New York State Online Grassroots Democracy

Looks like they're getting it done, despite all the drama in NY state politics.

These guys, led by New York State Senate CIO Andrew Hoppin, deserve a lot of credit, they've already done "crowdsourcing portals" for property taxes, ethics reform and campaign finance."

More from NY Observer: Hoppin's Crew Holds On:

In fact, Mr. Hoppin and his crew have been working hard to ensure that no matter what happens--say, if the Republicans secure control of the Senate and replace them--they'll have left their mark not just on Albany, but on government in general.

The team has been focusing on a project at the heart of their initiative called open.nysenate.gov, a data portal that makes information like bill text, budget plans and Senators' expenditure and funding reports more accessible to the public. They also launched a beta version of their Open Legislation Service, a public database of legislation searchable by bill number, sponsor, committee or keyword. Additionally, they're creating color-coded tagging systems within documents for easy skimming; translating legal and political jargon into more readable text for their Plain Language Initiative; designing RSS feeds and alert systems for issues; and crafting both a new email blast program and revamped intranet communication system.

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