Systems and methods for targeting policymaker communication
A prediction system provided with an integrated communications interface may include at least one processor configured to scrape the Internet to identify a currently pending legislative bill and information about legislators slated to vote on the pending bill. The processor may parse the information to determine a tendency position for each legislator. The processor may transmit for display to a system user a virtual whipboard that groups legislators into a plurality of groups based on determined tendency positions. The processor may receive a selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators for a communication interaction based on the determined tendency position of the group and access a legislator database that includes legislative communication addresses of legislative personnel scraped from the Internet and divided into a plurality of legislative function categories and receive from the system user a selection of at least one of the plurality of legislative function categories.
1. A prediction system with an integrated communications interface, the system comprising:
at least one processor configured to:
access information scraped from the Internet in order to identify a currently pending legislative bill and to identify information about legislators slated to vote on the pending bill;
train, using a training set of previous legislative bills and information about legislators, a legislator position model to determine an output prediction for at least one legislator of the legislators voting for or against a pending bill, the legislator position model comprising weights computed for one or more input features based on legislative bills and legislators;
parse the information to determine a tendency position for the at least one legislator, wherein determining the tendency position comprises generating a prediction of whether the at least one legislator tends toward or away from a position regarding the pending bill by application of the legislator position model;
transmit, for display to a system user, a first interface comprising a virtual whipboard that groups legislators into a plurality of groups based on determined tendency positions;
receive from the system user, via the first interface, a selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators selected for a communication interaction based on the determined tendency position of the group;
access a legislator database that includes legislative communication addresses of legislative personnel; and
export, to a communication platform, the communication addresses of the legislative personnel associated with the selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators.
2. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine the tendency position for the at least one legislator based at least on one or more campaign contributions.
3. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine the tendency position for the at least one legislator based at least on one or more prior legislative votes of each legislator.
4. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine the tendency position for the at least one legislator based at least on a party affiliation of each legislator.
5. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to determine the tendency position for the at least one legislator based at least on at least one statement made by each legislator.
6. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein the legislative communication addresses of legislative personnel comprise communication addresses of legislators and legislative staff.
7. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein determining a tendency position for the at least one legislator involves accessing data, scraped from the Internet, about a voting history of the at least one legislator.
8. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to receive information from the system user to alter a tendency position of at least one legislator such that the altered tendency position differs from the tendency position determined from the parsed information.
9. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein exporting to a communication platform includes interfacing with a standalone email system of the system user.
10. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein exporting to a communication platform includes interfacing with a module within the system.
11. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to receive, from the system user, a common message for export to the legislative personnel associated with the selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators.
12. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to display to the system user a plurality of whipboard sorting options, including an option to sort legislators by party affiliation.
13. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein the virtual whipboard sorts legislators into at least five categories including affirmative, leaning affirmative, neutral, leaning negative, and negative.
14. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to enable messaging of the legislative personnel associated with the selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators directly from a messaging interface of the virtual whipboard.
15. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein receiving the selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators comprises receiving a selected group that has been manipulated by the user prior to selection.
16. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein accessing the scraped information comprises scraping, using a web crawler and an extraction bot, a plurality of sources on the Internet for a predetermined interval of time, wherein the web crawler is configured to perform functions of finding, indexing, and fetching information from the plurality of sources on the Internet, and wherein the extraction bot is configured to perform processing on the information from the plurality of sources.
17. The prediction system of claim 1 , wherein the prediction of whether the at least one legislator tends toward or away from a position regarding the pending bill comprises a prediction of whether the at least one legislator is likely to vote for or against the pending bill.
18. A prediction method, comprising:
accessing information scraped from the Internet in order to identify a currently pending legislative bill and to identify information about legislators slated to vote on the pending bill;
training, using a training set of previous legislative bills and information about legislators, a legislator position model to determine an output prediction for at least one legislator of the legislators voting for or against a pending bill, the legislator position model comprising weights computed for one or more input features based on legislative bills and legislators;
parsing the information to determine a tendency position for the at least one legislator, wherein determining the tendency position comprises generating a prediction of whether the at least one legislator tends toward or away from a position regarding the pending bill by application of the legislator position model;
transmitting, for display to a system user, a first interface comprising a virtual whipboard that groups legislators into a plurality of groups based on determined tendency positions;
receiving from the system user, via the first interface, a selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators selected for a communication interaction based on the determined tendency position of the group;
accessing a legislator database that includes legislative communication addresses of legislative personnel; and
exporting, to a communication platform, the communication addresses of the legislative personnel associated with the selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators.
19. The prediction method of claim 18 , wherein determining a tendency position for the at least one legislator involves accessing data, scraped from the Internet, about a voting history of each legislator.
20. The prediction method of claim 18 , further comprising receiving information from the system user to alter a tendency position of at least one legislator such that the altered tendency position differs from the tendency position determined from the parsed information.
21. The prediction method of claim 18 , further comprising receiving, from the system user, a common message for export to the legislative personnel associated with the selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators.
22. The prediction method of claim 18 , further comprising enabling messaging of the legislative personnel associated with the selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators directly from a messaging interface of the virtual whipboard.
23. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions executable by at least one processing device, the instructions including instructions for:
accessing information scraped from the Internet in order to identify a currently pending legislative bill and to identify information about legislators slated to vote on the pending bill;
training, using a training set of previous legislative bills and information about legislators, a legislator position model to determine an output prediction for at least one legislator of the legislators voting for or against a pending bill, the legislator position model comprising weights computed for one or more input features based on legislative bills and legislators;
parsing the information to determine a tendency position for the at least one legislator, wherein determining the tendency position comprises generating a prediction of whether each legislator tends toward or away from a position regarding the pending bill by application of the legislator position model;
transmitting, for display to a system user, a first interface comprising a virtual whipboard that groups legislators into a plurality of groups based on determined tendency positions;
receiving from the system user, via the first interface, a selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators selected for a communication interaction based on the determined tendency position of the group;
accessing a legislator database that includes legislative communication addresses of legislative personnel; and
exporting, to a communication platform, the communication addresses of the legislative personnel associated with the selected one of the plurality of groups of legislators.