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The entire US Code is now online in XML

uscodebeta.house.gov

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Re: The entire US Code is now online in XML

#11

Post by liscovich »

redblacktree wrote: post #9
pnathan wrote: post #6

I'm really tempted to collect the XML files and put them on github, with periodic checkpoints to update it with the latest. Watching the evolution of law over time is a fascinating thing and using SW engineering tools to help would be really fun.

Please do! This is the kind of thing that hatches in my mind as a great idea, but withers due to a total lack of follow-up.

It would also be fascinating to see the visualizations of this evolution. And perhaps by matching it with the voting data from congress, one could track the footprint of each congressman.

Re: The entire US Code is now online in XML

#12

Post by bjr- »

calpaterson wrote: post #2

For those of us who don't know anything about it, what are the uses of machine readable law?

The law can be interpreted as a set of rules matched against an action in a particular context to determine whether said action is legal.

Right now lots of people do this manually.

Maybe computers can do it better.

If computers can do it better, maybe people could focus on writing new laws and refactoring old ones instead of repeatedly interpreting old laws for each case.

Re: The entire US Code is now online in XML

#13

Post by adregan »

liscovich wrote: post #7
tianhe wrote: post #4

XML? this should be in json!

As the schema guide explains, in 1999 they picked XML based on the study from 1996: "Following a 1999 feasibility study on XML/SGML, the Committee on House Administration adopted XML as a data standard for the exchange of legislative documents" http://uscodebeta.house.gov/download/resources/USLM-User-Gui... It took the US Govt 17 years to release 200,000 pages of the US code in XML.

I wonder if 17 years is fast for the government or slow.

Re: The entire US Code is now online in XML

#14

Post by bjr- »

liscovich wrote: post #7
tianhe wrote: post #4

XML? this should be in json!

As the schema guide explains, in 1999 they picked XML based on the study from 1996: "Following a 1999 feasibility study on XML/SGML, the Committee on House Administration adopted XML as a data standard for the exchange of legislative documents" http://uscodebeta.house.gov/download/resources/USLM-User-Gui... It took the US Govt 17 years to release 200,000 pages of the US code in XML.

Sounds about right.

Re: The entire US Code is now online in XML

#15

Post by TsiCClawOfLight »

pnathan wrote: post #6

I'm really tempted to collect the XML files and put them on github, with periodic checkpoints to update it with the latest. Watching the evolution of law over time is a fascinating thing and using SW engineering tools to help would be really fun.

We actually have something similar in germany, called the "Bundesgit" (https://github.com/bundestag/gesetze)

Re: The entire US Code is now online in XML

#16

Post by TsiCClawOfLight »

liscovich wrote: post #11
redblacktree wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please do! This is the kind of thing that hatches in my mind as a great idea, but withers due to a total lack of follow-up.

It would also be fascinating to see the visualizations of this evolution. And perhaps by matching it with the voting data from congress, one could track the footprint of each congressman.

see my comment above, you might be interested :)

Re: The entire US Code is now online in XML

#18

Post by tianhe »

liscovich wrote: post #7
tianhe wrote: post #4

XML? this should be in json!

As the schema guide explains, in 1999 they picked XML based on the study from 1996: "Following a 1999 feasibility study on XML/SGML, the Committee on House Administration adopted XML as a data standard for the exchange of legislative documents" http://uscodebeta.house.gov/download/resources/USLM-User-Gui... It took the US Govt 17 years to release 200,000 pages of the US code in XML.

I think the most time consuming part of the conversion is from text to digital. That's what took so long.

Interchanging formats should be relatively easy. Back in 1999, json wasn't even around.

IMO in today's API centric, and javascript ruled world. json would be a lot more useful.

Re: The entire US Code is now online in XML

#19

Post by liscovich »

tlrobinson wrote: post #8
pnathan wrote: post #6

I'm really tempted to collect the XML files and put them on github, with periodic checkpoints to update it with the latest. Watching the evolution of law over time is a fascinating thing and using SW engineering tools to help would be really fun.

I was under the impression law is essentially "append only". New laws override existing laws, but the text of the existing law never changes.

According to Wikipedia:

"When sections are repealed, their text is deleted and replaced by a note summarizing what used to be there." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Code#Treatment_o...

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