About Open Common Ground
Personal project by Andrew Caines · Caines Ventures LLC
Why I built this
Philadelphia passes hundreds of bills every year. Most residents never hear about them. I wanted to change that — not by adding more noise, but by making the existing public record actually readable. City Council legislation is public, but it's buried in a system designed for lawyers and lobbyists, not for people who just want to know what's happening in their city.
Open Common Ground takes every bill introduced in Philadelphia City Council, summarizes it in plain English, scores its potential impact, and shows how 17 different political perspectives — from progressive to libertarian — might view it. The goal isn't to tell you what to think. It's to give you the context to think for yourself.
I'm a software developer and Philadelphia resident. This is a personal project — not a startup, not a nonprofit, not affiliated with the city in any way. I built it because I think civic transparency matters, and because I could.
How it works
Bill data
Legislation is scraped from Philadelphia Legistar, the official public record system maintained by City Council. Bills are fetched regularly to keep the data current.
AI analysis
Each bill is sent to an AI model that writes a plain-English summary, assigns an impact score (1–10), categorizes the bill type, and generates 17 political perspectives ranging across the ideological spectrum.
Perspectives
The 17 perspectives are not endorsements. They are AI-generated simulations of how different political viewpoints — progressive, conservative, libertarian, socialist, and more — might frame the same bill. They are meant to illuminate trade-offs, not declare winners.
Limitations
AI can be wrong. Summaries may miss nuance. Perspective assessments are approximations. Always read the source bill and form your own view. Nothing here is legal or political advice.
Data sources
Local legislation comes from Philadelphia Legistar, the official bill tracking system for Philadelphia City Council. The database currently covers legislation introduced from 2000 to the present.
Open source
The full source code is publicly available on GitHub. Contributions, bug reports, and feedback are welcome. The project is MIT licensed.
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Support the project
This runs on donations. If you find it useful, consider contributing to keep it free and independent.
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