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Open States

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Open States is a project that makes it possible for people to track and engage with what is happening in their state's capitol.

Via a system of custom crawlers for each state legislature, we collect information on state governments: bills, votes, committees, events, and legislators. This information allows journalists, academics, activists, and concerned citizens track what is happening in their state, and engage with their elected officials.

This information is then made available via OpenStates.org, the Open States API, and bulk downloads. The site and data are used by journalists, activists, academics, and everyday citizens interested in keeping track of their elected officials.

Originally a project of the Sunlight Foundation, Open States became an independent project in late 2016 and is now under the 501(c)(3) umbrella of the Open Media Foundation.

Application Instructions

  • Twitter: When applying please be sure to include your GitHub and Slack handle, hopefully you will have engaged with us in both locations by the time we're reviewing your application so we'd like to be sure we connect your real name to your handle.

Here's what we're looking for:

  • You come to us with a well-defined task that will improve Open States (see ideas section below).
  • Your idea seems achievable within the 3 month GSoC period (May-August). Note: If your idea is too big but you would like to work on it beyond the end of the GSoC period feel free to figure out a concrete portion to propose for the summer and elaborate on how you'd potentially continue it afterwards. We're glad to discuss options.
  • Show us who you are and why you're well-suited to work with us. GitHub profiles are great, a PR or two would also be terrific. Or jump on our Slack and introduce yourself.
  • Please include a rough schedule of what you'd expect to do in the first, second, and third months.
  • Commit to a once-a-week minimum check-in with your mentor. Vacations, etc. are fine but we'll want to meet as often as possible to ensure success.

See https://github.com/openstates/meta/wiki/GSoC-2018-Overview#students for more details

Please tag your proposal with an appropriate tag from the ideas page.