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<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1"> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <title>Joshua Tauberer’s Resume</title> <meta name="description" content="Joshua Tauberer is a software engineering manager and civic hacker based in Washington, DC."> <meta name="twitter:creator" content="@JoshData" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.0/css/bootstrap.min.css"> <style> @import url(https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Ledger); @import url(https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Tienne:700); body, td { font-family: 'Ledger', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 150%; } a { color: #BB3311; } a:hover { color: #CB4422 } a:visited { } h1 { font-family: 'Tienne', serif; font-size: 24px; } h2 { font-family: 'Tienne', serif; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 2.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; } .cv p { margin: 1.3em 0 1.3em 0; } .cv dt { font-family: 'Tienne', serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 15px; } .cv dd { padding-left: 110px; padding-bottom: 1em; } .cv dl dt a { text-decoration: none; } .cv dl dt span { display: inline-block; width: 110px; font-size: 90%; padding-right: 1em; text-align: right; } .cv dl dt span i { font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: -.5px; font-family: serif; font-weight: normal; } .cv ul li { margin-bottom: .5em; } @media screen { .cv ul li.imp { font-weight: bold; border: 1px dotted rgb(130, 136, 204); padding: 2px; } } #navbar li { margin-bottom: .75em; } #navbar a { color: #E64; } #navbar li.active { background-color: #D55; } #navbar li.active a { color: white; } .menu { margin: 50px 0 50px 0; } @media print { .menu { display: none; } a { text-decoration: none; color: inherit; font-weight: inherit; } } </style> </head> <body data-spy="scroll" data-target="#navbar"> <div class="container"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-xs-2"> <div id="navbar" data-spy="affix"> <p class="menu"><a href="/">< back to homepage</a></p> <ul class="nav nav-list"> <li><a href="#experience"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></i> Experience</a></li> <li><a href="#education"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></i> Education</a></li> <li><a href="#publications"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></i> Publications</a></li> <li><a href="#talks"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></i> Invited Talks</a></li> <li><a href="#presentations"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></i> Other Presentations</a></li> <li><a href="#pressclips"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></i> Press Clips</a></li> <li><a href="#honors"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></i> Honors</a></li> <li><a href="#service"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></i> Service</a></li> <li><a href="#projects"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></i> Other Projects</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="col-xs-offset-1 col-xs-9 cv"> <h2 style="text-align: center; padding-bottom: 1em">Resume</h2> <h1>Joshua Ian Tauberer, <span style="font-size: 80%; color: #555;">Ph.D.</span></h1> <div id="experience"> <h2>Professional Experience</h2> <dl> <dt><span>2024–<i>present</i></span><a href="https://www.gsa.gov/governmentwide-initiatives/us-open-government/open-government-federal-advisory-committee">Open Government Federal Advisory Commitee (U.S. GSA)</a>, Member</dt> <dd>The Open Government Federal Advisory Committee serves as an advisory body to the GSA Administrator on federal open government and public engagement efforts.</dt> <dt><span>2019–<i>present</i></span><a href="https://www.larsa4d.com">LARSA, Inc.</a>, Head of Product Development</dt> <dd>LARSA, Inc. develops scientific software for civil and structural engineers for the design of highway bridges and other complex structures throughout the world. I lead the team designing and developing our products, collaborating with our customer support team and directly with our users to ensure product success.</dt> <dt><span>2003–<i>present</i></span><a href="https://www.govtrack.us">GovTrack.us</a>, Founder</dt> <dd>In 2003 I founded what would become one of the world’s most visited free government information websites, www.GovTrack.us. The website helps 10 million Americans annually track the daily activities of the United States Congress in an easily consumable form, catalyzed the world-wide “open government data” movement in the mid 2000’s, and inspired Congress’s efforts in the 2010’s to create its first official “bulk data download” of legislative information. Over GovTrack’s long history, I created the first comprehensive API for federal legislative information, the first Google Maps mashup to show congressional district boundaries, user-customized e-mail alerts for tracking by topic or legislator, and the first ‘real-time’ predictive model for whether legislation introduced in Congress will become law. In addition to being the company’s only full-stack engineer, I am also its spokesperson. In 2019, I testified at a congressional hearing on government transparency, I regularly communicate with the media and have appeared on radio, and our work has been mentioned numerous times in the national news. I also manage two-to-three part-time researchers and the company’s budget and finances.</dd> <dt><span>2016–2019</span>Open Government Advisory Group, District of Columbia Government, Member</dt> <dd>Appointed by Mayor of the District of Columbia to serve on District of Columbia’s Open Government Advisory Group and advise District’s Chief Data Officer and Mayor on open government data and enterprise open data issues. Wrote open government data stakeholder recommendations which the advisory group adopted as one of its few formal recommendations based on agency stakeholder interviews.</dt> <dt><span>2016–2019</span><a href="https://govready.com/">GovReady</a>, Consulting Software Engineer</dt> <dd>Developed a prototype Python application to reduce the cost of cybersecurity compliance for federal agencies and contractors. Worked closely with founder-CEO on stakeholder feedback and achieved several design pivots. Developed a novel data model for reporting enterprise cybersecurity compliance based on the NIST Risk Management Framework (NIST SP 800-53) and FIPS 199 security categorization.</dd> <dt><span>2016–2018</span><a href="https://demandprogress.org/">Demand Progress</a>, Consulting Software Engineer</dt> <dd>Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports are policy reports drafted by a office of the U.S. Congress, but have historically been largely inaccessible outside of paid legal subscription services. <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/">EveryCRSReport.com</a> is the first website to create comprehensive public access to these taxpayer-funded reports. I built the zero-maintenance website and a new PDF redaction library in Python.</dd> <dt><span>2000–2018</span><a href="https://www.larsa4d.com">LARSA, Inc.</a>, Software Engineer (part time)</dt> <dd>In the 00’s, I led the development of a new Visual Basic 6 user interface for the company’s flagship software. I subsequently developed novel algorithms in Fortran and C for structural engineering analysis. I also led the company’s technical writing and participated in customer support, client training, and trade shows.</dt> <dt><span>2014–2017</span>if.then.fund, Co-Founder</dt> <dd>if.then.fund was a startup I co-founded with Jonathan Zucker that aimed to reshape Congress by empowering small dollar donors to make contributions based on what politicians do — not what they promise. We created the first platform for “conditional” political donations tied to legislative events, navigating a complex statutory and regulatory legal and compliance landscape. I developed the website as the sole engineer and collaborated with my co-founder on marketing and fundraising.</dd> <dt><span>2011–2016</span>Open Data Day DC, Conference Chair</dt> <dd>I co-founded this annual hands-on technology training event for ~300 open data enthusiasts in the District of Columbia. Participants learned to transform public data into new ways to gain actionable knowledge about communities and global challenges. Recruited presenters, secured sponsorships, and managed budget. Expanded the field of open data professionals by creating a successful on-ramp. Elevated the careers of participants by creating opportunities for professional leadership experience.</dd> <dt><span>2014–2016</span><a href="http://uscode.house.gov">United States Congress, Office of the Law Revision Counsel</a>, Consulting Software Engineer</dt> <dd>After laws are passed, the Office of the Law Revision Counsel codifies those laws in the United States Code. I developed an internal workflow tool for the positive law codification process, sort of a git for law, with <a href="http://xcential.com/">Xcential</a> and <a href="http://www.robinsonyu.com/">Robinson + Yu</a>.</dd> <dt><span>2013–2014</span><a href="https://dccouncil.us">Council of the District of Columbia</a>, Consulting Software Engineer</dt> <dd>I created the first XML open data for the District's legal code, the DC Code, for the Office of the General Counsel. The prototype was the precursor to <a href="https://code.dccouncil.us/">https://code.dccouncil.us/</a> which launched in 2016 and received press attention in 2018 when I <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/11/how-i-changed-the-law-with-a-github-pull-request/">made the first GitHub pull request to change the law</a>, improving access to justice by making DC's laws freely available to be read and shared by everyone..</dt> <dt><span>2012–2014</span><a href="https://hhs.gov">U.S. Department of Health & Human Services</a>, Consulting Software Engineer</dt> <dd>I was on the team that launched HealthData.gov, a public data inventory management platform that was a part of President Obama’s federal-wide open data effort. The site cataloged HHS agency datasets about health. I led the effort to integrate CKAN and create an API.</dd> <dt><span>2010–2012</span><a href="http://www.popvox.com">POPVOX</a>, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer</dt> <dd>POPVOX was a venture-backed startup I co-founded to create an online advocacy platform which, in part, helped Americans write letters to Congress. I led a 2-3 person product team to design and implement the website, and I collaborated with my co-founders on startup competitions and marketing.</dd> <dt><span>2003</span><a href="http://www.dailyprincetonian.com">The Daily Princetonian</a>, Features Editor</dt> <dd>I was a features editor, the “executive editor for Page 3,” at the student-run daily newspaper during college. I also ran the newspaper’s comprehensive poll of the student body on the Iraq war.</dd> </dl> </div> <div id="education"> <h2>Education</h2> <dl> <dt><span>2010 Ph.D.</span>University of Pennsylvania, Department of Linguistics</dt> <dd>My dissertation “<a href="/pubdocs/dissertation.pdf">Learning [voice]</a>” sought to inform the question of whether language is universal by measuring the durations of vowels in recordings of the speech of toddlers, investigating phonetics-phonology interface of the so-called voice contrast through a corpus analysis.</dd> <dt><span>2008 M.A.</span>University of Pennsylvania, Department of Linguistics</dt> <dd>My masters thesis “<a href="/pubdocs/mastersthesis.pdf">Learning in the Face of Infidelity: Evaluating the Robust Interpretive Parsing/Constraint Demotion Model of Optimality Theory Language Acquisition</a>,” explored a mathematical model of language acquisition.</dd> <dt><span>2004 A.B.</span>Princeton University</dt> <dd>Majoring in psychology, I wrote a <a href="/pubdocs/seniorthesis.pdf">senior thesis</a> on presuppositions in speech. I also graduated with certificates in applications of computing and linguistics.</dd>  </dl> </div> <div id="publications"> <h2>Publications</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/11/how-i-changed-the-law-with-a-github-pull-request/">How I changed the law with a GitHub pull request</a>, in <i>Ars Technica</i>, November 25, 2018.</li> <li><a href="https://ogag.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ogag/publication/attachments/Data%20Stewardship%20Toolkit.pdf">How to Find Your Open Data Stakeholders</a>, a recommendation from the <i>Open Government Advisory Group to the Mayor of the District of Columbia</i>, 2018.</li> <li class="imp"><a href="http://opengovdata.io">Open Government Data: The Book</a>, April 2012 (self-published).</li> <li class="imp"><a href="http://xrds.acm.org/article.cfm?aid=2043243">Inventing Open Government</a> in ACM XRDS, Winter 2011.</li> <li>Case Study: GovTrack.us, in <u>Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice</u> (2010), O'Reilly Media. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Open-Government-Collaboration-Transparency-Participation/dp/0596804350">Buy The Book</a>. <a href="pubdocs/opengov_tauberer.pdf">Download My Chapter (PDF)</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.talis.com/nodalities/pdf/nodalities_issue7.pdf">Building a Civic Semantic Web</a>, in <a href="http://www.talis.com/nodalities/">Nodalities</a>, August 2009.</li> <li><a href="http://thehill.com/op-eds/improve-databases-2007-06-12.html" target="_blank">Improve Databases</a>, in <em>The Hill</em>, June 12, 2007.</li> <li><a href="http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/the-open-house-project-report/">The Open House Project Recommendations Report: Congressional Information & the Internet</a>, May 8, 2007.</li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070216015200/http://www.american.com/archive/2007/february-0207/legislators-should-live-in-a-glass-house">Legislators Should Live in a Glass House</a>, in <em>The American (online)</em>, Feb. 14, 2007.</li> <li>Xml.com series on GovTrack and RDF: <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/01/24/rdf.html">What is RDF?</a> (Jul. 26, 2006), <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2006/04/12/query-census-data-rdf-python-rdflib.html">Query Census Data with RDF</a> (Apr. 12, 2006), <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2006/02/08/govtrack-us-public-data-semantic-web.html">GovTrack.us, Public Data, and the Semantic Web</a> (Feb. 8, 2006).</li> </ul> </div> <div id="talks"> <h2>Invited Talks / Media Appearances / Testimony</h2> <ul> <li>House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, hearing on transparency, May 10, 2019. [<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?460603-1/public-transparency">C-SPAN</a>, <a href="https://fcw.com/it-modernization/2019/05/transparency-through-technology/256152/">FCW</a>]</li> <li>House Administration Committee, Legislative Data and Transparency Conference, June 2016: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZyBGPjRMqk">Mr. Smith Goes to an Open Source Washington</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.archives.gov/ogis/outreach-events/sunshine-week/sunshine-week-2016">Sunshine Week 2016 at the National Archives</a>, March 14, 2016</li> <li class="imp">The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU, March 24, 2014: <a href="http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2014-03-24/dc-decoded-open-data-open-government">D.C. Decoded: Open Data, Open Government?</a></li> <li>Open Access Week @ the Penn Libraries, October 23, 2013. <a href="/pubdocs/2013-10-23%20UPenn%20Open%20Access%20Week%20text.pdf">Civic Hacking: Creating an Open Government through Technology</a> [<a href="/pubdocs/2013-10-23%20UPenn%20Open%20Access%20Week%20slides.pdf">slides</a>].</li> <li>House Administration Committee Conference on Legislative Data and Transparency, May 2013: <a href="pubdocs/2013-05-22 Legislative Data Conference.pdf">“So, what’s left?”, and the Open Government Data Maturity Model</a>.</li> <li>Arizona Association of Law Libraries Congressional Information Symposium, April 26, 2013. Keynote Talk: <a href="http://razor.occams.info/pubdocs/2013-04-26%20AzALL%20text.pdf">Information Access Policy and Apps</a>. [<a href="http://razor.occams.info/pubdocs/2013-04-26%20AzALL%20slides.pdf">slides</a>]</li> <li>Kickstarting the 113th Congress, Advisory Committee on Transparency, January 28, 2013: <a href="pubdocs/2013-01-28 ACT 113th Congress Ignite text.pdf">Hire a transparency director?</a> [<a href="pubdocs/2013-01-28 ACT 113th Congress Ignite.pdf">slides</a> | <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1ySFiVrd7k">video</a>]</li> <li class="imp">Law Via the Internet 2012, Cornell Law School, October 2012: <a href="pubdocs/2012-10-08_LVI_text.pdf">Observing the Unobservables in the U.S. Congress</a> [<a href="pubdocs/2012-10-08_LVI_slides.pdf">slides</a> | <a href="http://law.webcast.video.cornell.edu/Mediasite/Play/8492deddd433468bbe38942e758d060d1d?catalog=4988c354-fab3-43d0-8a09-8ec79c2ecf20">video</a>]</li> <li class="imp">National Democratic Institute Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations Leaders Conference, May 2012. <a href="pubdocs/2012-05-01 Future of PMO.pdf">A Future for PMOs</a>.</li> <li>House Administration Committee Conference on Legislative Data and Transparency, February 2012: <a href="/pubdocs/2012-02-02 Legislative Data Process text.pdf">Data Impact and Understandability</a> [<a href="/pubdocs/2012-02-02 Legislative Data Process.pdf">slides</a>].</li> <li>DC Week: Politics for Programmers, November 2011: <a href="/pubdocs/2011-11-11%20DC%20Week%20text.pdf">From Data to Civic Engagement</a> [<a href="/pubdocs/2011-11-11%20DC%20Week%20slides.pdf">slides</a>].</li> <li>GPO FDLP DLC Conference, October 2011: <a href="/pubdocs/2011-10-18_FDLP_DLC_text.pdf">A Government Data Haiku</a> [<a href="/pubdocs/2011-10-18_FDLP_DLC_slides.pdf">slides</a>].</li> <li class="imp">The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU, September 2011: <a href="http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2011-09-13/congress-online-more-information-better-informed-citizens">Congress Online: More Information, Better-informed Citizens?</a></li> <li>American Association of Law Libraries Conference, July 2011: <a href="/pubdocs/2011-07-25%20American%20Assoc%20Law%20Libraries%20text.pdf">A Taxonomy of Open Government Applications</a> [<a href="/pubdocs/2011-07-25%20American%20Assoc%20Law%20Libraries%20slides.pdf">slides</a>].</li> <li>Wolfram Data Summit, September 2010: <a href="pubdocs/2010-09-10 Wolfram Data Summit text.pdf">Perspectives on Open Government Data Policy</a> [<a href="pubdocs/2010-09-10 Wolfram Data Summit slides.pdf">slides</a>].</li> <li class="imp">Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy, Open Government: Defining, Designing, and Sustaining Transparency workshop, January 2010: <a href="pubdocs/2010-01-21 Designing Transparency CITP text.pdf">(Some) Transparency is a Paradox</a> [<a href="pubdocs/2010-01-21 Designing Transparency CITP slides.pdf">slides</a> | <a href="http://bc.princeton.edu/flash/4x3.html?videofile=StreamAS/flash/citp/20100121_jerry.mp4">video</a> (at 14:50)].</li> <li>Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy, Studying Society in a Digital World, April 2009: <a href="pubdocs/2009-04-25_digitalworld.pdf">Crowd Sourcing Civic Engagement with Civic Hacking</a> [<a href="pubdocs/2009-04-25_digitalworld_slides.pdf">slides</a>].</li> <li>Free Culture 2008 at Berkeley, October 2008. <a href="pubdocs/2008-10-11 Free Culture text.pdf">Civic Hacking</a> [<a href="pubdocs/2008-10-11 Free Culture slides.pdf">slides</a> | <a href="http://freecultureberkeley.blip.tv/file/1777585/">video</a>]</li> <li><a href="http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3749.html">IT Conversations: Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators</a>, July 2008.</li> <li>Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy, Civics in the Cloud, January 2008. <a href="pubdocs/2008-01-14 Civics in the Cloud.pdf">Open government data policy and a semantic future for civics</a> [<a href="pubdocs/2008-01-14 Civics in the Cloud slides.pdf">slides</a> | <a href="http://uc.princeton.edu/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2589&Itemid=1">video</a>].</li> </ul> </div> <div id="presentations"> <h2>Additional Presentations and Manuscripts</h2> <ul> <li>Congressional Data Coalition <a href="/pubdocs/2014-03-07_congressional_data.pdf">Letter to House Appropriators</a>, March 7, 2014.</li> <li>ONADC (Online News Association Meetup Group DC), August 22, 2013: <a href="http://razor.occams.info/pubdocs/2013-08-22%20ONADC%20text.pdf">GovTrack.us and Transparency in Congress</a> [<a href="http://razor.occams.info/pubdocs/2013-08-22%20ONADC.pdf">slides</a>].</li> <li><a href="/pubdocs/2013-08-19_license_free.pdf">Best-Practices Language for Making Data “License-Free”</a>, August 19, 2013. For the current version, see <a href="http://theunitedstates.io/licensing/">theunitedstates.io/licensing</a>.</li> <li><a href="/pubdocs/2013-08-14%20Bulk%20Data%20Letter%20to%20Leadership.pdf">Where’s the data, Boehner?</a> (letter to House leadership), August 14, 2013.</li> <li><a href="/pubdocs/2012-08-24_bulk_data_recs.pdf">On Public Access to Legislative Information: Recommendations to the Bulk Data Task Force</a>, August 24, 2012.</li> <li>with Anne Washington and Derek Willis. <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2307774">Do-it-yourself transparency: emerging methods of congressional information dissemination</a>, June 6, 2012, at dg.o '12: The 13th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research.</li> <li><a href="/pubdocs/2012-02-04 leg branch bulk data statement.pdf">On Bulk Data for Legislative Information</a>, public comment submitted to House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch, Feb. 6, 2012.</li> <li><a href="/pubdocs/2011-04-30%20TCamp%20Open%20Data%20text.pdf">Principles and a Brief Legal History of Open Government Data</a> session at Transparency Camp, April 2011. <a href="/pubdocs/2011-04-30%20TCamp%20Open%20Data%20slides.pdf">slides</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.ostp.gov/galleries/opengov_inbox/ostp-ogd-tauberer.pdf">On the proposed Open Government Directive</a>. May 22, 2009, public comment.</li> <li><a href="/pubdocs/opendataciviccapital.html">Open Data is Civic Capital: Best Practices for "Open Government Data"</a>. May 19, 2009, unpublished monograph.</li> <li>"Semantic Web II: Civic Hacking, the Semantic Web, and Visualization" talk at Transparency Camp 2009, March 1, 2009. <a href="pubdocs/2009-03-02_TCamp_Civic_Semantic_Web.pdf">slides</a> | <a href="/blog/2009/03/02/civic-hacking-the-semantic-web-and-visualization/">notes</a></li> <li><a href="pubdocs/2009-02-28_TCamp_Data_Standards.pdf">Open Government Data Standards and Expectations</a>, session at Transparency Camp 2009, Feb. 28, 2009.</li> <li><a href="http://www.rdfabout.com/intro/?section=contents">Introduction to RDF: What is RDF and what is it good for?</a>. January 2008, unpublished monograph. This is a more complete version of my "What is RDF?" article on Xml.com. (Translated by Oleg A. Paraschenko into <a href="http://xmlhack.ru/texts/06/rdf-quickintro/rdf-quickintro.html">Russian</a> and by Kevin Sarmiento into <a href="http://semantizandolaweb.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/que-es-rdf-y-para-que-es-bueno/">Spanish</a>.)</li> </ul> </div> <div id="pressclips"> <h2>Press Clips/etc. (selected)</h2> <ul> <li>May 19, 2022: <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01427-2">Nature Briefing: Daily briefing</a> (mentions my website Iceberger, an in-browser physical simulation of icebergs)</li> <li>February 3, 2021: <a href="https://swaay.com/is-secure-online-voting-too-good-to-be-true">Swaay: Is Secure Online Voting Too Good To Be True? (For This Company, It Might Be)</a></li> <li>October 26, 2020: <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/10/26/something-wrong-with-her-trump-questions-kamala-harris-laughter-on-60-minutes/">New York Post: ‘Something wrong with her’: Trump questions Kamala Harris’ laughter on ‘60 Minutes’</a></li> <li>September 11, 2019: <a href="https://www.fedscoop.com/blockchain-for-government-technology-hate/">FedScoop: Why does blockchain make people so mad?</a></li> <li>June 26, 2019. <a href="https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2019/6/26/18758478/technology-and-transparency-modern-congress">Vox: Technology and transparency: the path to a modern Congress?</a></li> <li>May 10, 2019. <a href="https://fcw.com/articles/2019/05/10/modernization-hill-gunter.aspx">FCW: Transparency through technology</a></li> <li>March 5, 2019. <a href="https://blog.law.cornell.edu/blog/2019/03/05/how-conan-helps-people-understand-the-constitution-and-no-we-dont-mean-the-barbarian/">Cornell Legal Information Institute: How CONAN Helps People Understand the Constitution and No, We Don’t Mean the Barbarian</a></li> <li>December 7, 2018. <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-software-code-help-grapple-with-legal-code/">Wired: How Software Code Could Help You Grapple With the Legal Code</a></li> <li>December 5, 2018. <a href="https://mobilitylab.org/research/transit/techies-use-data-hacks-to-shave-minutes-off-your-metro-ride/">Techies use data hacks to shave minutes off your Metro ride</a></li> <li class="imp">November 28, 2018. <a href="https://dcist.com/story/18/11/28/github-is-a-programming-website-so-what-is-d-c-s-legal-code-doing-on-there/">DCist: GitHub Is A Programming Website. So What Is D.C.’s Legal Code Doing On There?</a>. (Also: <a href="https://www.law.com/legaltechnews/2018/11/29/d-c-council-updates-its-legal-code-via-github-crowdsourcing-transparency-and-review/">Legaltech news</a>; <a href="https://gcn.com/state-local/2018/12/dc-code-meets-open-government-on-github/303406/">GCN</a>; <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18528365">Hacker News</a>; <a href="https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/11/25/2335229/washington-dc-made-github-its-official-digital-source-for-laws">Slashdot</a>)</li> <li>July 16, 2018. <a href="http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/critics-pan-plan-publish-reports-congress-house-think-tank">Roll Call: Critics Pan Plan to Publish Congressional Research</a></li> <li>April 5, 2018. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/emails-ousted-dc-government-watchdog-frustrated-the-mayors-aides/2018/04/05/ef8ffb3a-3779-11e8-acd5-35eac230e514_story.html">The Washington Post: Emails: Ousted D.C. government watchdog frustrated the mayor’s aides</a></li> <li>February 1, 2018. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/can-big-data-predict-which-bills-will-pass-congress/2018/01/31/ffe6c162-f7c3-11e7-b34a-b85626af34ef_story.html">The Washington Post Magazine: Can big data predict which bills will pass Congress?</a></li> <li>December 27, 2017. <a href="https://twitter.com/AC360/status/946186720613097472">CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360: Trump claims most legislation passed since Truman</a></li> <li>December 6, 2017. <a href="https://paw.princeton.edu/article/where-technology-and-policy-converge">Princeton Alumni Weekly: Where Technology and Policy Converge</a></li> <li>February 2, 2017. <a href="http://www.govtech.com/civic/Whats-New-in-Civic-Tech-Activism-Sites-Rise-Under-Trump.html">GovTech: What's New in Civic Tech: Activism Sites, Apps on the Rise Under Trump</a></li> <li>December 8, 2016. <a href="https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/114th-congress/senate-report/396/1">Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs report on S. 2852: Open Government Data Act</a></li> <li>September 22, 2016. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/sunlight-sunset/501071/">The Atlantic: Is This the End of the Sunlight Foundation?</a></li> <li>April 3, 2016. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylomy1Aw9Hk&feature=youtu.be&t=797">Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Congressional Fundraising</a></li> <li>June 26, 2015. <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3047645/your-own-private-cloud">FastCompany: For Post-Snowden Cloud Startups, Privacy is a Hard Sell</a></li> <li class="imp">Jun 11, 2015. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2015/06/11/ifthenfund/">The Washington Post (Power Post): This Web site allows political donors to give money based on how lawmakers vote. Just don’t call it bribery.</a></li> <li>June 1, 2015. <a href="http://www.govtech.com/question-of-the-day/Question-of-the-Day-for-06012015.html">GovTech.com: Question of the Day: What’s Rupert the Turtle up to?</a></li> <li class="imp">May 21, 2015. <a href="http://recode.net/2015/05/21/small-dollars-big-impact-for-d-c-political-fundraising-guru/">re/code: Small Dollars, Big Impact for D.C. Political Fundraising Guru</a> <small>(I am not the named guru.)</small></li> <li>March 25, 2015. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/upshot/campaign-finance-reform-turns-to-reward-and-punishment.html">The New York Times: Campaign Finance Reform Turns to Reward and Punishment</a></li> <li>March 13, 2015. <a href="http://techpresident.com/news/25482/next-generation-political-crowdfunding-platforms-reimagine-small-dollar-giving">techPresident: Next-Generation Political Crowdfunding Platforms Reimagine Small Dollar Giving</a></li> <li>March 9, 2015. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/03/09/how-you-and-a-few-thousand-of-your-friends-can-become-the-biggest-donors-in-american-politics/">The Washington Post: How you (and a few thousand of your friends) can become the biggest donors in American politics</a></li> <li>Feb. 25, 2015. <a href="http://technical.ly/dc/2015/02/25/open-data-day-dc-2015/">Technical.ly DC: Open Data Day DC 2015: There’s no snowing down DC’s civic hacking fervor</a></li> <li class="imp">Dec 23, 2014. <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/no-the-113th-congress-wasn-t-the-least-productive-ever-20141223">National Journal: No, the 113th Congress Wasn't the Least Productive Ever</a></li> <li>Nov. 6, 2014. <a href="http://www.statetechmagazine.com/article/2014/11/how-public-opinion-shaping-open-data-washington-dc">StateTech: How Public Opinion Is Shaping Open Data in Washington, DC</a></li> <li>Oct 31, 2014. <a href="https://technical.ly/dc/2014/10/31/mayor-appoints-new-open-gov-advisory-group/">Technical.ly DC: Gray appoints open gov advisory group. But will it last?</a></li> <li>Oct. 20, 2014. <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/10/light-everywhere-the-california-civic-data-coalition-wants-to-make-public-datasets-easier-to-crunch/">Nieman Lab: Light everywhere: The California Civic Data Coalition wants to make public datasets easier to crunch</a>.</li> <li>Sept. 26, 2014. <a href="http://e-pluribusunum.com/2014/09/26/win-open-government-advocacy-dc-update-flawed-open-policy/">E Pluribus Unum: In a win for open government advocacy, DC removes flaws in its municipal open data policy</a>.</li> <li>Jun. 16, 2014. <a href="http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/2014/06/16/how-code-is-keeping-the-supreme-court-honest/">InTheCapital: How Code is Keeping the Supreme Court Honest</a>.</li> <li class="imp">Jun. 12, 2014. <a href="http://gigaom.com/2014/06/12/clever-piece-of-code-exposes-hidden-changes-to-supreme-court-opinions/">Gigaom: Clever piece of code exposes hidden changes to Supreme Court opinions</a> (I’m the “other coder”).</li> <li>Jun. 1, 2014. <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/who_owns_the_law_technology_reignites_the_war_over_just_how_public_document/">ABAJournal: Who owns the law? Technology reignites the war over just how public documents should be</a> (my consulting work was a part of this).</li> <li>Mar. 19, 2014. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/mike-debonis/wp/2014/03/19/dcdecoded-org-offers-better-public-access-to-d-c-laws/">The Washington Post (Blogs): DCdecoded.org offers better public access to D.C. laws</a>.</li> <li>Jan. 10, 2014. <a href="http://www.datainnovation.org/2014/01/5-qs-for-open-data-expert-joshua-tauberer/">Center for Data Innovation: 5 Q’s for Open Data Expert Joshua Tauberer</a>.</li> <li>Dec. 12, 2013. <a href="http://techpresident.com/news/24616/new-guidelines-encourage-federal-agencies-publish-license-free-data">techPresident: Updated Guidelines Encourage Federal Agencies to Publish "License-Free" Data</a>.</li> <li>Dec. 7, 2013. <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21591190-united-states-amoeba">The Economist: United States of Amoeba</a> [<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ieDieiho17s">video</a>].</li> <li class="imp">Sept. 2013. <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0913/feature4_1.html">Penn Gazette: Civic Hacker</a>.</li> <li>Aug. 2, 2013. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4vDumBJJwA">The McLaughlin Group</a> (at 22:20).</li> <li>July 30, 2013. <a href="http://techpresident.com/news/24220/house-publishes-us-code-xml">techPresident: House Publishes U.S. Code in XML</a>.</li> <li>Apr. 9, 2013. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/dc-code-hackathon_n_3039271.html">Huffington Post DC: D.C. Code Hackathon: Help Figure Out What To Do With D.C.'s Laws Now That They're Digitally Available</a>.</li> <li>Oct. 8, 2012. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthasmith/2012/10/08/tech-to-keep-you-up-on-politics/">Forbes: Tech To Keep You Up On Politics</a>.</li> <li>Sept. 9, 2012. <a href="http://techpresident.com/news/22876/new-congressgov-beta-platform-unveiled">techPresident: What Congress.gov Means for a Congressional API</a>.</li> <li class="imp">June 8, 2012. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congressional-data-may-soon-be-easier-to-use-online/2012/06/08/gJQAdikBNV_story.html">The Washington Post: Congressional data may soon be easier to use online</a>.</li> <li>June 2012. <a href="http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/6/149925-data-mining-meets-city-hall/fulltext">Communications of the ACM: Data Mining Meets City Hall</a>.</li> <li>Jan. 26, 2012. <a href="http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_85/Tech_Firms_Target_Lawmakers_With_New_Devices-211823-1.html">Roll Call: Tech Firms Target Lawmakers With New Devices</a>.</li> <li>Nov. 28, 2011. <a href="http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/capitol-hills-dec-7-hackathon-means-governments-getting-geekier">techPresident: Capitol Hill's Dec. 7 Hackathon Means Government's Getting Geekier</a>.</li> <li>Nov. 17, 2011. <a href="http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/new-ipad-app-hopes-modernize-lawmaking-hill">techPresident: New iPad App Hopes to Modernize Lawmaking on the Hill</a>.</li> <li>Sept. 7, 2011. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/startright-business-competition-winners-announced/2011/09/07/gIQA18RDAK_story.html">The Washington Post - Capital Business: StartRight business competition winners announced</a>.</li> <li>August 3, 2011. <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/03/facebook-dont-share-this-button-makes-brief-appearance-in-netflix-ios-app/">TechCrunch: Facebook “Don’t Share This” Button Makes Brief Appearance In Netflix iOS App</a>.</li> <li>July 28, 2011. <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/1769478/want-netflix-to-integrate-with-facebook-heres-how-to-help">Fast Company: How You Can Help Netflix Integrate With Facebook In The U.S. </a>.</li> <li class="imp">May 29, 2011. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/popvox-connects-advocacy-groups-public-to-congress/2011/05/20/AGTwaGEH_story.html">The Washington Post: Popvox connects advocacy groups, public to Congress</a>.</li> <li class="imp">Dec. 27, 2010. <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/data_hacker_pageranks_members_of_the_us_congress.php">ReadWriteWeb: Data Hacker Pageranks Members of the US Congress</a>.</li> <li>Sept. 28, 2009. <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-sep-28-fi-hiltzik28-story.html">LA Times: Bringing U.S. data to the masses</a>.</li> <li>May 11, 2009. <a href="http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/senate_goes_xml.php">Columbia Journalism Review: Senate goes XML</a>.</li> <li>January 2009. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200901/technology-government">The Atlantic: iGov: How geeks are opening up government on the Web</a>.</li> <li>July 16, 2008. <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_new/PAW07-08/15-0715/features_tauberer.html">Princeton Alumni Weekly: Data Crusader: Josh Tauberer '04 is someone a policy wonk could love</a>.</li> <li>July 3, 2008. <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ratcliffe/?p=346">ZDNet: Seven Tech ways to make America better this July 4.</a></li> <li>June 30, 2008. <a href="http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1819187,00.html">TIME: The Citizen Watchdogs of Web 2.0</a>.</li> <li>March 1, 2006: <a href="http://www.govtrack.us/articles/20060301wp.xpd">The Washington Post: Think Your Lawmakers Don’t Read Bills? Do It Yourself</a>.</li> <li class="imp">Jan. 27, 2005: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/technology/circuits/how-did-they-vote-updates-by-email-of-congressional.html">The New York Times: How Did They Vote? Updates by E-Mail of Congressional Ayes and Nays</a>.</li> <li><a href="http://www.govtrack.us/press">Additional press hits for GovTrack</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="honors"> <h2>Honors</h2> <ul> <li>2023, 2024. Washingtonian Magazine’s <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/04/27/washington-dcs-500-most-influential-people-of-2023/#Good-Government">500 Most Influential People Shaping Policy</a>.</li> <li>2017. DC Legal Hackers Top Ten Legal Hacks of the Year, for <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/">everycrsreport.com</a>, with Daniel Schuman.</li> <li>2016. <a href="http://technical.ly/dc/2016/01/07/le-hackies-celebrates-another-year-legal-hacking/">DC Legal Hackers Top Ten Legal Hacks of the Year</a>, for <a href="https://uslaw.link/">uslaw.link</a>.</li> <li>2013. <a href="http://www.fastcase.com/fastcase50-winners-2013/">Fastcase 50</a>.</li> <li>2012. GovTrack <a href="http://www.siia.net/blog/index.php/2012/08/models-of-excellence-innovation-around-content-and-data/">named a Model of Excellence</a> in innovation around content and data by DataContent and the InfoCommerce Group.</li> <li class="imp">2011. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2011/30-under30-12/30-under-30-12_land.html">Forbes Magazine: 30 under 30</a>. (Dec. 19, 2011)</li> <li>2011. POPVOX is a Microsoft BizSpark <a href="http://sxsw.com/node/7079">SXSW Accelerator winner</a>. (Mar. 16, 2011)</li> <li>2006. GovTrack.us is a <a href="http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=10">Webby Award Nominee</a>. (Apr. 2006)</li> <li>2005. GovTrack.us is a Technorati Developers Contest winner. (Jan. 2005)</li> <li>1999. Webcytology takes a Gold medal in the ThinkQuest challenge.</li> </ul> </div> <div id="service"> <h2>Other Professional Service</h2> <ul> <li>Hack4Congress 2015, judge</li> <li><a href="http://hackathontrainingday.org">TechLady Hackathon + Training Day</a>, December 7, 2013, Washington, DC, sponsor</li> <li>Hack for DC, National Day of Civic Hacking, June 2013, sponsor</li> <li>Open Government Knowledge 2011, program committee</li> <li>Linked Data on the Web (LDOW) 2010, 2011, program committees</li> <li>Great American Hackathon @ Philadelphia 2009, organizer</li> </ul> </div> <div id="projects"> <h2>Selected Additional Technology Projects</h2> <dl> <dt><span>2013–<i>present</i></span><a href="https://mailinabox.email/">Mail-in-a-Box</a>, Founder and Lead Maintainer</dt> <dd>An open source project to easily deploy a good mail server without extensive sysadmin experience. Installed 180,000 times with possibly 25,000 current deployments. The project has a very active community on the discussion forum.</dd> <dt><span>2021</span><a href="https://joshdata.me/iceberger.html">Iceberger: Draw an iceberg and see how it will float</a></dt> <dd>(viral for a while, later <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01427-2">mentioned here</a>)</dd> <dt><span>2013–2016</span><a href="http://www.ancfinder.org">ANCFinder.org</a>, team member</dt> <dd>A project of <a href="http://codefordc.org/">Code for DC</a> to increase engagement in DC's Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. [press: <a href="http://wamu.org/news/13/06/05/hackers_put_computers_to_work_in_helping_residents">WAMU</a>]</dd> <dt><span>2005–2009</span>SemWeb .NET Library</dt> <dd>An open source .NET library written in C# for working with RDF data for the Semantic Web. It's used in the Gnome application F-Spot, and possibly elsewhere. I created it becaues I thought the Semantic Web would be big! [<a href="https://github.com/tauberer/semweb-dotnet">github</a>]</dd> <dt><span>2009</span><a href="http://www.flyontime.us">FlyOnTime.us</a></dt> <dd>This entry for Sunlight Foundation's Apps for America contest, in collaboration with Josh Sulkin, is a mash-up of airline on-time flight statistics from the FAA with historical weather data from the NOAA. Mentions: <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/opengov_report.pdf">White House open gov status report</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13sview.html">The New York Times (3/12/11)</a>, <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124667562">NPR (3/14/10)</a>, <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/07/chopra.html?wprss=federal-eye">The Washington Post (7/21/09)</a>, <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24118.html">The Politico (6/24/09)</a>.</dd> <dt><span>2007–2008</span>Praat-Py</dt> <dd>This is an extension to the Praat program for phonetic analysis that allows scripts to by written in Python. I created it to help with (procrastinate doing) my PhD thesis. [<a href="https://github.com/tauberer/praat-py">github</a>]</dd> <dt><span>2006–2007</span><a href="http://www.ling.upenn.edu/lambda/">The Penn Lambda Calculator</a></dt> <dd>This is a linguistic semantics pedagogical tool made in conjunction with <a href="http://ling.upenn.edu/~champoll">Lucas Champollion</a> and <a href="http://ling.upenn.edu/~sanguesa">Maribel Romero</a>.</dd> <dt><span>2007/2008</span>Semantic Web Databases</dt> <dd><a href="http://www.rdfabout.com/demo/census">U.S. Census RDF Dataset</a>: A 1-billion triples RDF database of U.S. Census statistics, at the time the largest open, linked, and dereferencable RDF database of real-world information. <a href="http://rdfabout.com/demo/sec/">U.S. SEC Corporate Ownership RDF Data</a>: A semantic web RDF database based on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR database.</dd> <dt><span>1999</span><a href="http://library.thinkquest.org/27819/">Webcytology</a> [<a href="http://www.thinkquest.org/pls/html/think.site?p_site_id=27819">more info</a>]</dt> <dd>My first major web project (I was in high school), this was a winning entry in the 1999 ThinkQuest competition. It featured a cellular automata simulation, inspired by Conway's Game of Life, where users would design organisms with different biologically inspired properties. In collaboration with Andew Kallem.</dd> </dl> <h2>Academic Publications (grad school years)</h2> <ul> <li>Doctoral Dissertation: 2010. <a href="pubdocs/dissertation.pdf">Learning [voice]</a>.</li> <li>2009. With Keelan Evanini. <a href="pubdocs/interspeech2009.pdf">Intrinsic vowel duration and the post-vocalic voicing effect: Some evidence from dialects of North American English</a>. In Proceedings of Interspeech 2009, September 6-10, 2009, Brighton, UK, p2211-2214. Short-listed for best student paper.</li> <li>2009. <a href="http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol15/iss1/25/">Goldilocks Meets the Subset Problem: Evaluating Error Driven Constraint Demotion (RIP/CD) for OT Language Acquisition</a>. U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 15.1, 2009, Proceedings of the 32nd Penn Linguistics Colloquium. <a href="plc32_slides.pdf">slides</a></li> <li>Master's Thesis: 2008. <a href="pubdocs/mastersthesis.pdf">Learning in the Face of Infidelity: Evaluating the Robust Interpretive Parsing/Constraint Demotion Model of Optimality Theory Language Acquisition</a>.</li> <li>2008. <a href="pubdocs/sp2008.pdf">Predicting Intrasentential Pauses: Is Syntactic Structure Useful?</a> In Barbosa, P. A., Madureira, S., and Reis, C. (Eds.) Proceedings of the Speech Prosody 2008 Conference, May 6-9, 2008. Campinas, Brazil: Editora RG/CNPq. Pp 405-408.</li> <li>2007. Champollion, L., J. Tauberer and M. Romero. 2007. <a href="pubdocs/lambda-geaf.pdf">The Penn Lambda Calculator: Pedagogical Software for Natural Language Semantics</a>, in T. Holloway King and E. M. Bender (eds.), Proceedings of the Grammar Engineering across Frameworks (GEAF) 2007 Workshop. CSLI On-line Publications.</li>  <p>and volumes of the <a href="http://ling.upenn.edu/papers/pwpl.html">U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics</a> that I edited:</p> <li>Joshua Tauberer, Aviad Eilam, and Laurel MacKenzie (Eds.). 2008. <U>Proceedings of the 31st Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium</U>. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 14.1, Philadelphia, PA.</li> <li>Tatjana Scheffler, Joshua Tauberer, Aviad Eilam, and Laia Mayol (Eds.). 2007. <U>Proceedings of the 30th Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium</U>. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 13.1, Philadelphia, PA.</li> <li>Aviad Eilam, Tatjana Scheffler, and Joshua Tauberer. (Eds.). 2006. <U>Proceedings of the 29th Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium</U>. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 12.1, Philadelphia, PA.</li> <li>Sudha Arunachalam, Tatjana Scheffler, Sandhya Sundaresan, and Joshua Tauberer (Eds.). 2005. <U>Proceedings of the 28th Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium</U>. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 11.1, Philadelphia, PA.</li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js"></script> <script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.0/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script> </body> </html>