System and method for managing legislative information

• US 8,171,038 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2008
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lobbyassist, LLC
• Original Assignee: Lobbyassist, LLC
• Inventors: Brown, Travis, Tomicki, Lukasz R., Stendebach, Larry J.
• Primary Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US12/020,397
• Publication Number:
  US 20090193056A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,558 Days
• Field of Search: 707/705, 707/706, 707/707, 707/713, 707/722, 707/758, 705/1, 709/203
• US Class Current: 707/758
• 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;

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

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.

2. 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;

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 from 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.

3. 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;

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

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.