iOS developers often maintain blogs to highlight their projects, share code snippets or custom UI components, or teach readers about an aspect of a language or framework.

My goal for this blog is to combine some of that traditional iOS dev content with my interest in open, accessible civic and political data. So, in addition to sharing updates about my app, Informed (currently in beta), exploring new or hidden features, and explaining the rationale behind design or development decisions, I also plan to talk about:

• the data and APIs that power Informed: Early in Informed’s development, I realized the app, to a great extent, can only be as good as the data that powers it and that quality, detailed civic data isn’t cheap. During a time when fundamental civics knowledge is limited and political disinformation is spreading, it’s also important that my app is transparent about where it gets its data from, so this could be a good space to dive into different data sources and talk about the benefits and limits of each. I also think it would be interesting to explore projects promoting open civic data, even if they’re not finished or don’t fit neatly into what Informed offers, as well as discuss the difficulties around data sources that may not be easily accessible or affordable.

• campaign finance: One of the core features in Informed is the ability to explore and track the flow of money between candidates, donors, and political action committees. Though this feature is still quite limited, the goal is to eventually build a range of tools to make it easier to understand the influence of money in federal elections and share that information with others. As I learn more about campaign finance, I’ve gotten more familiar with resources like FEC.gov, which is a great place to start any campaign finance research and identify gaps in Informed’s functionality, so I may use this blog to demonstrate preliminary research (for example, by tracking Elon Musk’s donations and those of Musk-affiliated political committees or detailing the donors to Donald Trump’s inaugural committee) and point out ways Informed could better facilitate that research.

• AI and LLMs: I might use this space to discuss my thoughts on LLMs and the potential for them to enhance or speed up the campaign finance research process as well as whether LLMs will ever be included in Informed.

• custom SwiftUI components: Informed features a number of charts using the Swift Charts framework, including a map that shows the partisan shift for each county from 2016 to 2020, that users might want to learn how to build.

I’m building Informed at a time when the influence of money in federal elections has never been greater—and never been more scrutinized by voters—and I hope this blog can be an ideal space to explore how iOS development, civic data, and campaign finance overlap and come together.