Before today, if you wanted to check on a city law online, you’d have to muddle through this site. Now you can head to PhillyCode.
From the Washington, D.C.-based OpenGov Foundation, PhillyCode is a digital version of the city code that aims to be user-friendly and accessible. It’s still a work in progress, said OpenGov Foundation cofounder Seamus Kraft, but was released in order to get feedback on the tool.
Send over comments to sayhello AT opengovfoundation.org. If you’re a local hacker who wants to get involved, the OpenGov Foundation wants to hear from you, too.
PhillyCode is for both citizens and those who work in city government, Kraft said. Versions of the site have already launched in Baltimore and San Francisco, and the OpenGov Foundation is working with more than a dozen other cities and states to do the same.
“We want to open up the law to the entire United States,” Kraft said.
The OpenGov Foundation is working with the city, specifically Chief Data Officer Mark Headd and Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics co-director Story Bellows, on the project, Kraft said, but no money is being exchanged.
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