Activist.Guru

Activist.Guru is going to be a bit like govtrack.us, which has been around since 2004. The primary difference is the use of AI, which I will be incorporating into the site to allow you to get involved with the conversation scheduled to be had on the house floor, senate floor, etc. by contacting your representatives and being vocal about it online.

It doesn't just stop at federal though, I plan to use AI scraping technology (which is under development) to process state level bills and information as well. All the way down to city level, where you can @ your mayor if you'd like about city ordinances.

In addition to legal changes, the intent is to make it simpler to form open records requests. Sending open records requests can be a long, painstaking, process for all parties involved. I want to force interoperability via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) into the civil and criminal system. Public data should be public at request without longer than a 10 day waiting period. If it needs to be redacted, that information should be automatically done upon entry of the data so that it can simply be approved and sent quickly, and electronically.

Open Records Requests are controversial because government officials say they overrun the system and waste precious time. They waste money, too. Did you know that obtaining a police body cam video costs $10 plus $1 per minute? That's ridiculous, archaic, and a barrier to those without money. As someone that knows from personal experience, a false arrest can lead to extended jail time, causing you to lose your job and all your assets. How does one that has had their life upended afford to pay these fees?

Not everyone can go to a city council meeting and records show that most people don't go. Most of the time people don't get the information they need to know about in a way that is accessible for them. Enter Activist.Guru, which will regularly monitor the city websites for updated agendas and minutes, making them available via newsletter, email, and text notifications.

The preview is rough. It hasn't had a design pass at all and to be honest the interface it is using now was entirely generated by ChatGPT. You can use it now to obtain social media handles and names of Senators and House representatives. I probably won't have time to seriously start Activist.Guru until sometime mid-November or December, unless it interacts with Jail.Guru and a feature needs to be developed for that. I do plan on incorporating SSO into it soon.