Comments on: Prowling for NY Senate Bill Status Updates http://www.voiceingov.org/blog/?p=1270 "Ministers... cannot in any country be uninfluenced by the voice of the people." Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:36:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Mark Headd http://www.voiceingov.org/blog/?p=1270&cpage=1#comment-869 Mark Headd Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:01:23 +0000 http://www.voiceingov.org/blog/?p=1270#comment-869 Yeah, the polling is probably the big challenge with this right now. Using something like PubSubHubBub would make this a lot more efficient. Not sure if the <a href="http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Streaming-API-Documentation" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Twitter streaming API</a> would work, but that might be worth a look as well. The other big challenge is storing subscription preferences -- there will need to be a way to store at least 3 pieces of information: * The bill number the user wants to subscribe to; * The medium that they want to receive notice through; and, * Their user name / phone number to send the alert to. Then each time the RSS feed is updated, a process would need to check and see who had subscribed to bills where a status change is made, and then send out a notice using the appropriate channel. Yeah, the polling is probably the big challenge with this right now. Using something like PubSubHubBub would make this a lot more efficient. Not sure if the Twitter streaming API would work, but that might be worth a look as well.

The other big challenge is storing subscription preferences — there will need to be a way to store at least 3 pieces of information:

* The bill number the user wants to subscribe to;
* The medium that they want to receive notice through; and,
* Their user name / phone number to send the alert to.

Then each time the RSS feed is updated, a process would need to check and see who had subscribed to bills where a status change is made, and then send out a notice using the appropriate channel.

]]> By: <fb:name linked="false" useyou="false" uid="876495577">Nathan Freitas</fb:name> http://www.voiceingov.org/blog/?p=1270&cpage=1#comment-868 Nathan Freitas Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:04:23 +0000 http://www.voiceingov.org/blog/?p=1270#comment-868 Brilliant, as always! The ability to subscribe to alerts for change in status is definitely a big step forward. I've been working on this via Twitter.... I have also been thinking about supporting something like PubSubHubBub to support this without requiring you to poll. http://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/ Brilliant, as always! The ability to subscribe to alerts for change in status is definitely a big step forward. I’ve been working on this via Twitter…. I have also been thinking about supporting something like PubSubHubBub to support this without requiring you to poll.

http://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/

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