And the winners are ...
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
Ideas where we will develop the idea further
Prototypes we will be funding to be developed further
- UK School Maps (showing where the UK’s schools are - building on data released for the competition by the Department for Children, Schools and Families);
- School Guru, which helps determine whether your child could get into a school (in Hertfordshire only at present);
- Where’s the Path, with an Ordnance Survey map and Google Maps satellite picture of any spot; and
- UK Wreck Map, showing the location of undersea wrecks around Britain’s coast.
Posted by Mick Phythian on 22 November 2008 at 08:49 AM
We've had loos, bus stops, advice centres etc available for some time.
My problem is getting data out to a central resource with no local technical GIS staff!
Mick
Posted by paul canning on 14 November 2008 at 01:31 PM
You do know that Can I Recycle It? duplicates recyclenow.com?
Posted by Sam on 11 November 2008 at 09:18 AM
Such simple ideas, I wonder why these haven’t already been done? Recycling facilities would be useful. What’s an API? I read in the Guardian that you would be able to get road works in a Sat Nav, that would be really useful.
Posted by joke on 10 November 2008 at 08:12 PM
Have I missed something here? Location of Postboxes? If this data was available it could be fired onto a map and slung onto the web after a evening of work. Several freedom of information requests have attempted to get this data but it has not been released. Even if it was available you would then most likely have to license the postcode to coordinate database to get the map coordinates. So what has this competition actually achieved? Greater access to data sources? Useful reusable Tools or data routines? Nope. Looks like the government are keeping anything useful to themselves or there own websites. PS. why does this site use co.uk address?
Posted by Anthony Cartmell on 10 November 2008 at 05:35 PM
Would be interesting to know, perhaps roughly, what the next steps are.
* Which data are most likely to be freed for public use?
* How much are each of the above projects likely to get in funding?
* How can people/organisations with experience and ideas get involved in relevant projects?
Posted by Marcos on 06 November 2008 at 07:32 PM
This is admittedly a bit ridiculous. The judges had a sense of humour I suppose.
Why in the information age would the government spend thousands of pounds to develop an application to find your nearest mailbox?
But I suppose with all the problems at the NHS, loofinder is definitely essential for the public good. I mean with all those people dying to go to the toilet, the government had to do something.
Posted by David Durant on 06 November 2008 at 12:48 PM
Hi,
Congratulations to everyone. I hope these sites are developed iteratively with early drops we can all play with.
My biggest wish, as I have mentioned several times, would be a Sourceforge-like sight where people can discuss on an open forum the best way to develop and promote sites like these. This would, in turn, lead to "top 10" type requests for data streams, etc.
I'm looking forward to see what the government can do in this area but I believe the real power will be unleashed when there is open public collaborative development.
David Durant