Where Does My Money Go?
Submitted by: Jonathan Gray
Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?
The British public have exceptional access to official documents and datasets detailing the operations of the official institutions around them. UKOP have catalogued 450,000 post-1980 records from over 2000 public bodies. Portals such as Directgov and National Statistics Online, in addition to the plethora of central, regional and local government department websites can furnish the layperson with a vast and diverse body of knowledge. However, the time and effort required to learn where to look for different pieces of information, and how to interpret what is found, may be substantial, and potentially off-putting.
A time-tested way of making large, complex bodies of ideas manageable is by representing them visually -- whether in the form of maps, timelines, graphs, or charts. Visual representations, as aids, range from the exemplary practice of Harry Beck's London tube map to the ubiquitous line graph used to supplement words in a paper or presentation. Visualisations combining different kinds of data are often used in the printed and televised media to illustrate broad patterns and trends -- such as the animated graphics that accompany the BBC's election coverage.
Recent developments in internet technologies over the past few years make it feasible to build an online visualisation service which would help citizens to find, explore, understand and re-use data made available by the government. Instead of visualisations generated by others to illustrate particular reports, data could be displayed in accordance with the interests of the user. Hence the user could see data from their region in national context, grasp the background to specific policies relevant to them more concretely and posit trends and patterns for themselves. The service would allow citizens to navigate through and engage with government information on their own terms by helping them to generate visual representations for themselves, by themselves.
I propose to initially focus on economic data. It would be an excellent basis for such a service for two reasons. Firstly, a great abundance of such information exists -- every government office, department and council regularly publishes their accounts -- and it is difficult to get an overview of where money is coming from and going. So, visual representations would be particularly useful in this area. Secondly, every citizen has economic transactions with the government, whether outgoing in the form of council or income taxation, or incoming in the form of benefits, allowances, loans or grants. So, these representations would have widespread tangible relevance.
Users of the service would be able to see where their own money is spent or where it comes from, as well as where money across government is spent and where it comes from. Existing government transparency would be built upon to help citizens discover their own part in government economic activity -- thereby encouraging them to take a more active interest in, and a more thoroughly informed engagement with, the official institutions around them.
What information or services do you need?
- budget information from local and central government departments
Posted by Ash on 28 January 2009 at 07:35 PM
Even the new Obama administration is planning to have a portal recovery.gov to show people where his government is spending the money. I think this should be mandatory for all government bodies. A positive step for democracy.
Posted by jeff paul internet business on 28 January 2009 at 10:24 AM
It would be an excellent basis for such a service for two reasons. Firstly, a great abundance of such information exists -- every government office, department and council regularly publishes their accounts
Posted by Justin Sacks on 17 October 2008 at 02:06 PM
I'm glad to see the ongoing cry for this. Please take a look at this website -- www.lm3online.org. This is a tool that I co-created with two other people that enables the public sector (and others) to look at their expenditure geographically. So this answers the question of 'where does my money go in the local economy'. This does lend itself to visual representations as well, but only if those submitting data wish for that information be public. Please get in touch if you would like to further discuss, as it seems we have similar objectives. I've been doing this work for six years and can tell you now: Getting economic data from the public sector takes approximately as much work as climbing up a cliff using only your teeth. And, this data is always considered 'commercially sensitive' once you do get it. While I think taxpayer money should always be open to public interrogation, the UK public sector doesn't seem to agree. There is definitely an ongoing need to pressure the public sector into being transparent.
Posted by sarah bargiela on 13 October 2008 at 09:35 PM
Do you have anybody doing the visualisations for you? draphic designer wise. I offer you my services. This is an excellent idea. Vote in.
Posted by Julian Todd on 07 July 2008 at 11:11 AM
This idea would have been possible if the MPs had showed up for this vote: http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2007-06-29&number=169