Quick App: Congress 67
by Robert Werlinger Fri, 02 Apr 2010 1:16 pm EDT
For the civically minded amongst us, keeping track of our elected officials and their affiliations, committees, voting records and other essential information can be a challenging task. The information is out there for sure, but wouldn’t it be great if all of that information was brought down into one place for quick and easy reference while on the go?
Congress ($4.99 in the App Catalog) does just that. The program is location aware, and can find your representatives automatically. For others, simply choose a representative that you’re interested in, start typing their name to initiate a search, and you’ll get access to a wealth of information on that individual. You’ll get a detailed bio that includes political history, contact information that includes committee memberships and additional resources such as external webpages and twitter handles, recent news coverage, and detailed statistics including overall voting history and recent key votes. If you're interested in tracking a certain representative, you can star them, which causes them to appear in the "My Congress Watchlist" scene.
Congress does a great job of making all of that information manageable, as the navigation controls are intelligently done throughout, and the intuitive user interface always displays that info in an easy to read format.
Now go forth, citizen, and keep tabs on your elected officials. (p.s. let's keep the politics out of the comments. We will totally pull this blog over if we have to)
67 Comments
will yall please review the wifi sync app. I really like the idea i just want to see how good it is before I drop the 10 bucks for it. I do like this app though
I'm the developer. Thanks for the review PreCentral! Great to see my app on the site. :) And thanks for the feedback in the comments! It's good as a developer to hear what people think of my work.
For those who are politically minded, I just released this week a free app that allows you to get the most recently published totals of the National Debt. Check it out: http://lukewalkerapps.com/national-debt/
+1 if you can sort by sex scandal!
You can. Just look for that R next to their name. ;-)
No. The R next to the name only tells you if they're a self-loathing homophobic closet case.
We won't even get into what the D next to the name stands for ....
(p.s. let's keep the politics out of the comments. We will totally pull this blog over if we have to)
Remember that with snide comments such as that.
It's an app called "Congress." I doubt all political thought could be kept out of the commentary.
This seems like a decent app for $4.99. I'm not sure where all the people yelling about it being too much were 5-6 years ago when a cheap well done PalmOS or Windows Mobile app went for at least double that price.
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/06/25/sex-scandals...
Hilarious!
This app should be integrated with the NoBAMA app. I would pay twice the price for that.
"congress does a great job," never heard/read those words together.
Just when you thought you've seen it all.
This app should be named "Congress: The App", so that when you make references like these: "congress does a great job", one doesn't LOL and get a refund.
Reminds me of an article on The Onion:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-government-to-save-billions-by-cutti...
will be interesting to see if this app gets an approval rating over 10%... :D
At a time where approval ratings are extremely low, this app/article is screaming flame bait. What were the authors/developers thinking? And on top of that, charge $4.99?
I'm all for keeping track of congresspeople, their recent votes, etc. But the wife and kid information is over the line, especially given the recent spate of violence.
I'm boycotting this app, and call on everyone else to until this information is removed.
You do realize that every Congressional official site and campaign site has a section about the person's family, right? Candidates parade their wives/husbands/kids around all the time. It's not like this app provides personal details about some Senator's 12 year-old kid.
Better call someone down at Google and tell them you're boycotting them too.
Gonna be hard to boycott the whole damn internet.
A boycott? Honestly, are you 12?
It's all publicly available info, just packaged for convenient reference. Every member of Congress is a publicity whore, and most of them don't mind prostituting their families in furtherance of their political careers. The ones who think it's important to maintain a modicum of privacy won't post that information. It's not as if the app developer hired Magnum to dig into these idiots' personal lives. They post this stuff for everyone to read.
I think this app is a fantastic idea!!!
I am *not* politically minded, so at election time(s), I want/need to know this type of information, but I'm too lazy to wade through everything to find the records for some media-obscure State Representative.
Wish it included info on judges ....
Not for $4.99
Yeah, love the idea of this app, but don't like charging for it. Kind of feels like monetizing DNA sequences and things like that... just *feels* a bit wrong.
Then again, he app looks very nice, has great reviews and clearly the developer is putting a good deal of time and effort into it, and that should be rewarded. So, I guess I kinda have mixed feelings on it :)
I'm buying it right now though, so I guess not *that* mixed! It's definitely a useful app if you're so inclined to want information like this.
Looks like a great App, but no where near worth $4.99 unless you work in Washington, DC.
At a price of $.99 I would consider it, just to have the resource on hand.
If it's not worth $4.99 to you then go the free route-- Google your member of Congress.
don't download political apps to your phone, it might corrupt ur phone as well!
It's a good idea, but I wouldn't use it.
One thing that you don't touch on that I would hope for from an app of this sort- are the descriptions mostly unbiased and objective? That could be pretty important in an app like this.
The data is mostly just informational (phone numbers, committees, voting records, etc), so it can't really have a slant. There are excerpts from recent news items on a legislator (links to the full articles), but that obviously falls outside the control of the app.
The bio data is provided by the legislators themselves, so I guess you could say thats biased...
But yes, the information is just that: information. So the app should be equally useful no matter what your political persuasion.
The app should be called the lying cheating A-holes in Washington.
+1000!
I'm sure the is some out there that appreciate this app, so I'll leave my oppinions out of it. The more apps the better. Keep going devs.
I am buying it! Congress won't listen to me but they will eventually listen to the people (hopefully). I wonder if this app has an email or sms function so that I can send relevant info to family and friends?! I think if people payed as much attention to their Government (with an app such as this) as they do their facebook page... we might get something done in this country!
Damn right. We deserve the government we elect. The American people are by and large either too stupid, too busy, or too apathetic to pay much attention to the myriad of ways in which their government screws them on a daily basis.
Maybe an app like this will get a few more of us to realize that our elected representatives are pissing on our legs and calling it rain.
I might buy it. I did want to second Matthew Walton's comment at the end of his posting, well said.
Wish I had read the description more carefully. 4.99 is pretty steep when you consider it doesn't include state reps. I already had these links on my Pre.
One thing this needs is a link to the congress man's email.
It does for the few that provide that information to the public. Most just have a form on their website that their constituents can fill out to contact them, and the app includes links to those pages for the legislators that choose that route.
I'm seeing a trend now. Developers and their "buddies" coming to a blog which references/publishes their PAID app and try to persuade people into purchasing it by actively posting how great it is.
Someone is getting a kick back.
I see a trend as well. EVERY single comment you post on precentral is negative - about apps, the Pre, Laptop Magazine polls, you name it. Do everyone, including yourself, a favor and go back to the iPhone playground from whence you came.
I am a political consultant and love this app and would like to see a state by state app for state house/senate.
My buddy has the iphone and poked fun at the fact my phone doesnt provide something as needy as my officials here in FL like he has in GA....I proceeded to talk about the multi-tasking, gestures, etc, but left thinking DANG, I wish Palm and developers will step it up.
Thanks for this congressional app and please get out a state by state app ASAP!
This app should be free, imo. Maybe the government could pay developers to create an app like this one for all mobile platforms, or someone like Nate Silver from fivethirtyeight.com could gift one to the world and accept donations. I just can't bring myself to pay for an app that will be defunct in less than 8 months.
Actually this app isn't specific to one session of Congress. It automatically downloads the latest information to the device, but the user can have the app fetch the latest information any time. So, for example, those who had bought the app before Scott Brown (R, MA) was elected to the Senate, saw Paul Kirk disappear when he was replaced by Senator Brown. The same thing happens on a much larger scale every time there is an election. :)
Why? Would you be willing to give away your hard work for free? Maybe so, but free doesn't put food on the table, or put your kids through college. Like it or not there's an opportunity cost to everything. I think $5 is more than reasonable for an app like this. If you don't, feel free to hunt down the information packaged here using the free utilities available on the Interwebs.
Not sure why you think this will be obsolete by the next election. Do you think online content is static?
how come the pre you guys are always using - to demonstrate something new in the platform - is always dying? just my question..?
That red icon is Obama's approval rating.
@Caicortao chill on the negativity man. There are PLENTY of negative things to be said of the elephants (and the dems for that matter) but this is not the forum. Seems you may find a receptive audience on a foxnews.com forum. So espouse your views there please.
All that said I think this app is useful but a tad too expensive.
>There are PLENTY of negative things to be said of the elephants
WOW! With that I will reiterate, wrong forum. (All I can do is shake my head)
Let me see... Article/Blog about a Congress App... What you expect the discussion be about? Mother Theresa?
You could at least respect the wishes of the person who runs the site, troll. Take it elsewhere. The purpose of this post on Precentral was to highlight what looks to be a pretty slickly designed webOS app and show off what webOS can do...not throw personal opinions around and try to start fights. This isn't a political forum, it's a site tied together by a common interest in webOS and the Pre, not politics. When you start sticking some unrelated interest into the discussion, you look like the equivalent of an idiot who walks into a yoga meetup screaming at everyone there about your new rifle.
I'll have you know that yoga and marksmanship go very well together...
>(All I can do is shake my head)
Actually I couldn't care less what you think, it's the typing that is at issue. :-)
Who cares. Like congress is going to help the Pre. HAHAHAHAHA
Geee... I keep voting for the Droid and it keeps telling my vote has already been counted.
Does it show you where their campaign contributions come from?
Now that would be a useful addition!
Doesn't the R stand for Racist, Homophobic, Religious nut jobs, Anti - Health care reform coz it means they are out of pocket and a party that has candidate for President who was a War Lord wanna be and who had a thick as sxxx running mate who had no idea what Africa is and a party that thinks War is the answer to everything and can't understand why not many nations like the US due to their narrow mindedness and general approach to the World and anyone who wants to do something for the people is called a Communist.
Three words-- Grammar. Sentence structure.
Go forth and learn.
Guess no one read the "keep the politics out of the comments part"?
Guess no one read the "keep the politics out of the comments part"?
Guess no one read the "keep the politics out of the comments part"?
Guess no one read the "keep the politics out of the comments part"?
I like the concept. I think a Thomas Library link would only add value or even ontheissues link.
Guess no one read the "keep the politics out of the comments part"?
***Edit - I have no idea why this comment got repeated this many times. Sorry
What would get me to buy it, even at $4.99, was if it had a feature that would would let me draft a message on some legislative issue I care about, specify a committee or jurisdiction as an addressee, and then have this app distribute it automatically, posting to the relevant congresspeople, committee members, et.al., without me having to cut and paste it into different forms and emails for each recipient.
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