Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
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Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
 
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Open North is proud to announce Represent,
an API (web service) to federal, provincial and municipal political
districts and representatives across Canada. To see a demo and read the
API docs, visit: http://represent.opennorth.ca/
Represent establishes a foundation upon which other projects may be built - a necessary piece of infrastructure which we hope will enable useful and innovative features and products. It is free to use and open-source. This open database was built by James McKinney and Michael Mulley, with important contributions from Aran Rasmussen, Kent Mewhort, Amir Pakdel, Camilo Lopez, Rory Geoghegan, Trevor Knight, and Carmine Casciato. The project takes inspiration from mySociety’s MapIt and code from the Chicago Tribune’s Boundary Service. We currently have electoral districts and representatives for all provinces and Canada, and the ward boundaries of ten cities. We have postal code correspondences for Ontario (and soon Quebec) and postal code centroids from GeoCoder.ca. But we could have much more. To keep this project sustainable, we are asking for your help. Things you can help with: Add more representatives - Write scrapers (in PHP, Ruby, or Python) to get the elected officials for more cities - Ask provincial Municipal Affairs ministries for municipal elected officials in Excel format Get more boundaries - Create a list of all municipalities with ward boundaries - Ask them to provide their ward boundaries under an open license Free the postal code - Ask your province or city for a postal code to electoral district concordance file (we already have Ontario, Québec, and Saskatchewan) Maintain the database - Monitor scrapers to make sure we always provide the latest, most accurate data available - Write an app to track electoral calendars, so we can plan updates and prepare scrapers - Donate to Open North so a staff member can improve and maintain this service part-time Comments are very welcome, and please let us know if you've built something using the API. James & Michael |
Re: Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
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This is wonderful! Fantastic work.
I couldn't find a one-URL way to download the entire dataset. Coming soon or I didn't look hard enough? Thanks, Glen On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:44 AM, James McKinney <[hidden email]> wrote: > Open North is proud to announce Represent, an API (web service) to federal, > provincial and municipal political districts and representatives across > Canada. To see a demo and read the API docs, visit: > http://represent.opennorth.ca/ > > Represent establishes a foundation upon which other projects may be built - > a necessary piece of infrastructure which we hope will enable useful and > innovative features and products. It is free to use and open-source. > > This open database was built by James McKinney and Michael Mulley, with > important contributions from Aran Rasmussen, Kent Mewhort, Amir Pakdel, > Camilo Lopez, Rory Geoghegan, Trevor Knight, and Carmine Casciato. The > project takes inspiration from mySociety’s MapIt and code from the Chicago > Tribune’s Boundary Service. > > We currently have electoral districts and representatives for all provinces > and Canada, and the ward boundaries of ten cities. We have postal code > correspondences for Ontario (and soon Quebec) and postal code centroids from > GeoCoder.ca. > > But we could have much more. To keep this project sustainable, we are asking > for your help. Things you can help with: > > Add more representatives > - Write scrapers (in PHP, Ruby, or Python) to get the elected officials for > more cities > - Ask provincial Municipal Affairs ministries for municipal elected > officials in Excel format > > Get more boundaries > - Create a list of all municipalities with ward boundaries > - Ask them to provide their ward boundaries under an open license > > Free the postal code > - Ask your province or city for a postal code to electoral district > concordance file (we already have Ontario, Québec, and Saskatchewan) > > Maintain the database > - Monitor scrapers to make sure we always provide the latest, most accurate > data available > - Write an app to track electoral calendars, so we can plan updates and > prepare scrapers > - Donate to Open North so a staff member can improve and maintain this > service part-time > > Comments are very welcome, and please let us know if you've built something > using the API. > > James & Michael > > _______________________________________________ > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list > [hidden email] > http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss -- - http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/ - |
Re: Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
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Lots of the licenses on the original shapefiles don't allow for redistribution, so we can't.
But the API includes source URLs for all the data we use, so it shouldn't be tremendously hard to reassemble. And all our stuff is open source.
On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:59 AM, Glen Newton <[hidden email]> wrote: This is wonderful! Fantastic work. |
Re: Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
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Michael - can you send me a list of what files have what licenses. Getting those changed is one way I actually can effectively contribute. -- @daeaves Sent from my iPhone
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Re: Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
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Kent Mewhort at CIPPIC went over the licenses for us. I'll update the list with more info - just need to run to the dentist at the moment. On 2012-01-30, at 12:07 PM, David Eaves wrote:
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Re: Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
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In reply to this post by Michael Mulley
While I am interested in the shapefiles, I am much more interested in
the scraped data that is in your database. Is this database information available in a single download (MySql export or csv or...) -Glen On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 12:02 PM, Michael Mulley <[hidden email]> wrote: > Lots of the licenses on the original shapefiles don't allow for > redistribution, so we can't. > > But the API includes source URLs for all the data we use, so it shouldn't be > tremendously hard to reassemble. And all our stuff is open source. > > > On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:59 AM, Glen Newton <[hidden email]> wrote: >> >> This is wonderful! Fantastic work. >> >> I couldn't find a one-URL way to download the entire dataset. Coming >> soon or I didn't look hard enough? >> >> Thanks, >> Glen >> >> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:44 AM, James McKinney <[hidden email]> >> wrote: >> > Open North is proud to announce Represent, an API (web service) to >> > federal, >> > provincial and municipal political districts and representatives across >> > Canada. To see a demo and read the API docs, visit: >> > http://represent.opennorth.ca/ >> > >> > Represent establishes a foundation upon which other projects may be >> > built - >> > a necessary piece of infrastructure which we hope will enable useful and >> > innovative features and products. It is free to use and open-source. >> > >> > This open database was built by James McKinney and Michael Mulley, with >> > important contributions from Aran Rasmussen, Kent Mewhort, Amir Pakdel, >> > Camilo Lopez, Rory Geoghegan, Trevor Knight, and Carmine Casciato. The >> > project takes inspiration from mySociety’s MapIt and code from the >> > Chicago >> > Tribune’s Boundary Service. >> > >> > We currently have electoral districts and representatives for all >> > provinces >> > and Canada, and the ward boundaries of ten cities. We have postal code >> > correspondences for Ontario (and soon Quebec) and postal code centroids >> > from >> > GeoCoder.ca. >> > >> > But we could have much more. To keep this project sustainable, we are >> > asking >> > for your help. Things you can help with: >> > >> > Add more representatives >> > - Write scrapers (in PHP, Ruby, or Python) to get the elected officials >> > for >> > more cities >> > - Ask provincial Municipal Affairs ministries for municipal elected >> > officials in Excel format >> > >> > Get more boundaries >> > - Create a list of all municipalities with ward boundaries >> > - Ask them to provide their ward boundaries under an open license >> > >> > Free the postal code >> > - Ask your province or city for a postal code to electoral district >> > concordance file (we already have Ontario, Québec, and Saskatchewan) >> > >> > Maintain the database >> > - Monitor scrapers to make sure we always provide the latest, most >> > accurate >> > data available >> > - Write an app to track electoral calendars, so we can plan updates and >> > prepare scrapers >> > - Donate to Open North so a staff member can improve and maintain this >> > service part-time >> > >> > Comments are very welcome, and please let us know if you've built >> > something >> > using the API. >> > >> > James & Michael >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list >> > [hidden email] >> > http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss >> >> >> >> -- >> - >> http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/ >> - >> _______________________________________________ >> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list >> [hidden email] >> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss > > > > _______________________________________________ > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list > [hidden email] > http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss -- - http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/ - |
Re: Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
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Oh! http://represent.opennorth.ca/representatives/?limit=2000
Have fun! And the scrapers are all public & hosted on Scraperwiki. http://www.scraperwiki.com/tags/cdnpoli/
On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 12:10 PM, Glen Newton <[hidden email]> wrote: While I am interested in the shapefiles, I am much more interested in |
Re: Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
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Nice! Thanks :-)
On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 12:13 PM, Michael Mulley <[hidden email]> wrote: > Oh! http://represent.opennorth.ca/representatives/?limit=2000 > > Have fun! > > And the scrapers are all public & hosted on Scraperwiki. > http://www.scraperwiki.com/tags/cdnpoli/ > > On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 12:10 PM, Glen Newton <[hidden email]> wrote: >> >> While I am interested in the shapefiles, I am much more interested in >> the scraped data that is in your database. >> Is this database information available in a single download (MySql >> export or csv or...) >> >> -Glen >> >> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 12:02 PM, Michael Mulley >> <[hidden email]> wrote: >> > Lots of the licenses on the original shapefiles don't allow for >> > redistribution, so we can't. >> > >> > But the API includes source URLs for all the data we use, so it >> > shouldn't be >> > tremendously hard to reassemble. And all our stuff is open source. >> > >> > >> > On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:59 AM, Glen Newton <[hidden email]> >> > wrote: >> >> >> >> This is wonderful! Fantastic work. >> >> >> >> I couldn't find a one-URL way to download the entire dataset. Coming >> >> soon or I didn't look hard enough? >> >> >> >> Thanks, >> >> Glen >> >> >> >> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:44 AM, James McKinney <[hidden email]> >> >> wrote: >> >> > Open North is proud to announce Represent, an API (web service) to >> >> > federal, >> >> > provincial and municipal political districts and representatives >> >> > across >> >> > Canada. To see a demo and read the API docs, visit: >> >> > http://represent.opennorth.ca/ >> >> > >> >> > Represent establishes a foundation upon which other projects may be >> >> > built - >> >> > a necessary piece of infrastructure which we hope will enable useful >> >> > and >> >> > innovative features and products. It is free to use and open-source. >> >> > >> >> > This open database was built by James McKinney and Michael Mulley, >> >> > with >> >> > important contributions from Aran Rasmussen, Kent Mewhort, Amir >> >> > Pakdel, >> >> > Camilo Lopez, Rory Geoghegan, Trevor Knight, and Carmine Casciato. >> >> > The >> >> > project takes inspiration from mySociety’s MapIt and code from the >> >> > Chicago >> >> > Tribune’s Boundary Service. >> >> > >> >> > We currently have electoral districts and representatives for all >> >> > provinces >> >> > and Canada, and the ward boundaries of ten cities. We have postal >> >> > code >> >> > correspondences for Ontario (and soon Quebec) and postal code >> >> > centroids >> >> > from >> >> > GeoCoder.ca. >> >> > >> >> > But we could have much more. To keep this project sustainable, we are >> >> > asking >> >> > for your help. Things you can help with: >> >> > >> >> > Add more representatives >> >> > - Write scrapers (in PHP, Ruby, or Python) to get the elected >> >> > officials >> >> > for >> >> > more cities >> >> > - Ask provincial Municipal Affairs ministries for municipal elected >> >> > officials in Excel format >> >> > >> >> > Get more boundaries >> >> > - Create a list of all municipalities with ward boundaries >> >> > - Ask them to provide their ward boundaries under an open license >> >> > >> >> > Free the postal code >> >> > - Ask your province or city for a postal code to electoral district >> >> > concordance file (we already have Ontario, Québec, and Saskatchewan) >> >> > >> >> > Maintain the database >> >> > - Monitor scrapers to make sure we always provide the latest, most >> >> > accurate >> >> > data available >> >> > - Write an app to track electoral calendars, so we can plan updates >> >> > and >> >> > prepare scrapers >> >> > - Donate to Open North so a staff member can improve and maintain >> >> > this >> >> > service part-time >> >> > >> >> > Comments are very welcome, and please let us know if you've built >> >> > something >> >> > using the API. >> >> > >> >> > James & Michael >> >> > >> >> > _______________________________________________ >> >> > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list >> >> > [hidden email] >> >> > http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> -- >> >> - >> >> http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/ >> >> - >> >> _______________________________________________ >> >> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list >> >> [hidden email] >> >> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss >> > >> > >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list >> > [hidden email] >> > http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss >> >> >> >> -- >> - >> http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/ >> - >> _______________________________________________ >> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list >> [hidden email] >> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss > > > > _______________________________________________ > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list > [hidden email] > http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss -- - http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/ - |
Re: Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
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<3
On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 12:19 PM, Glen Newton <[hidden email]> wrote: > Nice! Thanks :-) > > On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 12:13 PM, Michael Mulley > <[hidden email]> wrote: >> Oh! http://represent.opennorth.ca/representatives/?limit=2000 >> >> Have fun! >> >> And the scrapers are all public & hosted on Scraperwiki. >> http://www.scraperwiki.com/tags/cdnpoli/ >> >> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 12:10 PM, Glen Newton <[hidden email]> wrote: >>> >>> While I am interested in the shapefiles, I am much more interested in >>> the scraped data that is in your database. >>> Is this database information available in a single download (MySql >>> export or csv or...) >>> >>> -Glen >>> >>> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 12:02 PM, Michael Mulley >>> <[hidden email]> wrote: >>> > Lots of the licenses on the original shapefiles don't allow for >>> > redistribution, so we can't. >>> > >>> > But the API includes source URLs for all the data we use, so it >>> > shouldn't be >>> > tremendously hard to reassemble. And all our stuff is open source. >>> > >>> > >>> > On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:59 AM, Glen Newton <[hidden email]> >>> > wrote: >>> >> >>> >> This is wonderful! Fantastic work. >>> >> >>> >> I couldn't find a one-URL way to download the entire dataset. Coming >>> >> soon or I didn't look hard enough? >>> >> >>> >> Thanks, >>> >> Glen >>> >> >>> >> On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:44 AM, James McKinney <[hidden email]> >>> >> wrote: >>> >> > Open North is proud to announce Represent, an API (web service) to >>> >> > federal, >>> >> > provincial and municipal political districts and representatives >>> >> > across >>> >> > Canada. To see a demo and read the API docs, visit: >>> >> > http://represent.opennorth.ca/ >>> >> > >>> >> > Represent establishes a foundation upon which other projects may be >>> >> > built - >>> >> > a necessary piece of infrastructure which we hope will enable useful >>> >> > and >>> >> > innovative features and products. It is free to use and open-source. >>> >> > >>> >> > This open database was built by James McKinney and Michael Mulley, >>> >> > with >>> >> > important contributions from Aran Rasmussen, Kent Mewhort, Amir >>> >> > Pakdel, >>> >> > Camilo Lopez, Rory Geoghegan, Trevor Knight, and Carmine Casciato. >>> >> > The >>> >> > project takes inspiration from mySociety’s MapIt and code from the >>> >> > Chicago >>> >> > Tribune’s Boundary Service. >>> >> > >>> >> > We currently have electoral districts and representatives for all >>> >> > provinces >>> >> > and Canada, and the ward boundaries of ten cities. We have postal >>> >> > code >>> >> > correspondences for Ontario (and soon Quebec) and postal code >>> >> > centroids >>> >> > from >>> >> > GeoCoder.ca. >>> >> > >>> >> > But we could have much more. To keep this project sustainable, we are >>> >> > asking >>> >> > for your help. Things you can help with: >>> >> > >>> >> > Add more representatives >>> >> > - Write scrapers (in PHP, Ruby, or Python) to get the elected >>> >> > officials >>> >> > for >>> >> > more cities >>> >> > - Ask provincial Municipal Affairs ministries for municipal elected >>> >> > officials in Excel format >>> >> > >>> >> > Get more boundaries >>> >> > - Create a list of all municipalities with ward boundaries >>> >> > - Ask them to provide their ward boundaries under an open license >>> >> > >>> >> > Free the postal code >>> >> > - Ask your province or city for a postal code to electoral district >>> >> > concordance file (we already have Ontario, Québec, and Saskatchewan) >>> >> > >>> >> > Maintain the database >>> >> > - Monitor scrapers to make sure we always provide the latest, most >>> >> > accurate >>> >> > data available >>> >> > - Write an app to track electoral calendars, so we can plan updates >>> >> > and >>> >> > prepare scrapers >>> >> > - Donate to Open North so a staff member can improve and maintain >>> >> > this >>> >> > service part-time >>> >> > >>> >> > Comments are very welcome, and please let us know if you've built >>> >> > something >>> >> > using the API. >>> >> > >>> >> > James & Michael >>> >> > >>> >> > _______________________________________________ >>> >> > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list >>> >> > [hidden email] >>> >> > http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss >>> >> >>> >> >>> >> >>> >> -- >>> >> - >>> >> http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/ >>> >> - >>> >> _______________________________________________ >>> >> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list >>> >> [hidden email] >>> >> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > _______________________________________________ >>> > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list >>> > [hidden email] >>> > http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> - >>> http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/ >>> - >>> _______________________________________________ >>> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list >>> [hidden email] >>> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> CivicAccess-discuss mailing list >> [hidden email] >> http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss > > > > -- > - > http://zzzoot.blogspot.com/ > - > _______________________________________________ > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list > [hidden email] > http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss -- Tracey P. Lauriault 613-234-2805 "Every epoch dreams the one that follows it's the dream form of the future, not its reality" it is the "wish image of the collective". Walter Benjamin, between 1927-1940, (http://www.columbia.edu/itc/architecture/ockman/pdfs/dossier_4/buck-morss.pdf) |
Re: Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
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In reply to this post by James McKinney-2
Since our APIs are overlapping, i'm considering shutting mine down since you guys have more coverage (I only have federal, bc, and ontario so far).
- can you add an XML output format? - can you add an option to return nearby ridings within a certain radius (because the postal code centroid is inaccurate)? - can people contact you to avoid the 60 request/second limit? If you can add those... I can punt my users to you and spend my time elsewhere... Thanks, Cory. ---- http://howdtheyvote.ca/ On 2012-01-30, at 8:44 AM, James McKinney wrote: > Open North is proud to announce Represent, an API (web service) to federal, provincial and municipal political districts and representatives across Canada. To see a demo and read the API docs, visit: http://represent.opennorth.ca/ > > Represent establishes a foundation upon which other projects may be built - a necessary piece of infrastructure which we hope will enable useful and innovative features and products. It is free to use and open-source. > > This open database was built by James McKinney and Michael Mulley, with important contributions from Aran Rasmussen, Kent Mewhort, Amir Pakdel, Camilo Lopez, Rory Geoghegan, Trevor Knight, and Carmine Casciato. The project takes inspiration from mySociety’s MapIt and code from the Chicago Tribune’s Boundary Service. > > We currently have electoral districts and representatives for all provinces and Canada, and the ward boundaries of ten cities. We have postal code correspondences for Ontario (and soon Quebec) and postal code centroids from GeoCoder.ca. > > But we could have much more. To keep this project sustainable, we are asking for your help. Things you can help with: > > Add more representatives > - Write scrapers (in PHP, Ruby, or Python) to get the elected officials for more cities > - Ask provincial Municipal Affairs ministries for municipal elected officials in Excel format > > Get more boundaries > - Create a list of all municipalities with ward boundaries > - Ask them to provide their ward boundaries under an open license > > Free the postal code > - Ask your province or city for a postal code to electoral district concordance file (we already have Ontario, Québec, and Saskatchewan) > > Maintain the database > - Monitor scrapers to make sure we always provide the latest, most accurate data available > - Write an app to track electoral calendars, so we can plan updates and prepare scrapers > - Donate to Open North so a staff member can improve and maintain this service part-time > > Comments are very welcome, and please let us know if you've built something using the API. > > James & Michael > _______________________________________________ > CivicAccess-discuss mailing list > [hidden email] > http://lists.pwd.ca/mailman/listinfo/civicaccess-discuss |
Re: Announcing Represent, an open database of political districts and representatives
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Hi Cory,
I think a lot of people use & are grateful for your API -- I know I am -- and I'd certainly like to see it stay around. I've got no plans to add XML and James & I originally planned this a JSON service, though we might change our minds if several people really want XML.
Nearby: played with this briefly but the range queries I was trying were making PostGIS slow to a crawl, since we store everything in lat/lon geometry columns. This is certainly worth adding to our issues list.
As to rate limits, this is a brand-new project & we don't have any kind of policy yet, but we built this as a tool for people to build on top of, and we're not gonna stand in the way of legitimate uses without a good reason.
On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 3:58 PM, Cory Horner <[hidden email]> wrote: Since our APIs are overlapping, i'm considering shutting mine down since you guys have more coverage (I only have federal, bc, and ontario so far). |
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