I don't usually write non-social media related Tools for Transparency posts, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to write about Square, a simple mobile app and hardware accessory that turns your mobile device into a credit card reader.

This simple app allows anyone with an iPhone, iPad or Android phone to take credit card payments, bypassing much of the hassle required with traditional credit card readers and transactions. The app makes it simple to collect payments, and donations, on the go, sending funds directly to your bank account.  The process for ordering the device and setting up the application was simple and Square takes a small 2.75% fee from each transaction.

A small nonprofit that I volunteer with recently held a fundraiser and as most supporters are accustomed to, they arrived with cash in hand for event tickets and donations.  A few came with less cash than they had realized but we were able to accommodate them because I had downloaded the Square app for my iPod and ran their credit card through the attached reader. An elegant solution for people that don't walk around with much cash.

Here's how it works.

Once you've received the card reader, plug it into the audio jack of your mobile device.  Open up the Square app (make sure that you're connected to the web) and you will be shown a screen asking for the amount and type of transaction:

Next you'll need to swipe the credit card:

Sign for the card using your finger:

Once the card clears, the receipt can either be sent to a cell phone or an email address:

The potential for fundraising, as in my example, is obvious and of course, can be applied to any transparency project and cause. I think it's important to note, when you're accepting donations, where the money is going and whether or not the donation is tax deductible.

What are your experiences with Square? Have you used it in the past?

As a former Capitol Hill Communications Director, I can tell you that access to real-time information on what is happening on the Hill can make or break a successful advocacy campaign. Information is power, and the Sunlight Labs new Real Time Congress App for the iPhone gives users access to instantaneous in-the-know information in the palm of your hand. By pulling together RSS and XML feeds from the party policy committees, leadership offices, news outlets, bill texts and the alphabet soup of analysts (Think CBO, OMB, CRS et al.), the coders at the Labs have created a rich and valuable user experience for anyone who is interested in what is happening in Congress.

Forgive my enthusiasm for this new app, but it really is something special and elegant. Forget the fact that the platform will be expanded and new data sources will be added and the app will be expanded. I know that I am channeling my inner Don Draper here when I say that this new app brings me home again, and by home, I mean the Longworth House Office Building.

The Real Time Congress application for iPhone will keep journalists, Hill staffers, bloggers and interested citizens up to date on what is happening in Congress, in real-time. Its ease of use and sleek design promise that end users will continue to go back to the app for unfiltered information on Congress so they can make their own informed decisions on what is happening in the Capitol.

Our goal at the Sunlight Foundation is to change the way that citizens collect information about their government, and then help them to use that information to change the way they interact with their government. This new app shows how powerful new programs and smart phones can accomplish that goal. I’m just a little jealous of my former colleagues on the hill—I kind of wish I had this when I was working over there.

We're pretty proud of the app and it's free to you as the user. It is worth noting, however, that it wasn't free for us to create. It did take weeks of development, and so any contribution toward this application and all the others we hope to create in the future on your behalf is greatly appreciated.

Federal Computer Week has an encouraging article about how the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Weather Service are now providing useful information via mobile handheld devices. They have stripped down information from their Web sites, emphasizing text, so that cell phones and other mobile devices can easily upload it. The agencies are able to reach more people with “potentially life-saving content" in the case of an environmental alert or, in the case of the NWS, a storm warning. The technology managers orchestrating this hope they are taking the first step toward two-way communications between government agencies and cell phone users.

The designers of EPA's Mobile Web site realized that they would have to keep the content simple and basic because of the wide range of mobile devices out there, from the 3G devices like Apple’s iPhone, to the cell phones running on slower cellular networks. The article quotes the EPA’s designer, “With a typical cell phone, you’re basically back to the Gopher world,” the text-based Internet interface that preceded browsers using graphics. So they designed processes that strip graphics and other resource-hogging items from blogs, press releases and the like so that mobile users can upload basic text. The Weather Service’s forecast and other information tends to be quite time sensitive, so they to have build devices that transform their data so that it can be immediately displayed on mobile devices.

This is a great development.