Several people came together at TransparencyCamp to "Draw an API." Their interpretation of open data was meant to unpack the concept of open data and how non-technologists perceive it.
Continue readingUse Sunlight’s APIs for your own project!
A review of Sunlight's most popular APIs and some non-Sunlight projects that use our free data!
Continue readingI learned basic JSON in the morning and made a silly Twitter bot with Sunlight’s API in the afternoon
It doesn't take a full-time software developer to build tools on Sunlight's data.
Continue readingInfluence Analytics: $37 will get you a lobbying fight over climate change
In the era of big data, it shouldn't be surprising that some of the biggest lobbying fights are over numbers. In this case, the number is $37.
Continue readingThe 12 Days of APIs (version 2.0)
‘Tis the season for application programming interfaces. We have the perfect present for the open data developer in your life: a Sunlight Labs API key! Here are our “12 days of APIs” for 2013; no singing required!
Continue readingAnnouncing the Docket Wrench API
Presenting the new Docket Wrench API! This API allows developers to utilize the same analytics that power Docket Wrench to build innovative new services and tools. Sign up for a free key and check it out!
Continue readingHow Congress Commemorates President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
OpenGov Voices: PDF Liberation Hackathon – At Sunlight in DC, SF and Around the World – January 17-19, 2014
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Sunlight Foundation or any employee thereof. 
Sunlight Foundation is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information within the guest blog.
Marc Joffe is the founder of Public Sector Credit Solutions (PSCS), which applies open data and analytics to rating government bonds. Before starting PSCS, Marc was a Senior Director at Moody’s Analytics. You can contact him at marc@publicsectorcredit.org. Marc is also one of the winners of Sunlight Foundation’s OpenGov Grants.
Extracting useful information from PDFs is a problem as old as … PDFs. Too often, we focus on extracting information from a specific set of documents instead of looking at the bigger picture. If you’ve ever struggled with this problem, join us for Sunlight’s PDF Liberation Hackathon, dedicated to improving open source tools for PDF extraction.
Instead of focusing on one set of documents, coders will come together to add features, extensions and plugins to existing PDF extraction frameworks, making them more flexible, useful and sustainable. Sunlight’s PDF Liberation Hackathon will tackle real-world PDF data extraction problems. In doing so, we will build upon existing open-source PDF extraction solutions such as Tabula and Ashima’s PDF Table Extractor. ( A full list of PDF extraction technologies relevant to the hackathon can be found on our resource page here.) In addition, hackers will have the option of using licensed PDF software libraries as long as the implementation cost of these libraries is less than $1,000. If you have an idea for a library you want to use, please mention it in your signup form and we will try to work out the licensing ahead of time so that things run smoothly.
Register now to attend the PDF Liberation Hackathon!
Continue readingHappy Birthday Louis Brandeis, Muse of Sunlight!
Today is the 157th anniversary of the birth of Louis Brandeis, a trailblazing advocate for civil liberties, individual rights and, yes, sunlight.
For us, it's a day to celebrate and take stock of our mission, for Brandeis is our inspiration: The Sunlight Foundation takes its name from one of his most famous observations.
Make a Louis Brandeis birthday donation to Sunlight!
We Have a Winner!
Last week we celebrated our billionth API call by announcing a giveaway, and Tuesday we went ahead and pulled the name of a random API user who had made at least one successful query. I've been emailing with him since, and am please so say that Matt Gabrenya is our winner! You can find his Github profile here, and his business site, Boston TechCollective, here.
Matt used our APIs to power his BillTrack project, which aims to make it easier to run advocacy campaigns on issues like SOPA and the Keystone XL pipeline.
We're delighted that Matt found our APIs useful, and thrilled that thousands of you have as well. We're going to keep making them better, deeper and more powerful; we're counting on all of you to put them to good use.
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