Toluu

Show Us a Better Way

Tell us what you'd build with public information and we could help fund your idea!

You're on the radio (now) ...November 10 2008

Apologies for the short post (and no picture) but I have just had it confirmed that the winner of Show Us A Better Way will be announced on Radio 4's PM  programme tonight.

Listen here

And the winners are ...November 6 2008

Congratulations to everyone who was involved in submitting ideas. Apparently there has been some other contest this week, but the one that has had us excited is who is going to win Show Us A Better Way?

Well after a long and fraught session of judging, the Taskforce managed to narrow down the shortlist to 5 ideas we will build, 5 ideas we will support and 4 models we would like to see built upon.

We would like to thank the Guardian and the Free Our Data blog for their help in garnering a people's vote to bring extra ideas to the judging meeting.

The overall winner for the best idea will be announced in the next few days (so don't delete your favourites yet). In the meantime, lease use the comments sections of the ideas to help us refine the ideas and even volunteer to help with development!

As announced this morning in the Guardian the winners are:

Ideas where we hope to create a fully working tool

Polluter FinderOctober 21 2008

Submitted by: Daniel Yates

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Polluter Finder will benchmark and plot various sources of pollution data, and empower users to act upon it.

Similar to the concept of 'crime mapping', Pollution Finder would show local sources of pollution with the aim of achieving an overall reduction. By reporting data on different types of pollution, the site would encourage users to focus on the greatest harm and the areas most at risk. The site would also identify polluters, exposing them to representations from concerned members of the public, similar to the current planning system.

The UK is in breach of various air-quality laws. It's time to harness the public's resources to police this issue.

Full disclosure: a similar resource www.scorecard.org already exists in the USA.

What information or services do you need?

OS maps, well structure regulated and unregulated pollution data (including name of polluter), developer support

WhoKnowsWhoOctober 16 2008

Submitted by: Mr M Coupar

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

This is something of a 6 degrees of separation idea, but not so intrusive. The basic idea is to help improve transparency in Government for the benefit of us all, by having an easily accessible database showing the relationships MPs/MEPs have. The initial data would be from public records, such as directorships of companies, details of politicians opposed in running for Parliament and so on. Users could then add their own data, wiki style, to generate a comprehensive relationship map of political Britain. I hope this would help to minimise sleaze.

What information or services do you need?

Databases of MP and MEP directorships, those contesting elections, memberships of political parties and groups within parties.

Free Car ChecksOctober 16 2008

Submitted by: Gareth Oakley

Website: http://www.freecarcheck.org/

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

This service would query the various vehicle databases kept by goverment departments and assemble a report with a relatively full history of a vehicle. Other companies charge for this service and add value - but basics of "Is a car reported stolen" really ought to be made available to the public to help cut vehicle crime.
The service could also allow users to report a vehicle stolen themselves - quicker to show than data from the police which may be out of date (see below)

What information or services do you need?

The DVLA and VOSA make a lot of information available about car registrations via their websites, but there is no free way of checking if a vehicle is stolen on the web. The US is about to make this data available freely - why can't we? As a worst case resort some agreement could be made with the police to receive a regularly updated list of cars reported stolen - other commercial organisations can already get this.