MeFi Projects

I created a website tracking US federal legislation and regulations responding to coronavirus and COVID-19. [more inside]
posted by jedicus on Mar 15, 2020 - 0 comments

The Library of Congress contains vast troves of digital resources. LOC Serendipity is a website that simulates the experience of exploring a library and skimming eye-catching or interesting titles. From books like, "Dainty dishes for slender incomes," which contains a delicious recipe for beignets, to the oddball early-1800's "Memoirs of the notorious Stephen Burroughs of New Hampshire" to "The forgotten book," published in 2018, this tool enables serendipitous and deeply engaging discovery every day. [more inside]
posted by metasunday on Mar 10, 2019 - 2 comments

I found out about the Town Hall Project from this question on ask. The data in the spreadsheet are amazing, but it can be pretty hard to get the most relevant data out of a spreadsheet. I made a couple hacked together maps to help with that question, but then decided to actually make a real thing as a learning exercise and to hopefully help other people out. [more inside]
posted by rockindata on Feb 9, 2017 - 5 comments

CallGov.us is a simple tool for calling your senators and representatives in Congress -- you can create scripts and calls-to-action, track your calls, and share with friends.
posted by anotherthink on Nov 29, 2016 - 4 comments

James Billington, longtime Librarian of Congress, is retiring. This is a job opening that only comes around every few decades and is incredibly important. I made a little website to help share useful information about why it's important and what librarians care about.
posted by jessamyn on Jul 1, 2015 - 13 comments

In theory, by looking at the number of bills supported / opposed by a given group, we can estimate its level of engagement and gauge whether events in Congress are working for or against the groups' interests.
posted by argentum on Dec 29, 2014 - 0 comments

Prevent intractable wars in the Middle East with this 1 weird old trick. Uses HTML5 geolocation and the Sunlight Labs congress API, which are both pretty rad tools.
posted by ecmendenhall on Sep 5, 2013 - 0 comments