FreedomSpeaks Official Blog

I just wanted to give everyone a quick heads up. I have some exciting news about Freedom Speaks. I’ll be launching our API very soon! The API will have some barebones features to start, but I hope to make almost all the data on our site available through the API. Here are a couple of the features we’ll be launching with:

1. Who Represents You?
   (Enter: Your Address; Get: Your Districts + Officials)
2. Forward A Letter…
   (Enter: Any LetterId + Address; Get: Your Districts + Officials + Your Letter Sent)
3. Get A Letter
   (Enter: Any LetterId; Get: Letter + Comments)
4. Get An Official
   (Enter: Any OfficialId; Get Official + Comments)
5. Search Officials
   (Enter: Search Terms; Get Officials)

The results sets will be pretty verbose and returned as Xml. You’ll be able to pick and choose what data you’d like to display within your application.

We’re also making available a few widgets that consume our API services. Embed any one of these widgets on your own profile, and you’ll instantly enable your visitors to take action on any issue you’d like! That’s pretty powerful stuff.

Stay Tuned!

Chalk up another exciting couple of weeks here at FREEDOMSPEAKS.COM. We continue to grow and
we’ve far surpassed the 5,000 letter mark sending out a total of 5,531 letters!
We’ve also been sent our first offer for financing. I won’t say any more than
that, but it’s great to be validated with a funding proposal. Be sure to tell
everyone you know about FREEDOMSPEAKS.COM – familiy, friends,
radio talk show hosts, local news, everyone. The more letters we can flood our
politicians with, the less they can ignore us.

For everyone living in the Los Angeles area, I
wanted to point out two things:

• Tonight, our
  founder, Jason A. Kiesel, will be getting interviewed by TechZulu at Makai in Santa Monica. The
  event is hosted by DigitalLA and starts at 6PM.
• A very special issue has come up due to the
  recent tragedy of Jamiel Shaw. I’ve set up a special letter that goes directly to the
  LA Mayor and City Council Members regarding the passage of Jamiel’s Law. Please take a look at it and
  forward it along. Most important, be sure to click "Send This Letter Now!".

Keep spreading the word – we can
make a difference in Washington (and our respective States)!

NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS!

• We’ll be adding petititions to the site within the next few weeks. Our petitions
  will be similar to a letter, but will be sent all at once when a threshold level
  is reached (a certain date or number of signatures). Any suggestions should be
  sent via our feedback form.
• We created a new
  type of letter on the site – a letter that targets a specific official or group
  of officials (We used this for the Jamiel’s Law letter). We will be rolling this
  out within the next couple weeks. Stay tuned!
• We’re also
  planning on rolling out more content on the site. We’ll be presenting commentary
  that represents both (or multiple) sides of an issue and then getting discussion
  on those points of view by all of you.
• We’ll be starting a live show once every other week starting
  next week. We’ll stream it live online and we’ll take your calls and questions
  on air. Our founder, Jason Kiesel, will have a guest or two and they’ll discuss
  the top letters/issues from the site. Be sure to check it out!

TOP NEW LETTERS!

1. Speak English Please!
2. A Revised Approach to the War on Terror
3. America Desperately Needs a High-Skilled Labor
   Force!
4. Illegals
5. RIGHT To VOTE

I just wanted to thank everyone for continuing to visit FREEDOMSPEAKS.COM and contributing great letters and comments. There have been some really great letters written by some of our memebers since my last email went out (see below), and I’ve added some great new features. Everyone on the site has been giving some great feedback – in fact, most of the new features come from member suggestions! Keep up the good work, and I look forward to reading your next letter!

Here are some of the new features we’ve added:

• Sending letters to other officials, even if they don’t represent you, just got easier!
  (just go to your account home, click "Send Letter", do a search for the officals you want and add them to your list)
• Letters can now be written as private – no one on the site will ever see it.
• Not happy with your screen name? You can now change it!
• State Official data is slowly trickling in. Members in CA now have their executive and legislative officials in their profile (if we’re able to correctly geocode your address). We’re working on the other states, so stay tuned!
• Improved Search now includes ALL State officials as well as Federal.
• You can now subscribe to a letter and get email alerts whenever anyone comments on it.
  (simply comment on a letter and be sure to check the "Subscribe" checkbox)
• Get a list of the most recent letters (not just most active letters)
• Check out our list of RSS Feeds – You can now stay on top of your favorite issue / topic!

Check out some of these great letters…

1. Medical Marijuana: in defense of a voter approved measure.
2. Reduce the Gas Tax and Provide Relief to All Americans!
3. Its Time to Balance the Budget!
4. Reinstate Proposition 36 – "Treatment Rather Than Incarceration"
5. Same-Sex Marriages – Protect the Rights of Homosexuals