may dissuade them from discussing politics at all. This is yet another piece that has convinced us that we are taking the right route with pseudonym posting (of course you’ll always be allowed to share your true identity if you so desire).

Launch and other cool news

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:51:00 -0800

Hey GovHubbers!

So our launch over the weekend was a great success. Thanks to all of the people who came out and celebrated with us (and the musical talents of Whiskerman). But now the team is back to work to bring you the functionality you need to get the most out of GovHub.

One thing I’m very pleased to announce is that today we officially posted our Census data converter (the same one we use to help you find your representatives from Federal to Local level) to GitHub for all to see and use. If you have any questions about it you can probably get an answer on our developer Adam’s blog (http://ada.mbecker.cc/) or by contacting us at the usual address (contact@mygovhub.org).

Another thing I wanted to briefly mention is that we will be at the Hub Bay Area Internship Fair on March 1st, so if anyone is looking for a (paid) communications or software development internship, be sure to check us out!

Be sure to keep following us as we march gloriously onward into the future (and continue to release cool new features!)

GovHub Launch Party - Thurs Feb 23rd @ HUB Berkeley

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:48:17 -0800

Hey Everyone,

The private beta is continuing to be a great success, and we’re hard at work putting together more features that will make GovHub an invaluable tool for navigating and discussing government in the 21st century.

To that end, I’m proud to announce that on February 23rd we will be releasing the public beta of GovHub to give people everywhere a chance to engage with our exciting new platform. And if that isn’t enough, we’re throwing a launch party to celebrate! Come enjoy some free food, drinks, music, and front row seats to the first day of a new era in our democracy.

When: February 23rd, from 6:30-9pm

Where: The David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way Berkeley, CA 94703

Thanks again for supporting GovHub, and I hope to see you there!

Best,

Nick Gaines

Founder & CEO GovHub

Private Beta Release and First Few Days

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:04:00 -0800

The private beta for GovHub has gotten off to a great start! We’ve received a lot of great feeback from you, our amazing beta users and we’ve already used some of the ideas you’ve given us to improve our site. GovHub firmly believes in constant iteration of our services based on input from our users so you can expect frequent updates and upgrades around the site. This time around we’re introducing some features we think you’ll really enjoy.

-First of all you can now browse governments that aren’t yours! Just search for a government (whether it’s a state, county, city, or the entire federal government) and you can browse all of the officials of that government. Governments are also now included as supported tags so now if you feel everyone in Colorado or the USA is affected by your post, you don’t have to settle for just tagging Governor Hickenlooper or President Obama.

-We’ve also added district IDs to members of Congress (so you can actually see which district each one represents) as well as contact information. We’ve also just added tooltips to supported tags! You can mouse over a supported tag to find out more information about that tag. By mousing over officials you can find out where they represent and by mousing over governments you can quickly see the leading officials of that government as well as the total number of officials (let us know if there’s any other information you’d like to see in those tooltips!)

-We got a lot of complaints about our grueling CAPTCHA so I’m pleased to announce we’ve rolled out a CAPTCHA that only requires some basic math skills. Not that you really mind since you already have an account but we know it was an issue that irked a lot of people and we apologize.

-Posting was another area of concern for some people. A bug was fixed where people accidentally double posted so that will now no longer be possible. You can now also delete posts you have written, but only before there are any responses to your post.

-Finally, the search bar has had it’s functionality vastly improved, and now you can browse officials, governments, posts, and users without even leaving the page you’re on.

Thanks again for using GovHub, we really appreciate it and will continue to keep you updated as we improve and grow our site!

The Politics of Now

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:10:29 -0800

Politics is in need of disruption. The current system is not broken but it is being manipulated to an extent that the system is broken beyond. I am happy to report that this is not the case. But if the system isn’t broken then why does it seem that way? It begins with our founding.

In the beginning we established a republic (and rightly so) after seeing the detrimental effects of too much democracy that had plagued the early nation under the Articles of Confederation. A representative democracy would ensure that an elite best suited to make day to day decisions for the nation would do so allowing the rest of us to go about our daily lives. Over time however, powerful moneyed interests began to mobilize and organize to lobby legislators in between elections shifting the balance of power away from the constituents who elected these officials and towards the organized elite that had the time and more importantly the resources to engage with legislators on a regular basis. People became slowly more and more disillusioned as they felt more and more detached from both their fellow citizens and their elected officials. The everyman with his busy life and now a sense of impossibility in engaging the system simply gives up, giving the organized interests even more undue power.

This can change. Money doesn’t buy politics. Money can buy organization for a group of like-minded people and it can buy visibility in an election. That’s all it can do though. Money DOES NOT BUY VOTES. It is the citizens who allow themselves to be manipulated into believing they cannot vote their hearts, that they most always vote strategically for the candidate with the best chance of beating the guy they hate the most. Voting has descended into negative voting (i.e. against candidates) rather than positive voting. The special interests contribute to this because they organize their supporters to be strategic voters as well.

In the past few years this system has begun to be challenged. The silent majority of voters, still not organized, are becoming increasingly sophisticated but increasingly disillusioned because of the extraordinary effect the Internet has already had on civic education of voters. In the past year we’ve seen extraordinary feats of mass political organization (Occupy, SOPA, PIPA, the BofA hidden fees debacle, NDAA, the Arab Spring) made possible by the Internet.

The Internet allows these people to organize, to coordinate their message, to collaborate effectively among thousands without needing a sizable financial backing or even a formal organization around them. The ability to express yourself to millions without any connections to the “traditional” political world fundamentally is changing the political landscape. People are starting to have the same organizational abilities as the special interests and are less susceptible to traditional attempts at political obfuscation . This makes it harder and harder for the money to win elections because the everyman, more and more, makes up his own mind. He’s able to research the issues more effectively, rally people to his cause through his online presence and make the deluge of TV ads less and less effective in determining elections results (Santorum in IA, Gingrich in SC both won with less than 1/5th of Romney’s money). Politics is changing and as the people are able to participate and engage more and more between elections we’re changing not just the influence of money in the system but more interestingly the nature of the Republic itself.

GovHub Beta coming soon...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:04:31 -0800

GovHub aims to change the way people interact with their governments not just here in the United States, but all over the world. We are a non-partisan group dedicated to improving the transparency, accountability and responsiveness of our governments. We strive to educate voters by aggregating and organizing the vast resources of the Internet for them. We also seek to give people the tools they need to make their voice as powerful as those of the special interests. We are a social lobbying tool for the 21st century.