[nfbcs] NFB of Florida EZTellum

[Arnold Bailey]

Hi all,

I've just completed a web application for use by the NFB of Florida whose
concept/technique may be of interest to the NFB and the affiliates.
The application is "NFB of Florida EZTellum" and the URL is
http://www.blind411.org/EZtellum.asp

The page lists the Legislative alerts sent out by the Florida NFB and the
 NFB. There are links to the  detail of each of the alerts. What makes this
page unique is that the viewer can enter a zip code and then the US
senator and congressman; and, the Florida state senator and
representative are displayed along with their: district, email address,
their website URL and their office phone number. An RSS feed can also
be  created to be aware of any new alerts. The purpose is to encourage
NFB members to contact their legislators by making it an easy process.
Previously, it was a time consuming process for individuals to look up
this information. Sometimes, never finding it. The technical description:

   - I retrieved all the information via a technique called "data drilling"
    into the Florida state Senate and House websites.
   - A MySQL database with 3 tables to store the information. There
   are 3table load ASP routines.
   - The US information I used were from files provided by www.visi.com and
   www.census.gov . I manually created the MySQL tables by converting
   the text and XLS files to CSV files and importing them to the database.
   - RSS feed capability. I use an RSS/XML formatted file to add and
   retrieve the alert information.
   - The application was written in ASP/VBScript


Arnold
http://www.blind411.org/
http://www.blind411.org/EZtellum.asp