[A2k] Fwd: UK Government launches data mash-up prize

[Michelle Childs]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]


> From: Michelle Childs <michelle.childs@keionline.org>
> Date: 2 July 2008 13:26:05 BST
>
> Subject: UK Government launches data mash-up prize
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7484131.stm
> Government launches data mash-up
>
> The UK government has launched a competition to find innovative ways
> of using the masses of data it collects. ( link to competition
> website http://www.showusabetterway.com/)
>
> It is hoping to find new uses for public information in the areas of
> criminal justice, health and education. The Power of Information
> Taskforce - headed by cabinet office minister Tom Watson - is
> offering a =A320,000 prize fund for the best ideas.
>
> To help with the task, the government is opening up gigabytes of
> information from a variety of sources.
>
> Good sense
>
> This includes mapping information from the Ordnance Survey, medical
> information from the NHS , neighbourhood statistics from the Office
> for National Statistics and a carbon calculator from the Department
> for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
>
> None of the data will be personal information, the government is
> keen to stress.
>
> Mr Watson is hoping to attract a wide range of people from "the
> technology community we already work with, to hard-core coders to
> adolescents in their bedroom".
>
> He admits that throwing open public data could be a risk but he
> believes that it will yield results.
>
> "If someone comes up with a great idea we will make a prototype and
> then hopefully a fully-fledged piece of technology that will make
> peoples' lives better," he said.
>
> "I strongly believe in co-design and in the digital age it makes
> sense to work with citizens to make public service better," he added.
>
> To help inspire ideas the team behind the idea has put dozens of
> examples of innovative ways of reusing public information on its
> Taskforce wiki.
>
>
> These include a website which maps crimes around the UK, the
> FixMyStreet website, which allows users to alert other to litter,
> vandalism and graffiti in their local environment, and the prototype
> RateMyPrison, which invites those who visit friend and families in
> jail to comment on the experience.
>
> Technology commentator Bill Thompson was one of the first to see the
> Show Us a Better Way website, which details the competition.
>
> "It's great to see a government department with enough sense to
> realise that it doesn't have all the good ideas," he said.
>
> "There are terabytes of expensively accumulated information sitting
> in databases, but it goes unused and unexploited because of
> restrictive licenses and lack of awareness," he added.
>
> The government will evaluate the ideas over the course of the summer.
>
> Michelle Childs
> Head of European Affairs
> Knowledge Ecology International
> www.keionline.org / www.cptech.org
> Phone:+44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252
> Email: michelle.childs@cptech.org
>
>
>
>
>
> ---------
> Michelle Childs
> Head of European Affairs
> Knowledge Ecology International
> www.keionline.org / www.cptech.org
> Phone:+44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252
> Email: michelle.childs@keionline.org
>
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