Introduction: This app is currently in development and does not reflect current capabilities. Commits are not always deployed to Heroku or Github, in the interest of workflow and functionality, therefore, you may not be looking at the most up-to-date version.

Concept: This app will display, in an easily navigable and consumer-friendly way, information and analysis of U.S. defense spending, using up-to-date information.

How: To do this, it draws data from a public DoD RSS feed that is updated nearly every workday at around 6pm EST. That public information is then parsed, cleaned, and transformed into a multi-model application that (will) allow the user to easily understand the content being released by the U.S. government.

Intent: The purpose of this is to fulfill the mandate of open government data by 1) improving access to this information and 2) allowing citizens to understand how their tax dollars are being spent. Defense spending is a highly politicized issue, and is often discussed without adequate knowledge or context. This application will solve that knowledge gap.

Goals: While currently running as a generic Ruby on Rails app, the goal is to make this a user-friendly Single Page Application. UI/UX contributions are appreciated.

Tech: Ruby on Rails, D3.js, Postgres (SQL)