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Show Us a Better Way: convinced it’s a turning point in public data
By WDavidStephenson | August 4, 2008
The old PR guy in me rears it’s ugly head!
Once in a blue moon a promotion comes along that really seizes the public’s attention, and, if there’s some substance, can really change the way we live (no, I’m not talkin’ “Real Coke” here).
I’m convinced that’s the case with the UK’s Show Us a Better Way competition, in which the Power of Information taskforce is — hold on to your hats, folks — actually asking THE PEOPLE how they can do a better job of capitalizing on public data to serve the public interest:
“The UK Government wants to hear your ideas for new products that could improve the way public information is communicated …
We’re confident that you’ll have more and better ideas than we ever will. [no, I didn’t put that in bold print: they did!] You don’t have to have any technical knowledge, nor any money, just a good idea, and 5 minutes spare to enter the competition.
OK, they had me right there, but, as the announcer says, “that’s not all, folks”:
- they’re put up some serious money (£20,000) for the best prizes to help develop the ideas more.Oops, I stand corrected: the Minister of Justice was so impressed by the first entries that he’s thrown another £20,000 into the pot. Do I hear £60,000?).
- taxpayers and entrepreneurs are already winners, even though the contest doesn’t end until next month: after a preliminary screening, the entries are publicly posted, so that people can judge for themselves what’s worthwhile, and/or have the “wisdom of crowds” kick in, when someone sees a current idea and it sparks them to submit another! A few that I like:
- car-sharing maps
- local-to-me (if that was available in the US, you’d see an Adrian Holovaty-style EveryBlock for, um, every block!)
- my particular favorite, because I could see it mimicking the Many Eyes or Swivel sites, “FreeData Live,” which “…. would provide the one point of access for all freely available data to be published in a more visual means. It would be a government sponsored site and allow all persons/any one who would like to be able to see and use the information regardless of their IT expertise, to see, use analyse and produce reports, via the website rather than download data in the normal fashion and spend hours trying to produce meaningful views of the data/information.”
- Perhaps most important, they’ve putting their data where their mouths are, as it were (having already put their money where their mouths are via the prize pot….), by releasing an unprecedented amount and diversity of data for public consumption.Sorry, Mayor Fenty, but DC’s Citywide Data Warehouse now drops down the the Silver Metal (we’re gearing up here for some serious Olympics phraseology), although you are still the runaway winner in the Amount of Data Released Per Capita race.
I just can’t say enough about:
- the government’s understanding of the value of data visualization as a tool (listen to this Beeb interview with Minister Tom Watson)
- the creativity and zeal with which the Power of Information Task Force has approached the issue
- the visibility the issue will get because of the competition
- the government’s show of humility in its rhetoric about the wisdom of crowds.
Obama has publicly pledged to stream data (in the section of his technology white paper dealing with transparency) and it would be nice if someone would explain the concept to McCain in hopes that he might say “whatever” and do the same… Hope that the next president will put up as big or bigger pot of money, release the data, and watch the great ideas pour in!
Technorati tags: technology publicdata public data dataviz government transparency e-gov e-government 2.0 e-government transparent government e-democracy crowd-sourcing wisdom of crowds crowdsourcing smart mobs swarm intelligence emergent behavior government IT government politics collaboration Barack Obama John McCain Prime+Minister+Gordon+Brown Tom Watson MP Show Us a Better Way
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