The Participatory Politics Foundation is a "501(c)3 non-profit organization with a mission to increase civic engagement. PPF develops free, open-source Web tools that create new opportunities for engagement with government."[1]
Mission and Purpose
The Participatory Politics Foundation (PPF) believes "a truly accountable representative democracy is not possible without each of the following necessary conditions: fully open government data, civic engagement initiatives for broad-based public participation, and collaboration with outside partners in government innovation." Their work to help build public knowledge about Congress is guided by the 8 Principles of Open Government Data.[2] In addition, to fix what they perceive to be a "currently broken and systemically corrupt system of captured government", PPF advocates for public financing of elections and comprehensive electoral reforms. [1]
PPF aims to "create a political process that is more participatory, creative, responsive, and accountable," and they believe that the Internet offers an "unprecedented opportunity to extend and amplify political voices and actions". [1]
Origins and Development
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Organizational Structure, Membership, and Funding
In 2021, PPF received "support from the nonprofit Code for Democracy. In 2020, PPF was supported by the Piper Fund, a Proteus Fund initiative, and by several small family foundations under $5,000. In the past, PPF’s work has been supported by grants from the Rita Allen Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and the Sunlight Foundation." [1]
PPF's first sibling non-profit was the Participatory Culture Foundation, which works "to build a fairer, more open, and more democratic media space. PCF makes the internet TV player Miro, one of the most popular open-source software applications in the world, and the successful video subtitling software Amara." [1] Their latest sibling non-profit is the Center for Rights and its main project, Fight For the Future, advocating for the public interest, digital rights, and open Web innovation, in coalition with the Internet Defense League. [1]
Specializations, Methods and Tools
PPF's AskThem.io project is a free and open-source tool to enable Q+A with public figures.
Major Projects and Events
Since its public launch in February 2007, PPF created and operated OpenCongress.org, which grew to become one of the most-visited non-profit government transparency websites in the United States, with up to one million visits per month and a user community of more than 300,000 members. Conceived in 2004, the main problem that OpenCongress sought to address was a lack of accessible information online about bills, votes, and issues in the U.S. Congress. The official website of Congress, THOMAS, published raw data about legislation, but not in ways that are compliant with the community-generated Principles of Open Government Data, not in sufficiently timely ways, and not on webpages that were proven to be user-friendly. The platform was acquired by Sunlight Foundation in 2014 but has since returned to the PPF [3]. OpenGovernment was designed to bring the OpenCongress model of transparency down to state and local governments.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
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Publications
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See Also
References
[1] Participatory Politics Foundation. (n.d.). About PPF. http://www.participatorypolitics.org/about/
[2] The Annotated 8 Principles of Open Government Data. https://opengovdata.org
[3] Moore, D. (2014, February 10). "AskThem.io launches today – questions-and-answers with public figures." Participatory Politics Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.participatorypolitics.org/askthem-io-launches-today-questions-and-answers-with-public-figures/
External Links
Participatory Politics Foundation Blog
PPF - AskThem Is Being Redesigned (2018)
Participatory Culture Foundation
