What happened
Researchers built software that transforms dense, unstructured city meeting minutes into searchable databases with extracted decisions and voting records — making it easier for citizens and journalists to find what their local government actually decided. Instead of reading through 50-page PDFs written in bureaucratic language, someone can now search by topic, see voting outcomes, and filter by subject matter.
Why it matters
City council minutes have always been public but functionally invisible — the format made them nearly unsearchable by ordinary people, which meant local decisions stayed hidden in plain sight. Making them actually findable could change what citizens know about their own governments and what journalists can track.