Apture — A Tool for Political News Transparency

One way to see more about what congressmen do is to easily link to their voting records, financial background, even their speeches. Apture makes it very easy to do so, and just announced that The Washington Post is now using their system.

Apture just launched a feature to make the U.S. Congress more transparent across washingtonpost.com. Anywhere the name of a Congress member is mentioned across the site, readers can click to view the historical voting records (dating back to 1991), member biographies, PDFs of scanned financial disclosure documents, and the precise footage of congressmen giving speeches from the House and Senate floor — all without leaving the page.

Any website owner can also add these features to their own site, free. By selecting the phrases on their pages, Apture will present search results for media related to Congress members or debated bills. Users can then link this content into their page so readers are able to view the linked content without being forced to leave the page or research the topic on their own.

Take a look at the video here.

Here‘s an example live on the Post. (Look for the Capital icons.)

… and more details here.