Graphical User Interface for Legislative Data
Lead Developer: Matthew Hutchinson (IUNI)
Graphical User Interface for Legislative Data (GUILD) is a database designed to enhance the utility of the Indiana General Assembly (IGA) data made public by the state's Legislative Services Agency (LSA). GUILD allows users to query the network structures that reflect how public policy is made in Indiana, and ultimately in other states. To our knowledge, this is a first-of-its-kind resource, unique in its representation of the legislative process at a highly granular level and in a graphical format.
The raw data is available from the state of Indiana and contains information on Legislators, Committees, and Bills for the past three legislative sessions (2014-2016). IUNI-IT acquired the IGA from the LSA, and parsed it into a Neo4j graph database. Information for every state legislator, every bill filed and every committee convened are available; including how these entities relate to one another. The network can be filtered based on a range of criteria; returning results based on party affiliation, ranking position within a committee, key words within the bill, etc.
Outside the database, IUNI has archived the full text of every bill, bill version, amendment and fiscal impact study filed as well as the Indiana legal code. Although this data is not stored directly in the graph database, it is available on IU's research file system. Each node in the database contains the directory location of any associated documentation, aiding navigation to the relevant text for a closer look at the entities that make up this dataset.
GUILD is currently in the initial stages of development and is not yet available to the public.
Fill out a Contact Form if you would like more information or a demonstration of the tool.