# Joshua Tauberer

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**Joshua Tauberer** is a civic hacker,[1] [open government](/source/Open_government) activist,[2] entrepreneur, and author. He is the creator and maintainer of the website [GovTrack](/source/GovTrack),[1] a portal for information about legislation in Congress, and developer for EveryCRSReport.com,[3] which makes [Congressional Research Service Reports](/source/Congressional_Research_Service_Reports) available to the public. Tauberer is also the lead developer for [Mail-in-a-Box](/source/Mail-in-a-Box), an [Open Source software](/source/Open-source_software) project for [mail server](/source/Message_transfer_agent) hosting.[4]

## Early life

Tauberer attended [Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School](/source/Plainview-Old_Bethpage_John_F._Kennedy_High_School) in [Plainview, New York](/source/Plainview,_New_York), before going on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from [Princeton University](/source/Princeton_University) in 2004.[5] After Princeton, he earned a Doctorate in Linguistics from the [University of Pennsylvania](/source/University_of_Pennsylvania).[6]

## GovTrack

Tauberer created [GovTrack](/source/GovTrack) in 2004 to make legislative information more easily accessible to everyone,[7] providing research and tracking tools but also raw data feeds that third parties use to create other services.[8] He conceived the idea for GovTrack during his freshman year at [Princeton](/source/Princeton_University).[9] The utility of the data that Tauberer made available on his site (and later became available on other sites) was part of the inspiration for Congressman [Mike Honda](/source/Mike_Honda)'s legislation to provide new sources of legislative data;[10][11] Congress is now publishing legislative information as data.[12]

## Policy and activism

Tauberer has occasionally used these technical tools and others to advise policy, including publication of uses of GovTrack by Congressional IP addresses[13] and FOIA requests regarding the DC government's open data administration.[14]

## Career

Tauberer is the president of Civic Impulse, LLC,[15] a consultant to GovReady PBC, and a senior technologist at LARSA, Inc.[16]

He serves as a member of the D.C. government's Open Government Advisory Group[17][18] and the Congressional Data Coalition,[19] is the author of Open Government Data: the Book, and co-organized the now defunct yearly Open Data Day DC conference.[20] Among his notable writings are "So You Want to Reform Democracy"[2][21] and "How to Run a Successful Hackathon.[22]"

## References

1. ["Penn Gazette | Civic Hacker"](http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0913/feature4_1.html). *www.upenn.edu*. Retrieved 2018-06-06.

1. ["MIT SHASS: News - 2015 - So you want to reform democracy"](https://shass.mit.edu/news/news-2015-so-you-want-reform-democracy). *shass.mit.edu*. Retrieved 2018-06-06.

1. ["EveryCRSReport.com"](https://www.everycrsreport.com/about.html)

1. ["Mail-in-a-box Reviews & Product Details"](https://www.g2.com/products/mail-in-a-box/reviews). *G2*. Retrieved 2020-10-15.

1. [Data crusader](http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2008/07/16/pages/5697/index.xml), Princeton Alumni Weekly, 2008-07-16, accessed 2010-01-03.

1. ["Penn Gazette | Civic Hacker"](http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0913/feature4_1.html). *www.upenn.edu*. Retrieved 2018-06-07.

1. [Think Your Lawmakers Don't Read Bills? Do It Yourself](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801471.html), The Washington Post, 2006-03-01, accessed 2010-01-03.

1. Phillips, Amber. ["Analysis | Is Kamala Harris really the most liberal senator, as Trump claims?"](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/13/is-kamala-harris-really-most-liberal-senator-trump-claims/). *Washington Post*. [ISSN 0190-8286](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0190-8286). Retrieved 2020-10-16.

1. [How Did They Vote? Updates by E-Mail of Congressional Ayes and Nays](https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/technology/circuits/27reso.html), The New York Times, 2005-01-27, accessed 2010-01-03.

1. [An API for Federal Legislation? Congress Wants Your Opinion](https://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/03/federal-bill-wo/), Wired.com, 2009-03-05, accessed 2010-01-03.

1. [Congressional Data Mining: Coming Soon?](http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/03/congressional-data-mining-coming-soon), Mother Jones, 2009-03-05, accessed 2010-01-03.

1. ["XML of House Bill Summaries Now Available in Bulk"](https://web.archive.org/web/20180612142654/https://www.speaker.gov/general/xml-house-bill-summaries-now-available-bulk). *Speaker.gov*. 2014-02-04. Archived from [the original](https://www.speaker.gov/general/xml-house-bill-summaries-now-available-bulk) on 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-06-06.

1. ["What does Congress care about? Check their browsing histories", Wired, 3 April 17](https://www.wired.com/2017/04/congress-care-check-browsing-histories/)

1. ["Emails: Ousted D.C. government watchdog frustrated the mayor’s aides", Washington Post, 5 April 2018](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/emails-ousted-dc-government-watchdog-frustrated-the-mayors-aides/2018/04/05/ef8ffb3a-3779-11e8-acd5-35eac230e514_story.html)

1. ["Civic Impulse, LLC — The Intersection of Civics and Technology"](https://civicimpulse.com/). *civicimpulse.com*. Retrieved 2018-06-06.

1. ["Joshua Tauberer's Homepage"](https://razor.occams.info/). *razor.occams.info*. Retrieved 2018-06-06.

1. ["Here's who Mayor Bowser picked for DC's revived Open Government group - Technical.ly DC"](https://technical.ly/dc/2016/01/15/dc-open-government-advisory-board-public-members/). *Technical.ly DC*. 2016-01-15. Retrieved 2018-06-07.

1. ["DC Announces Open Data Initiative | EfficientGov"](https://efficientgov.com/blog/2016/01/19/dc-announces-open-data-initiative/). *EfficientGov*. 2016-01-19. Retrieved 2018-06-07.

1. ["Congressional Data Coalition – Congress should be like an open book."](http://congressionaldata.org/). *congressionaldata.org*. Retrieved 2018-06-06.

1. ["Joshua Tauberer"](https://www.archives.gov/ogis/outreach-events/sunshine-week/sunshine-week-2016/tauberer-bio). *National Archives*. 2017-05-10. Retrieved 2018-06-06.

1. ["So You Want To Reform Democracy | Dave Peck"](https://davepeck.org/2017/02/10/so-you-want-to-reform-democracy/). *davepeck.org*. Retrieved 2018-06-06.

1. ["How to Run a Hackathon (If You Must)"](https://usopendata.org/2014/11/10/hackathons/). *usopendata.org*. Retrieved 2018-06-06.

## External links

- [Joshua Tauberer's Homepage](http://razor.occams.info/) - [Joshua Tauberer's track record in Civic Technology](https://web.archive.org/web/20091226121805/http://razor.occams.info/civictech.xpd)
- [GovTrack.us](http://www.govtrack.us/)
- [Civic Impulse, LLC](http://www.civicimpulse.com/)
- [A conversation with Joshua Tauberer about GovTrack](http://blog.jonudell.net/2008/07/28/a-conversation-with-joshua-tauberer-about-govtrack/)

### Interviews

- [Tracking the US Congress](http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3749.html) on Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators
- [GovTrack opens up information on US legislature](http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/142232) by [Linux.com](/source/Linux.com)
- [Data crusader](http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2008/07/16/pages/5697/index.xml) by Princeton Alumni Weekly

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Joshua Tauberer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Tauberer) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Tauberer?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.