Interface for exploring arguments in DNC v. Russia legal complaint

What problem are you trying to solve?

Creating a data visualization about the arguments in the Democratic National Committee's civil lawsuit against Russia and others for the alleged theft of the DNC's documents. It should help meet politically engaged nonexperts' demand for nonpartisan information about the federal courts' role in protecting election integrity.

Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from your project?

The DNC's lawsuit is unique because there are so many people who passionately support one side or the other. However, the news media hasn't been exploring the legal issues with the same depth it gives to other election issues like polling, gerrymandering, or campaign finance. People on all sides of the issue deserve neutral information to understand what issues the courts will face. Clearer communication about government actions supports the goals of government accountability and transparency. Any datasets we produce will be released under an open license to benefit other researchers.

What other resources/tools are currently serving the same need? How does your project set itself apart?

Courtlistener provides a docket for the case. The resources currently available are just images of the complaint without embedded text, so a visually impaired person wouldn't even be able to read it. We can provide a text version, and we can also index it so users can search it based on tags. For example, a user might want to find find all the allegations related to a certain claim, or all the claims against a certain party.

Where can we find any research/data available/articles?

[Washington Post: "Dems’ lawsuit alleges conspiracy between Trump camp, Russia"] (https://wapo.st/2HhL3b2)

What help do you need now?

Web design, interaction design, database design, experience with natural language processing or text markup, or subject matter expertise in cybersecurity or law.

What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?

Data markup, design.

How can we contact you outside of Github(list social media or places you're present)?

Open Austin's Slack

Project management

Checklist for NEW ideas :baby:

Hey, you're official! You're now part of the growing civic hacking community in Austin. Here's a few things to get started (a couple you've probably already done).

[x] Create this idea issue
[x] Flesh out the who, where, and what questions above
[ ] Start the conversation about this idea on Slack Replace this link to the #general channel with your project's preferred channel.

Checklist for ACTIVE projects :fire:

Let's get this project started! When this idea starts taking off, the Projects Core Team will start helping this project's lead(s) out with project management and connecting you to resources you may need. To get there, please complete and check off the following:

[x] Post an update at least once a month to this issue. Use BASEDEF for ideas, but it's ok even if your update is just "nothing new happened this month" or "we saw a small increase in traffic to our app this month". If there's no activity for two months, that's no problem, life happens. We'll just label this as backlog so others know you'll get back to it when you have the time. If nobody hears from you at all in more than two months, we may mark it as abandoned so that others can pick up this idea and run with it.
[ ] Take 30 minutes to complete Open Leadership 101
[ ] Create a GitHub repository. Ask for help setting up permissions if you want your repository to be within the Open Austin Github organization.
[ ] Create a README file in your project repository. This file should help newcomers understand what your project is, why it's important, and kinds of help you're looking for.
[ ] Create issues to describe each task that you plan to do or need help with and how a contributor can get started on that task. You might start and stop a lot, so consider issues as your to-do list.
[ ] Create a team for your core contributors
- This will make it easier for you to manage your github repo access. People on a team have the same level of access. Admin access will allow your trusted contributors to make changes as needed.
- You can remove and add people to your team as needed.
- View some of our teams: https://github.com/orgs/open-austin/teams
- Note: You can also allow collaborators outside of your team and give them more limited access.
[ ] Create a user group in Slack so you can "@" your core contributors all at once, without bothering other people who use the Slack channel. You'll need permission from a Slack admin, so just mention @leadership on Slack to get this set up.
[ ] Create a Google Drive, Dropbox, or other cloud storage to share larger files. Github and Data.World are good for code and data, respectively, especially when you need version control. But they're not good for very large files, documentation, articles, etc. A cloud storage option will allow you to easily share, create, and collaborate on documents with your team and help organize ideas and thoughts.
- Doing this early on can help your team stay organized and to onboard new contributors who wouldn't have access to files you all have shared over email.

Checklist for FEATURED Projects :tada:

To have your project FEATURED on Open-Austin.org, complete the following documentation. In past projects, well-documented featured projects have more contributions than other projects.

[ ] In your README, link to the Open Austin Code of Conduct or write your own code of conduct.
[ ] Create file: LICENSE to give your project an open license, allowing for sharing and remixing.
[ ] Create file: CONTRIBUTING.md so others know how they can contribute.
[ ] Create an easily shareable project management artifact, like a Civic Tech Canvas or Open Canvas
[ ] Create an issue on the open-austin.github.io repo with the title Add [my project] to projects page. An Open Austin leader will review this issue and post your project :balloon:
[ ] Tell the City of Austin. If your idea is in a shareable format and can benefit people around the city, go to that site and follow the instructions on the bottom of the page to showcase your work there.

If you get stuck at any point, feel free to reach out to the leadership team on Slack by adding @leadership to your message. We're here to help you make real changes to our city.

open-austin / project-ideas