Archive for the 'RepresentMe' Category

Introducing RepresentMe

Published on March 30, 2009 in django, Open Source, python, RepresentMe and social media. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

SunlightLabs is holding a content called Apps For America to produce new applications that increase government transparency, openness, and accountability. RepresentMe is my entry into the contest.

What

RepresentMe (Repme.org) focuses on how well your representatives and senators represent you.  It takes your opinions on bills and issues and compares them to how your elected officials voted.  It applies statistics, accounting for how strongly you feel about specific issues and bills.  The end result is a detailed breakdown of how well you are being represented.
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Building A Generic Widget Builder

Published on March 25, 2009 in django, Open Source, python and RepresentMe. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

If your website generates useful data a great way to propagate it is by providing widgets. A widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page. By providing widgets, owners of other websites can display a small portion of your website, in theirs.

Building widgets is very easy, but building a widget editor and preview tool for each widget can be time consuming. I wanted to build at least a half dozen widgets for RepresentMe so I came up with a Generic Widget Builder. This tool will allow you to easily add new widgets each with their own editor and preview, requiring very little code.

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Connecting A Web Application To Facebook (part 2)

Published on March 24, 2009 in django, python, RepresentMe and social media. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites, also called the new media, are becoming a major part of our culture. Facebook alone has 175 million active users. They are a means to reach broad audiences and build enthousiasm.

This tutorial is part 2 of a series that will focus on connecting your existing web application to Facebook. In part 1 we connected your website to a Facebook app.  In this post I’ll show you how to update a users status and profile. I’ll be using examples from RepresentMe a project built for the Apps For America contest. This is a standalone webapp that leverages Facebook to deliver its message to a wider audience.

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Connecting A Web Application To Facebook (part 1)

Published on March 24, 2009 in django, python, RepresentMe and social media. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media websites, also called the new media, are becoming a major part of our culture.  Facebook alone has 175 million active users.  They are a means to reach broad audiences and build enthousiasm.

This tutorial is part 1 of a series that will focus on connecting your existing web application to Facebook.  In this post I’ll show you how to connect Facebook accounts to accounts on your website.  This will enable you to update a users status, profile and newsfeed.  I’ll be using examples from RepresentMe a project built for the Apps For America contest.  This is a standalone webapp that leverages Facebook to deliver its message to a wider audience.
Continue reading ‘Connecting A Web Application To Facebook (part 1)’