Authority Atlas

Authority Atlas is an open-source project that creates a comprehensive and accessible global database of regulatory authorities and similar organizations working for the common good.

🗺️ Philosophy: An Atlas, Not an Encyclopedia

Authority Atlas serves as a navigation tool for discovering authorities - not a comprehensive knowledge repository. Like a geographical atlas shows you where places are and how to get there, Authority Atlas helps you:

• Discover authorities by geography, subject, or type
• Navigate to authoritative sources (official websites, Wikipedia, legal documents)

We index authorities with clean, structured metadata while driving traffic to official sources rather than competing with them.

🌐 Visit Authority Atlas

Explore the live site at: https://authorityatlas.org

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions from the community!

💡 Propose a New Authority

Know of a regulatory authority or public body that belongs in the Atlas? Open a GitHub Issue using the Propose a New Authority template — no coding required. The authority must have an English Wikipedia page (please create one first if it does not exist).

🛠️ Contribute Directly

Developers and data contributors who want to add or improve entries themselves: see CONTRIBUTING.md for the full workflow — including seeding from Wikidata, completing YAML fields, tagging rules, and the git process.

🚀 Getting Started with Development

You can develop locally or use GitHub Codespaces.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.x
• Git

Local Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/erngui/authorityatlas.git
   cd authorityatlas

2. (Optional) Create a virtual environment:

   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Generate the site:

   python aagenerate.py

5. Preview locally:

   cd docs
   python3 -m http.server 8000

   Visit http://localhost:8000 in your browser.

Using GitHub Codespaces

1. Click the green "Code" button and select "Open with Codespaces"
2. Once the Codespace loads, run:

   python aagenerate.py
   cd docs
   python -m http.server 8000

3. Click "Open in Browser" when prompted, or use the PORTS tab

🐞 Reporting Issues

Please open an issue if you encounter bugs or have ideas for improvements.

📄 License

• Code: Licensed under the MIT License
• Content (data/ directory): Licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0

✍️ Summary of CC BY-SA 4.0

You are free to:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially

Under these terms:

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit.
• ShareAlike — You must license your contributions under the same terms.

🙌 Acknowledgments

• Wikidata for structured authority data (coordinates, founding dates, official names, multilingual Wikipedia links) used to seed YAML entries via aafetch.py
• Wikipedia for the comprehensive knowledge base we link to
• OpenStreetMap / Nominatim for geocoding fallback when Wikidata has no coordinates
• Grace's Guide and other specialized resources for domain-specific insights
• The open-source community

🔗 Official Sites

• 🌐 https://authorityatlas.org
• 🛠️ Developed by https://ernestoexplains.com
• 💻 GitHub: https://github.com/erngui/authorityatlas