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Scope of Work (as of January 2017)
Offices: those that hold Federal Office, including the President, Senators, and Representatives. The only State offices we track are Governors. These groups combine for over 600 officials and we track each differently depending on their office and whether they are in the leadership or sit on a committee.Content Covered: in the public statements sub-department, we take any public statement that relates to policy. More specifically, we want anything a politician says about a particular issue. It could be as short as a sentence, or as long as the State of the Union.
Content Covered Per Politician: Date, Location, Type of Speech, Title, and Text. In addition, we Categorize and Tag each public statement so that we can make meaningful connections between data and so that our database is navigable.
Data Sources
Primary Sources: we take as much data as we can from primary sources. A primary source can be defined as "the most direct source." We want our data to come from the politicians themselves. We take data from official websites (Government, Campaign, or both), as this is where the politician communicates with the public. In the public statements sub-department, we use sections of these websites like: "News", "Media", etc.. Below, are some examples of websites we qualify as primary sources:- Government Websites: see Steve Daines, Senator (MT)
- Leadership Websites: see Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House
- Committee Websites: see Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Secondary Sources: A secondary source can be defined as any source not published by the politician themselves (or by their staff). The New York Times, for example, is a secondary source. We collect two types of secondary sources: op-eds, and TV transcripts. We take from secondary sources as a regular part of our collection process (when you find them on politician's websites), and we sometimes search them out for higher priority data such as presidential debates.
Frequency of Updates
This depends entirely on the office the official holds or the candidate is seeking, as well as if it's an election year and if there is a backlog. We update "schedules" on a rolling basis, which is consistently being adapted. Below is a list of the ideal frequency of updates for each office/schedule:-Regular Schedules:
- President and Vice-President: Twice a week
- Governors: Once every two weeks
- Congressional Leadership: Twice a week
- Congressional Committees: Once every two weeks
- Senate: All schedules should be collected within three weeks
- House: All schedules should be collected within three weeks
- TV Transcripts: Consult with staff member managing TV Transcript Schedule - Should only be worked on when there is no backlog and collection rates are stable.
- Presidential Election: Once a week for major candidates (Those in Vote Easy). This schedule should begin during the off-year before the election (probably that last 3-4 months) because Presidential primaries begin early in the year (Jan/Feb)
- Challengers: Every two weeks after the politician has qualified for the primary
- Special Elections: Once every two weeks
For more details please use the Speeches Schedules Wiki Page
