Splunk has launched eRegulations Insights, a Splunk4Good project utilizing federal open data to collect and analyze data on public comments submitted through the portal for Federal rulemaking. eRegulations Insights was developed in response to President Obama’s and his call for technology leaders to help harness the power of open data.
eRegulations Insights is a set of online public dashboards and visualizations designed to help decipher the tone of public response to regulations and legislative proposals, recognize issues of concern within public responses and identify primary influencers who are mobilizing public engagement around proposals.
“eRegulations Insights builds on the success of organizations such as the Sunlight Foundation to free open data, promote public participation and help agencies uncover constructive feedback on specific issues,” said Stephen Sorkin, chief strategy officer, Splunk.
Splunk4Good, the social responsibility initiative at Splunk, developed eRegulations Insights in response to the led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). eRegulations Insights includes visualizations for specific agencies, regulatory proposals, volume of public comment by agency and significant influencers.
eRegulations Insights includes more than 1.1 million public comments gathered from January 1, 2012 onward and is updated daily as new comments are made available.
Notably almost half of the comments focus on three core issues – preventive services under the Affordable Care Act, guidance for tax exempt social welfare organizations on candidate related political activities, and the National Interest Determination for the TransCanada Keystone Pipeline.