The Miller Center Foundation has received $165,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to create a program that will make state codes easier to understand.
Waldo Jaquith, who also is behind the Virginia legislative tracking website Richmond Sunlight, will work on The State Decoded through his employer, the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, for the next year-and-a-half.
On Wednesday, the foundation announced $4.7 million in awards for 16 projects under the 2011 Knight News Challenge. The challenge funds projects that focus on the future of news by digital means.
Jaquith has said the funding for The State Decoded will allow him to create a free product for other states that lets people to see the history of a state law down to who donated to the legislators who enacted it and how it has been interpreted in the courts. It also will allow users to comment on the laws.
“Hopefully if you can connect people to other information, it will be a lot easier for people to understand the laws that are the basis of our government,” Jaquith said.
The project began after Jaquith created a site during his spare time that clarifies Virginia’s code. Jaquith said he hopes to take that site public soon.
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