Contact: Seamus Kraft

Email: Seamus@opengovfoundation.org

Phone: +1-760-659-0631

WASHINGTON, DC - The OpenGov Foundation today announced the beta launch of AmericaDecoded.org, America’s modern, user-friendly and restriction-free online law library.  Through this new website, citizens, stakeholders and public servants can access, explore and use the municipal laws and legal codes of San Francisco (CA), Baltimore (MD), Chicago (IL), and Philadelphia (PA), and the state laws and legal codes of Maryland, Virginia and Florida.  For those seeking to advance local government transparency and citizen engagement, AmericaDecoded.org provides the tools and resources needed to transform any inaccessible legal information into the open source State Decoded format, then add it to this growing online law library.  Right now, efforts are underway to “decode” Raleigh (NC), Washington (DC), Boston (MA), Las Vegas (NV), New York (NY) and Miami (FL), with more on the way.

VIDEO: Click Here to Watch “America Decoded – Free, Online & Open Access to Your Laws”

The America Decoded network helps break down the frustrating barriers that exist between everyday Americans and the most important public information in any city or state – the law itself – by harnessing the latest in website design and open data standards, providing all the expensive tools lawyers use at $0 cost.  And unlike many legacy legal information providers, AmericaDecoded.org provides the public laws to the American people the right way: without any copyright restrictions, paywalls or fees.

The laws and legal codes in the AmericaDecoded.org open law library are powered by the State Decoded software, which provides citizens with a ridiculously easy-to-use way to access your local, state, and federal legal code.  What does powerful, modern open law data do for you?

  Careful organization by article and section makes browsing a breeze.

 A site-wide search allows you to find the laws you’re looking for by topic.

 Scroll-over definitions translate legal jargon into common English.

 Downloadable developer-friendly legal code lets you take the law into your own hands.

 Best of all, everything on the site remains cost-and restriction-free.

About OpenGov

We’re a non-profit, non-partisan startup working to make government better.  That means making it easier for people to access and use as much government information as possible.  We believe innovative technology can help deliver a government that listens, works for its citizen-users, and learns from them.  We are dedicated to putting better data and better tools in more hands.  Our goal is to make or adapt those tools to be easy to use, efficient, scalable and free.

Democracy means everyone should have chance to be a hands-on contributor.  Click here to learn more about Team OpenGov and click here to get your hands dirty with us

About The State Decoded

The State Decoded is a platform that displays legal codes, court decisions, and information from legislative tracking services to make it all more understandable to normal humans. With beautiful typography, embedded definitions of legal terms, and a robust API, this project aims to make our laws a centerpiece of media coverage.

In development since June 2010, The State Decoded is in open beta testing now, with a growing network of sites running the software. This work is made possible by a generous grant from the Knight Foundation.