Got ideas? Tell the British government
Photograph by PixelFixer, used under CC license
Civic-minded hackers are being offered up to £20,000 by the British government if they can come up with a good idea for mashing up data for the public’s benefit.
The Show us a better way project is offering up gigabytes of information - neighbourhood statistics, maps, health data and more - in exchange for submissions on how to improve communication.
The UK Government wants to hear your ideas for new products that could improve the way public information is communicated. The Power of Information Taskforce is running a competition on the Government’s behalf, and we have a £20,000 prize fund to develop the best ideas to the next level.
Twenty thousand pounds - that’s about seven billion dollars at current exchange rates - is plenty to take some of the ideas forward, and so far submissions include open court transcripts, GPS-enabled bus routes and making vehicle inquiries by SMS.
The project itself is part of an ongoing conversation about how to get more use out of the information that the UK government holds. The Guardian (my employer) has been running a campaign to get the British government to “Free Our Data” - currently citizens have to pay for access to lots of information which has been collected using their taxes.
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