Civic Impulse LLC
CI was started by “civic hacker” Joshua Tauberer, who some have called the “grandfather” of the open-data movement for the U.S. Congress and a “data crusader”. CI builds tools that fosters civic participation and government transparency but also works with government staff and nonprofits on improving government data policy.
GovTrack.us, launched in 2004, was the first website to apply the principles of open data and Web 2.0 to the U.S. Congress. It catalyzed the development of a community of like-minded developers and shaped the data-oriented open government movement that we see today. About GovTrack | Press Coverage
GovTrackInsider.com, launched in 2010, is an experiment in online journalism and government transparency.
Planet oGosh! is a aggregator for blogs related to “Open Government Open Source Hacking”. (Like the acronym?)
The New Jersey Gang Survey Viewer is a visualization tool for the New Jersey State Police Street Gang Survey 2007 developed by five volunteers over the course of a weekend in December 2009, as part of the Great American Hackathon.
We’re planning one more new project in 2010. Stay tuned!
For more about CI, see Joshua’s track record.
Team
Joshua Tauberer, Director
Joshua is an engineer at heart and a scientist by training. He began GovTrack.us in his spare time in 2001 while a student and today carries that drive forward with Civic Impulse. Joshua is the sole member (that’s LLC-speak for owner) of Civic Impulse. Joshua is also a senior software developer at LARSA, Inc., a higly specialized engineering software company. He holds a BA from Princeton University, 2004; an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, 2008, in linguistics; and is a PhD candidate in linguistics, also at the University of Pennsylvania.
Josh Sulkin, Developer
Josh Sulkin is an engineer, programmer, and political wannabe. He is developing our new yet-to-be-announced project. Civic projects he's worked on include FlyOnTime.us and IlliniBookExchange.com. He holds a BS and MS and is currently pursuing a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Aliza Wasserman, Outreach & Participation Director
Aliza uses public policy to make America healthier. She's our director of outreach and citizen participation. Aliza is also currently a policy analyst for the Boston Public Health Commission. She holds a BA from Cornell and a masters in public health and nutrition from Tufts.
Steve Pearson
Steve moderates the community Q&A feature for bills on GovTrack.