My core idea: The district you are in is a more relatable measure of analysis for federal spending for the average person. You want to know what is going on around you. You can more easily "follow the money" this way.
I have a pipeline that runs nightly/weekly with data digest from USASpending, SAM.gov, and some other big players in the space. You can subscribe to changes and get updates daily/weekly on spending in your district. You can map that to lobbying, new contracts that pop up, as well as what your rep is voting on.
The client libraries are written in ruby and are open source here: https://github.com/govapi-rb
You can also check out the API Docs here: https://thepublictab.com/docs/api
It is deemed "beta" for now.. I'd love any feedback and to hear what is cool and what is not.
Thanks!
codingdave•1h ago
The freemium model is in and of itself interesting because most tech leaders in the public sector are quite allergic to the idea of monetizing the public view of data and content. They want the organizations who produce the data to fund the platforms, with the public views being a key piece of the puzzle, but not the funding source. I'm actually with you on it, that if the public wants deep engagement, it is worth some small fees. But we're the minority - most folks with whom I've discussed projects vehemently reject the idea.
As you are also asking for a "Pro" subscription for API access, I'd open up the public view and rely instead on API fees.
jaaacckz•1h ago
Perhaps I can make more things seen in the "Free tier"