Opening Baltimore's [Legal] Code

Legal codes are wretched. They don’t have APIs. Virtually none have bulk downloads. You’re stuck with their crude offerings.

Baltimore is America's first Open Law City (http://opengovfoundation.org/city-of-baltimore-opengov-foundation-launch-baltimorecode-org/).

Way back in the summer of 2013, the OpenGov Foundation (http://opengovfoundation.org/) created the first copyright restriction-free, open data publication of the Baltimore Law, giving citizens a greater understanding of the laws under which they live. [For more, check out this video (http://gb.tc/channels/blog/post/hearing-from-the-hackers-watch-and-listen-to-the-impressive-demos-from-hack-for-change-baltimore#e) from Hack for Change Baltimore (http://gb.tc/channels/blog/post/recapping-hack-for-change-baltimore/).]

Now, OpenGov is ready to demo a new BaltimoreCode.org (http://baltimorecode.org/), America's first fully-open, accessible and Internet-ready edition of the City's laws and charter. The update - to the State Decoded v0.8 software (http://www.statedecoded.com/2013/11/release-v08/) - includes a new customizable theming system, slick UI/UX improvements and enhanced text search, among others.

Where does America's first Open Law City go from here? That's what this meetup aims to find out! The OpenGov team will be on hand to demo BaltimoreCode.org (http://baltimorecode.org), answer questions, and gather feedback and your feature ideas.