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February 27, 2009
Local Web site maps out campaign contributions
Bloggers at Chattarati say they spent long hours entering contribution information from publicly available disclosure documents into a database that then displays the contributors and amounts on interactive maps.
The first campaign finance disclosures in the current election cycle were due at the Hamilton County Election Commission by 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 24--less than one week before the March 3 election begins. (I think I turned mine in at 3:59, because that's how I do.) Voters interested in seeing "who gave what to whom" can access the documents (mostly handwritten forms scanned into PDFs) at the Election Commission's Web site. However, meaningful analysis is difficult when poring over that much imaged paper.
The "Cash Maps" provide readers with a visual means of understanding where the money in each campaign originates. Users can click on a ZIP code (red pin) to see donations from individual addresses (blue pin). Map layers can be added to show city limits and council district boundaries. A new feature that's full of "wow factor" creates a custom file that one can download into the Google Earth™ application and browse as a color-coded "heat" map.
While there are certainly more ways that could be developed to help the public easily make connections with the information that is, by law, theirs to own, the dedication to transparency shown in Chattarati's efforts is laudable. I'm trying to forsake the "old vs. new media" paradigm and say "let's all just get along," but from a certain point of view, the traditional media outlets have just been upstaged by bloggers and developers working on a volunteer basis and in their spare time.
Full disclosure: I am a former contributing writer to Chattarati, and there is a good chance that I will return to that role after the election.
About Blogs , Chattanooga City Elections , Government , Tech | By joe lance | 11:50 AM
