The problem
Researchers, journalists, and policy teams rebuild the same monitoring infrastructure over and over: a litigation spreadsheet here, an RSS pipeline there, a polling collection someone maintains in their spare time. Discovery is word-of-mouth. Freshness is a guess. When a maintainer moves on, the data quietly dies.
What the Commons does
Three things. First, discovery: one searchable catalog of trackers, datasets, APIs, and MCP servers for technology policy. Second, trust: every listing follows a standard card — coverage, methodology, freshness, maintainer, license — so you can judge fitness before you depend on it. Third, access: badges tell you exactly how to consume each product, whether you're a person with a browser or an AI agent with an MCP client.
Who's behind it
The Commons is a project of Tech Policy Press, the nonprofit publication covering the intersection of technology and democracy. TPP's own data products — Knowledge Hub, the litigation tracker, the AI poll tracker, and more — are the founding listings, and community submissions are open.
Listing principles
- Listings are free, for TPP products and community products alike.
- Every listing must state its methodology and update cadence honestly.
- Dead products get marked as archived, not silently removed.
- Licenses are displayed prominently; check them before redistribution.