Project

From BudgetWiki

Contents 1 Project Overview and Objectives 1.1 Statement of the Problem 1.2 Goal 1.3 Vision 1.4 How We Will Do This 1.5 The "Project" Consists of 1.6 First steps 1.7 Potential Uses 1.8 Stakeholders 1.9 Potential Outcomes 2 League of Technical Voters

Project Overview and Objectives

Statement of the Problem

It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to track federal spending. Information is either not available or it is so buried that even full time professionals have a difficult time finding what they need. The current process of finding information is extremely daunting, even to the professional.

Goal

We want to make the federal budget accessible, so that American citizens can gather all of the necessary information needed to determine how much money was spent, how it was determined such funds would be spent, and who was involved in these determinations in any particular area or field.

Vision

The ability for anyone to track federal spending would lead to reduction in waste, reduction in misdirection of funds, and improved use of taxes.

How We Will Do This

1. Develop a plan detailing the resources and tasks necessary to implement the project.
2. Find and coordinate diverse individuals such as legislators, journalists, politicians, computer technologists, business owners, academicians, scientists, students, social activists, etc.
3. Bring together the concerned individuals who are willing to commit to the project.
4. Implement the plan.

The "Project" Consists of

1. A suite of online tools.
2. These online tools will be:
   • Implemented to a high standard.
   • Easy to use, providing accurate data, and with high-quality search capabilities.
   • Able to gather information from multiple and varied sources such as:
     • Annotated, referenced, cited, and statistically analyzed data.
     • Personal and anecdotal opinions, used to consolidate and drive a public consensus.
   • Provided freely to the public, for use by anyone. Custom applications could be developed commercially, to support and sustain our public work.

First steps

1. Start with one specific tool to give an early success. This can convince stakeholders of the feasibility of the project as a whole.
2. Tackle a second, harder tool. If successful, this can convince even the skeptics to support the project.

Potential Uses

Concerned groups could track funding in education, agriculture, medical spending, research, military spending, etc. The tool set could be applied to any other form of complex, embedded data besides the federal budget, including legislation, law, patents, and so forth.

Stakeholders

• Individual Citizens
• Political Figures
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Political Organizations
• Journalists
• Data Brokers
• Lobbyists and Activists
• Political Agencies
• Bloggers or Citizen Journalists
• Students and Teachers

Potential Outcomes

A more efficient and effective government process.

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League of Technical Voters

The League of Technical Voters is a 501(c)(3) that is building a consortium of organizations, businesses, government officials, lobbyists, journalists, data brokers, and most importantly, individuals that believe in transparent government and the ability of communities to produce superior content. We are a non-partisan organization which anyone can join. Our current focus is to build a Illuminated Federal Budget as a means of furthering our values.