Philadelphia has a new lobbying website that helps make
detailed information easier to search, download and reuse. It's a step forward
from how this information was previously shared, but there is still room for
improvement.
The story of Philadelphia's lobbying
website highlights some of the problems local governments face with sharing
this crucial data set. Lobbying disclosures help reveal who is trying to
influence government and how, but sharing the information with enough detail
and in a format that's easy to analyze and reuse is something that few local governments have been able to accomplish so
far.
We noted several problems
when we looked at Philadelphia's lobbying website last
spring as part of our exploration of municipal lobbying data transparency. That
website was only meant to be temporary though, a placeholder after a failed contract for a more comprehensive site required by city law. The
city knew what it needed to do to improve lobbying transparency: finding a way
to implement those changes was the problem.
The placeholder website
shared detailed information from lobbyist registration and expense reports, but
the data was shared in PDFs, a format that makes it difficult to analyze and
reuse information.
The new website shows the city is taking steps
to implement the 2010 law that requires electronic filing of
disclosures and sharing information in a searchable format. It's clear that
progress is still held back in some ways, however, by the limits of the old
system.
Philadelphia's lobbying
information is housed in part of the website for the Board of Ethics, which oversees the collection of lobbying reports and is
responsible for related enforcement. New features in the lobbying section of the Board of Ethics website allows
users to search registration and expense information
from principals, lobbying firms, and lobbyists, or browse a full directory of lobbyists that includes their photos.
There's also an option to download several different kinds of reports based on
expense and registration data.
While all of these provide
much more functionality than what was previously available, these new features
are hard to find from the main Board of Ethics website. Accessing the detailed
search requires clicking on the "File 2014 Lobbying Registrations and Expense Reports Online"
link from thelobbying section of the Board of Ethics website.
From the filing page, clicking on the "Philadelphia Lobbying
Information System" link will take users to the search
functions. It's not very intuitive for the average user. Why would someone who
isn't a lobbyist click on a link to file lobbying reports? Improving the
ability to find the search features will be important for helping users easily
access the lobbying information Philadelphia is providing online.
Once users reach the search
system, there are several improvements from the old website. Now that
electronic filing of registration and expense reports is required, PDFs are no
longer the only format for accessing the most recent lobbying information. Data
can be downloaded in bulk from the search
page or for specific searches in CSV format, an important step
in sharing information in an open format that makes information easy to
access, analyze and reuse. Using the "public reports" tool allows for
downloading information in several formats, too, including open formats like
CSV and XML.
Anyone looking for older
lobbying data will still run into challenges, unfortunately. Fourth-quarter expense reports from 2013 are still available
in PDF, as they were on the old site. The problem of earlier expense
reports being completely unavailable online remains: users are directed to
contact the Board of Ethics for PDF copies of reports from 2013 and 2012. As
more quarterly expense and registration reports are filed electronically, it
will be easier to analyze historical data about lobbying in the city, but for
now there is limited information available.
Once that data starts
growing, an API would further improve access to the
data. One is in the works,according to Nedda Massar, deputy executive
director of the city’s Board of Ethics. An API can help search and retrieve
data, especially for those who might want to create applications for displaying
or contextualizing the data. We've already seen the kinds of tools access to lobbying data can empower,
like Lobbying.ph.
Imagine what could be done if it's faster and easier to access the data or
combine it with other information.
Philadelphia shows, with this
new website, that it is taking steps forward in improving access to lobbying information, and we
hope to see the city's plan for transparency around this crucial data set
realized in full. There are still more improvements to be made, but we look
forward to watching the site as it continues to evolve.
Source: Philly.com
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