We are working hard on adding more states and look forward to providing you with more data in early 2011.   Until then, enjoy!



So, what are we working on?  First off, Sunlight has given us a mini-grant.  The grant will help our team develop new data scrapers for the City of New Orleans ordinances and Home Rule Charter as well as other technology upgrades and features.  Additionally, PolicyPitch will be integrating their state legislative data from the Fifty State Project.   Once complete, this will allow our users to track local legislation in all fifty states!  For most of Sunlight’s history, their initiatives have primarily focused on Congressional and federal level transparency and disclosure.  This Sunlight – PolicyPitch partnership begins to move digital transparency to the state and local level and helps improve citizen engagement and influence.

PolicyPitch and Sunlight are also both dedicated to open source principles.  Accordingly, all of the information available on our site will (eventually) be opened up to any of our users to view, utilize, mashup, or otherwise use at their discretion.  We are very excited to be working with Sunlight and look forward to the next set of updates to the site!  Stay tuned!

The new site is more focused on legislation transparency than before by extracting legislation information from Arizona, California, and Kentucky so that all of the political actions are visible. The main holdover from the previous version is the ability to pitch your own policy in any community you want.  You can vote for or against any policy on its detail page by clicking on the buttons in the top right corner.  You can get email notifications on any update by tracking policies, politicians, categories, and users.  A full tutorial of the website can be seen on the How It Works page

We’re really excited about the new version.  We hope it makes it easier to navigate and encourages people to pitch their own policies, vote, and make comments.  Let’s start bringing the power to the people in your community!

T. Smith

First, we want to announce the release of our first iPhone application: Election Hub! Election Hub includes up-to-the-minute stats, facts, news and notes on each New Orleans 2010 Mayoral and City Council candidate. Features include candidate bios and platform stances, incoming news articles, campaign finance reports, and twitter feeds.  Election Hub also features an interactive community section where users can comment and sound-off on the candidates, campaign spending, platform stances, and news.  Additionally, Election Hub polls the app’s users once a week on who they would vote for in the Mayoral race.  DOWNLOAD the app for FREE.

Election Hub was launched as a joint venture between PolicyPitch and Susco Solutions.  Susco Solutions is one of the premier mobile development and software companies in the South.  Susco’s expertise and responsiveness was fantastic at all levels.  Check out Susco’s take on Election Hub’s development.  More information on Election Hub here.

Second, the re-design of the PolicyPitch site has been underway for months and is FINALLY nearing completion.  The new site will feature a streamlined look and simplified navigation; easier tools to pitch your policies, the ability to contact local elected officials, and all of the legislative bills from Arizona, California, and Kentucky (with Louisiana coming very soon)!  Shortly thereafter, we will have all of the bills filed by legislators in all 50 states!

Third, check out the “If I Were Mayor” platform developed by HumidBeings.com in partnership with PolicyPitch and Engage Nola.  IIWM allows citizens of New Orleans to post policy ideas for the Mayoral candidates and vote on those ideas!  Check it out.

Overall, this has been a fantastic few months and a great start to 2010!

Among the biggest news, we were selected and honored by New Orleans City Business for The 2009 New Orleans Innovator of the Year!  We were selected as a top honoree from hundreds of submissions.   The final selection will be in late September.  We have our fingers crossed!

On the development side, we are putting final touches on our Collaborative Editor, which will allow groups of citizens to collaboratively pitch ideas to solve policy issues and mix-and-match policy proposals (think interactive, wiki-type app).

Other News:

• Our twitter account has reached 1,100 followers!  Follow us @PolicyPitch.
• Working with Blake Haney at HumidBeings.com and EngageNOLA to launch the “If I Were Mayor” platform for the upcoming New Orleans Mayoral election.
• The PolicyPitch team also wants to thank our summer intern, Lorrie Naizer, for her wonderful work she contributed to forwarding our goals and building the organization!  Thanks Lorrie!

June and July web stats

• 2,600 visits in June
• Over 20,000 page views in June
• 2,800 visits in July
• 19,000 page views in July

Democracy is only as good as its citizenry and PolicyPitch is likewise only as good as its users. Therefore, we are currently working deep in an underground bunker implementing improvements to the site that will make it more functional and user friendly than ever before. The new version will feature advanced video camera functionality, including double tap auto-focus and low light level macro settings… oh wait sorry that’s the new iPhone 3GS… well, at least you don’t need AT&T to use PolicyPitch! I guess ya’ll just have to check back often to see our progress.

Oh and one last thing. I’d like to thank the PolicyPitch team for welcoming me on board. We are looking forward to bringing civic engagement to an entirely unprecedented level and I am just proud to be a part of that process.

~ Damien LaManna

State Representative Walker Hines, D-New Orleans, became the first elected official to post a proposed piece of legislation on Policypitch for public comment and feedback.  With Louisiana facing a large budget deficit, his bill to eliminate the Louisiana state income tax for residents age 18-29 attending college or with college degrees was sure to face an uphill battle in the 2009 legislative session.  So, Mr. Hines pitched the idea to his constituents on Policypitch.com – writing an open letter to residents, seeking input and feedback, and asking for their support.  Within a few weeks, the bill easily became the most popular–and polarizing–issue pitched on the website.  Click here for the whole story.

We also made it to the finals of the Tulane Business Plan Competition!  We submitted our plan with over 80 other teams on the Social Innovation track for best business with a purpose and a chance to win a $20,000 investment.   Over the course of two months, the judges narrowed down the submissions to  a final three teams.  PolicyPitch earned a finalist spot, and we presented the business to a panel of seven judges  on April 17.   Although we didn’t win (the winner was a team called KAIEN), it was an incredible and invaluable experience.

Other news:

• The press picked up on all the good things happening at Policypitch.com!  We were mentioned in New Orleans City Business, Times Picayune,  ABC 26 News, WDSU News, and the Tulane University Newswire.  Check out our press page for all of the coverage!
• Our twitter account reached 600 followers!  Follow us @policypitch!

April web stats:

• 1,734 unique visitors
• Over 42,100 page views

With more than 2,000 views (the highest of any idea) and over 30 comments, Mr. Hines was able to build support for his bill proposal, gather feedback from residents, and answer questions about the bill.  In response to the overwhelming interest, Rep. Hines wrote another open-response letter to the residents, answering questions about how the State will pay for the lost revenue and his goal of retaining a young, educated workforce in LA.   Hines’ proposed bill, HB 638, is assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee and is scheduled for a vote in the coming weeks.  There is still plenty of time to give your 2 cents, and Rep. Hines is continually monitoring the site for feedback!

From the perspective of the Policypitch Team, the interest and results from the Hines’ bill was very encouraging.  The enthusiasm from our users and Louisiana residents goes a long way to show there is a market for grassroots public policy initiatives and that residents desire a easy outlet to communicate with their elected officials.  In the future, once the new website is rolled out (hopefully in the few weeks), we will have 100% of the bills pitched by all state legislators in Louisiana, and eventually in all 50 states!  This way, the process will be automated and elected officials can spend less time pitching their ideas and more time collecting feedback and interacting with their constituents.  The new launch is coming soon so please SIGN UP HERE!