With respect to contributing code, the short answer is that we're not sure yet. There is certainly no shortage of code to write, but we want to make sure that we work with volunteers in the right way. For anyone that's interested in please reach out here or through the contact form on our website. I will personally respond to everyone.
Other than writing code, we need advocates in and out of government who understand and believe in the value of free (as in freedom) and accessible laws. Contact your local, state, federal representative and let them know that free and accessible laws are important to you. Let them know that a system exists that can not only make this a possibility, but that it will also make their lives a lot easier.
We would also love to hear about what you would want to build on top of computer-readable, always up-to-date laws that could programmatically alert you when something changed and let you diff against old versions of the law. E.g. a) internal annotations for civil servants that wouldn't immediately be obsolete once the legal code changed; and b) legal alert system for the part of the law you care about.
We'll put together a form that makes it easier to collect this information!
Previous attempts at accomplishing our mission saw organizations scraping government websites and re-hosting the laws on prettier websites. The problem was that a) the laws were only as up-to-date as the law the governments made available (which, unfortunately, are not up-to-date at all) and b) the projects were not sustainable because no one pays to access the law and websites needed updating every time the law changed.
Sites like these are potentially very harmful. They haven't been updated in years and people who stumble upon them and miss the fine print end up relying on laws that have long since changed.
Because timeliness matters, the only way to guarantee that we get it is by working directly with the governments. So we build software into the law drafting, codifying, and publishing process that governments can really benefit from and enjoy using. The software changes the economics of codification and publication and permits publishing the laws freely and openly.
Other than writing code, we need advocates in and out of government who understand and believe in the value of free (as in freedom) and accessible laws. Contact your local, state, federal representative and let them know that free and accessible laws are important to you. Let them know that a system exists that can not only make this a possibility, but that it will also make their lives a lot easier.
We would also love to hear about what you would want to build on top of computer-readable, always up-to-date laws that could programmatically alert you when something changed and let you diff against old versions of the law. E.g. a) internal annotations for civil servants that wouldn't immediately be obsolete once the legal code changed; and b) legal alert system for the part of the law you care about.
We'll put together a form that makes it easier to collect this information!