It just got a lot easier to see what the city is spending money on

One way to spread civic data is to take it straight to social media — and a new Twitter account is doing just that.
Dave Troy launched @baltcontracts after seeking an easier way to search the city’s purchasing website. Now you can see what the city is budgeting for catering, software and even carpet cleaning.

$2,656,456 with Incapsulate LLC for 311 Customer Resource Management (CRM) System https://t.co/WXUsDrHzqT

— Baltimore Contracts (@baltcontracts) August 31, 2016

On Facebook, Troy wrote that he made a script to extract the purchasing data to a Google spreadsheet earlier this week.
By the end of the week, the Twitter account appeared. Troy is maintaining the account, and he credited Gus Sentementes with the idea for it.