System And Method For Managing Legislative Information

• US 20090193056A1
• Filed: 01/25/2008
• Published: 07/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lobbyassist, LLC
• Original Assignee: Lobbyassist, LLC
• Inventors: Stendeback, Larry J., Tomicki, Lukasz R., Brown, Travis
• Granted Patent: US 8,171,038 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services

Abstract

A method for managing legislative information. in operation, legislative information, including text comprising legislative bills, is collected via an electronic search of at least one website. The text of the bills is then parsed into predefined categories. The text thus parsed is stored in a database. A search, using one of the predefined categories as search criteria, is then performed to select a subset of the bills meeting the search criteria. Information, related to the subset of the bills, is then transmitted to a requesting entity via an electronic communication.

Claims

1. A method for managing legislative information comprising:

collecting legislative information, including text comprising legislative bills, via an electronic search of at least one website;

parsing the text into predefined categories;

storing the text thus parsed in a database as parsed text;

performing a search, using one of the predefined categories as search criteria, to select a subset of the bills meeting the search criteria; and

transmitting information, related to the subset of the bills, to a requesting entity via an electronic communication.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the predefined categories are selected from the set of categories consisting of sponsor, house member, senate member, house committee, senate committee, house bill, senate bill, and legislative session.

3. The method of claim 1, including:

comparing subsequent versions of the parsed text of each of the bills with an original version of the parsed text of each of the bills to determine activity of each of the bills;

tracking the activity of the bills;

wherein the activity is selected from activities, related to the bills, consisting of movement between house and senate, amendments proposed, amendments effected, and committee actions; and

transmitting information, related to the activity, to the requesting entity via an electronic communication.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the legislative information includes a status of each of the bills, and wherein said status is selected from status types consisting of filed, read, in committee, voted on, action taken by governor/president, and withdrawn.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the bills are ranked in an order determined in accordance with criteria comprising bill-related actions including movement of the bills between house and senate, proposed amendments to the bills, and committee actions on the bills.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the bills are ranked in an order determined in accordance with a formula comprising factors including:

the total number of bills NB in the total relevant set of bills SB in a given timeframe TP;

the total number of actions TA for the total relevant set of bills SB in time period TP;

the mean number of actions MA per bill for the set of bills SB in time period TP, determined the total number of actions TA divided by the total number of bills NB;

the number of actions NA for the present bill ‘

B’

in period TP;

wherein the relative statistical significance of each bill SS(b) is determined by dividing the mean number of actions MA by the number of actions NA for the present bill in period TP; and

wherein the relative rank RR for each bill in set SB is determined by assigning a relative ranking to each bill ss(b) according to the formula;

RR=SS(b)*‘

full-text relevance’

, wherein ‘

full-text relevance’

is a numerical value indicating relevance of a specific row relative to other rows in a search result set returned in a full-text search of the relevant set of bills SB.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the legislative information includes sponsors of the bills, wherein a search of the parsed text in the database is performed to extract a subset of the bills that were sponsored by a selected one of the sponsors.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the bills are ranked in response to a request from the requesting entity and information, related to the bills, is transmitted to a website from which the entity has requested the information.

9. A method for managing legislative information comprising:

collecting legislative information, including text comprising legislative bills, via an electronic search of one or more websites;

parsing the text into predefined categories;

storing the text thus parsed in a database as parsed text;

comparing subsequent versions of the parsed text of each of the bills with an original version of the parsed text of each of the bills to determine activity of each of the bills;

tracking the activity of the bills;

wherein the activity is selected from activities, related to the bills, consisting of movement between house and senate, amendments proposed, amendments effected, and committee actions; and

transmitting information, related to the activity, to a requesting entity via an electronic communication.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the predefined categories are selected from the set of categories consisting of sponsor, house member, senate member, house committee, senate committee, house bill, senate bill, and legislative session.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a set of the bills is selected by a search according to one of the predefined categories.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the legislative information includes a status of each of the bills, and wherein said status is selected from status types consisting of filed, read, in committee, voted on, action taken by governor/president, and withdrawn.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the electronic communication is transmitted to a website from which the requesting entity has requested the information related to the activity.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the electronic communication is transmitted to the requesting entity via an email message.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the bills are ranked in an order determined in accordance with criteria comprising bill-related actions including movement of the bills between house and senate, proposed amendments to the bills, and committee actions on the bills.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein a tracking list, including one or more of the bills, is maintained for a selected subset of the bills, and wherein each of the bills the tracking list is sorted in order of bill-related activity.

17. The method of claim 16, including electronically sending a report, indicating a change in the text of one of the bills, to each said requesting entity for whom an instance of the tracking list has been maintained, each time said change in the text is detected.

18. The method of claim 17, including a procedure comprising:

flagging a selected one of the bills, included in an instance of the tracking list, with an indicator of the particular position of the entity with respect thereto; and

displaying the indicator in proximity to each electronically displayed occurrence of the selected one of the bills.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein the bills are ranked in an order determined in accordance with a formula comprising factors including:

the total number of bills NB in the total relevant set of bills SB in a given timeframe TP;

the total number of actions TA for the total relevant set of bills SB in time period TP;

the mean number of actions MA per bill for the set of bills SB in time period TP, determined the total number of actions TA divided by the total number of bills NB;

the number of actions NA for the present bill ‘

B’

in period TP;

wherein the relative statistical significance of each bill SS(b) is determined by dividing the mean number of actions MA by the number of actions NA for the present bill in period TP; and

wherein the relative rank RR for each bill in set SB is determined by assigning a relative ranking to each bill ss(b) according to the formula;

RR=SS(b)*‘

full-text relevance’

, wherein ‘

full-text relevance’

is a numerical value indicating relevance of a specific row relative to other rows in a search result set returned in a full-text search of the relevant set of bills SB.

20. A system for managing legislative information comprising:

a database for storing the legislative information;

a processing unit, coupled to the database, for processing information contained in the database;

an Internet web server coupled to the database and to an Internet website; and

at least one text parsing script;

wherein the system;

collects legislative information, including text comprising legislative

bills, via an electronic search of at least one government website;

parses the text into predefined categories using the parsing script;

stores the text thus parsed in the database as parsed text;

performs a search, using one of the predefined categories as search

criteria, to select a subset of the bills meeting the search criteria; and

transmits information, related to the subset of the bills, via the web server, to a requesting entity using the website.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the legislative information includes a status of each of the bills, and wherein said status is selected from status types consisting of filed, read, in committee, voted on, action taken by governor/president, and withdrawn.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the predefined categories are selected from the set of categories consisting of sponsor, house member, senate member, house committee, senate committee, house bill, senate bill, and legislative session.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the system:

compares subsequent versions of the parsed text of each of the bills with an original version of the parsed text of each of the bills to determine activity of each of the bills;

tracks the activity of the bills, wherein the activity is selected from activities, related to the bills, consisting of movement between house and senate, amendments proposed, amendments effected, and committee actions; and

transmits information related to the activity, via the web server, to the requesting entity using the website.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the bills are ranked in an order determined in accordance with criteria comprising bill-related actions including movement of the bills between house and senate, proposed amendments to the bills, and committee actions on the bills.

25. The system of claim 20, including an email server which transmits the information related to the subset of the bills to the requesting entity.