Sunlight Labs

There are a lot of different iPhone apps out there about Congress. But it seems like they all do the same thing: allow you to look up legislators, find contact information for them and their staff members, call them, and get details about who they are and what they've done. In the Android Marketplace, there's only one app that does that-- our Congress app. But in iPhone land, there's at least a half-dozen.

Our project lead on our new iPhone app, Josh Ruihley decided to take a different approach. We want to make data about what's happening inside Congress more available to the public. It isn't just who your member of Congress is that matters, but also what they do. It's also important to see what they're reading and who they're listening to, and what the process looks like.

Our new app, Real Time Congress does just that for the iPhone. It doesn't care so much about who your rep is as it does what they do. Inside the app you can follow live floor proceedings of both chambers of Congress. You can get leaked CRS reports to see what your representatives are reading on the hill, and if you're on Capitol Hill (or just an avid C-SPAN viewer), you can get a schedule of upcoming hearings from the House and the Senate.

It's a different kind of app-- one that sheds light on the data that powers Congress rather than data about our members of congress themselves. We hope you'll give it a shot and let us know what you think.