Data First – Xcential

Legislative Tech in the Time of COVID-19: An Interview with Illinois Rep. Will...

HData CEO Hudson Hollister recently interviewed Illinois State Representative Will Guzzardi, who represents northwest Chicago and has been a champion for modernization in the Illinois State Legislature. Representative Guzzardi described challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, technology remedies (and their pitfalls), and a business transparency proposal under consideration in Springfield to fix Illinois’ restrictive data practices.

Data First

Optimism for the Digital Future of Legislation: An Interview with POPVOX...

Marci Harris is the founder and CEO of POPVOX and has been one of the leading voices for democratic engagement in the U.S. over the past 15 years. HData CEO Hudson Hollister caught up with Marci for a recent interview. The two reminisced on their time as staffers on Capitol Hill pushing for the use of technology for better and more effective governing. Marci described the connection between constituent-oriented platforms like POPVOX and a Data First approach to congressional modernization and why, currently, she is optimistic about the more mature discussion around the role of technology. Conversation shifted to the future with a discussion outlining a “Star Trek” future vision for digitizing policymaking.

Data First

Digital Transformation in the Legislative Branch: An interview with Mark...

Xcential recently partnered with Bússola Tech to organize a discussion between U.S. Representative Jim McGovern and Brazilian Senator Antônio Anastasia. Xcential President Mark Stodder and Bússola Tech CEO Luís Kimaid add further context to the discussion of digital transformation in legislative processes.

Data First

Machine-Readable and Machine-Executable Legislation: A View of the Future,...

On April 1, HData CEO Hudson Hollister interviewed Matthew Waddington and Heather Mason, who manage legislative drafting for the government of Jersey. The Bailiwick of Jersey is a self-governing parliamentary democracy and British Crown Dependency. Jersey is one of the world’s largest offshore finance centers, with a per-capita gross product among the highest. Our colleagues explained their vision for the future of machine-readable and machine-executable legislation to improve the work of Jersey’s legislators and better serve Jersey’s people.

Data First

New series focused on legislative modernization efforts around the world drops...

The series, produced by Brazilian-based Bússola Tech, is titled LegisTech: The Transition Towards a Digital-Ready Legislature. It is the first global series focusing on digital transformation in legislative processes and will feature exclusive content from dozens of governments around the world. The extensive series will feature firsthand accounts of how innovative technologies have impacted governments legislative processes, improved effectiveness, and helped maintain continuity.

Data First

Modernizing the “High Speed Handoff” between the Legislative and Executive:...

HData CEO Hudson Hollister recently interviewed Adam Goldberg and Justin Marsico on their work furthering data standardization across the federal government, progress toward innovation and transformation at the U.S. Treasury Department, and modernization in the warrant generation process. They discuss the future state they’d create (if only they had a magic wand) — some sort of automatic interface between the legislative and the executive — and the real-life, incremental steps necessary to actually get there.

Data First

Xcential and Lexum Announce Strategic Partnership to Streamline the Drafting...

When it comes to producing statutes, regulations, or policies, governments are facing challenges on several fronts. On one of these, Xcential Legislative Technologies has been providing solutions to modernize the drafting process of rulemaking documents since 2002. On another, Lexum has been helping regulatory bodies disseminate their material over the web since 1993. Today, both companies are pleased to announce that documents created with Xcential’s LegisPro technology can now be published seamlessly on government public and internal websites using Lexum’s Decisia and Qweri solutions.

Data First

State Legislatures of the Future: Interview with Xcential Co-Founder Bradlee...

HData CEO Hudson Hollister recently interviewed Xcential co-founder Bradlee Chang on Xcential’s history, the current (and future) benefits of a Data First approach to lawmaking, and the challenges of modernizing legislative and regulatory processes. This interview was produced for Data First, Xcential’s monthly newsletter covering the modernization of lawmaking around the world. Click here to see past issues and subscribe to Data First.

Data First

Version Control for Law: Tracking Changes in the U.S. Congress

This article was written for Data First, Xcential’s monthly newsletter covering the modernization of lawmaking around the world. Click here to see past issues and subscribe to Data First.

What is Version Control?

Every writer has files somewhere named something like “GrantProposalDraft1-finaledited-reallyfinal,” which implies a whole sequence of versions that may or may not be saved elsewhere. Version control systems automate this process when working with computer code and keep a history of all work.

Version control is invaluable for any complex software project involving team collaboration. Consider the development of a large program like macOS. Hundreds of Apple employees in different departments, different buildings, and even different time zones simultaneously make updates, rewrite segments of code, and fix bugs. Without version […]