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Show Us a Better Way ends on 30th & Google launches Project 10^100

By WDavidStephenson | September 24, 2008

Looks as if those in authority are starting to take the “wisdom of crowds” seriously — including putting money on the table.

Google has just announced a Project 10^100, to solicit ideas that can have a dramatic impact on life. “These ideas can be big or small, technology-driven or brilliantly simple — but they need to have impact.. We know there are countless brilliant ideas that need funding and support to come to fruition.”

You can submit your ideas between now and October 20th. Between January 27 and February 2, the public will vote online for their favorite ideas. A panel of as-yet-unnamed judges will then review the top 20 ideas and announce up to five winners in mid-February. Funding, from a pool of $10 million, will be awarded in May. If the judges decide to reward five winning ideas, each will receive $2 million. If only two ideas are chosen, each will receive $5 million, and so on.

As the Google competition gets underway, the model for such competitions is wrapping up.

The UK’s wonderful Show Us a Better Way competition, which solicits ideas from the general public on how to better use government data in the public interest (as the page announcing the competition’s end says, “We are looking for ideas that help people. This is your information and we are looking for ideas that help you in your day to day life.” Isn’t that a refreshing tone for a government announcement?) ends on the 30th.

Among the cool ideas already submitted (and, as I like to say, the public and government are all winners in this competition, because all of the entries are posted online [aside to Google: you’d be well advised to do the same, provided you can pacify the lawyers…] , so others can riff on them and, if they find ones that have merit, lobby for their implementation), here are a few I found noteworthy:

The Regeneration Time Warp
“Layers of public spending data are put against time. As well as a zoom scale to produce a more detailed map, the regeneration time warp will enable the user to travel back to see how their communities have grown over time and benefited from public spending and investment in development.”
Mesh Potato (sounds sort of like a hyper version of EveryBlock)
“You are the centre of your world and it revolves around your needs. You need to know instantly who, what, where, when, why and how ? It could relate to crime, health, traffic, pollution, education - anything that connects to you and affects you as a person…. You want to view everything in one place - one screen and in one go. You type in your postcode and then it presents you with a visual construct of all the bits of information it connects to. This could include any news content, articles, reports, stats etc.What you would see when you typed in your postcode is a spider diagram with a map in its centre. As you click on different areas of the map or locations, the content in the windows would change and update…. There will be windows and sections that show different elements of information sourced from data sets and the internet.”
Name and Shame (this one is near and dear, since I got slugged – not kidding — several yrs. ago by an elderly courier when I pointed out he was parked in a handicapped space!)
“If you see someone parking in disabled parking spaces without displaying blue badges, you can note the numberplate of the car and/or take a picture and the location and upload info to the site. The site will overlay this data onto maps a create league tables of worst locations in terms of offenders and location, then relay information to people who can do something about it, eg. supermarkets and businesses as well as parking wardens etc. Prizes could be given to people who post the most offenders. Multiple offenders could be sent a warning letter.
The idea would be to create a culture whereby using disabled parking spaces illegally would be regarded as shameful and embarrassing and something that everyone should be involved in pointing out, not just disabled people.”
Then we’d publicly brand the repeat offenders — oops, guess I got carried away.
The Government Within 3 Clicks
“If this model was implemented in the UK it would be more easier for people to find and access what they need. Everything that the government does and provides will be just three clicks away. There would be no need to jump to different websites, fill in this form or wait 48hrs for a reply. To do this would require streamlining existing IT infrastructure, merging together services and making the flow of information between departments more efficient.”

There are scads more ideas, some great, some not, but if you’re a smart government official anywhere, UK or not, you’ll go over this list immediately, and start asking how the ideas might apply to your jurisdiction! And with the US election coming, it’s important to note that Obama specifically calls for release of automated data streams for just this kind of activity, while McCain is silent on the issue.

The clock is ticking, and don’t forget the £40,000 in prize money that will go to the winners to further develop their ideas!

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 Project 10^100