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Sunlight Labs Offers $25,000 For Data.gov Apps
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Fri May 22, 2009 03:28 PM
from the long-way-to-go-to-make-the-government-up-to-date dept.
from the long-way-to-go-to-make-the-government-up-to-date dept.
Andurin writes "With the launch of Data.gov, Sunlight Labs is offering $25,000 in prize money for developers who create apps that use newly-released federal government data. Data.gov is paving the way for citizens to become more engaged with their government, by providing for the first-time a clearinghouse of federal data in developer-friendly formats. The Apps for America 2 contest aims to find the best applications that rely on Data.gov, whether it be a client application, an iPhone app, or data visualization. Also, the first, second and third prize winners will receive airfare and hotel placement for a trip to Washington DC. While in Washington, DC, they'll attend an awards ceremony at the Gov2.0 Summit by O'Reilly Media and TechWeb."
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Technology: Finalists Chosen In Apps For America 2 Contest 64 comments
Andurin writes "Sunlight Labs has announced three finalists for its $25,000 Apps for America 2 competition. Forty-seven apps were submitted, each relying on Data.gov and providing a useful spin on government data. This We Know compiles federal information on a local level; govpulse is a searchable version of the Federal Register; and DataMasher allows simple mashups of government data sets. Voting is now open to determine the winner in the contest."
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Great idea (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't just look at China. Getting tax-payer funded data out of any government in Australia is impossible. Each government department just protects their own interest.
I applaud this effort as well. Credit where credit is due.
Re: (Score:1)
Now what would really be nice is allowing the public to access NOAA [http://www.noaa.gov/] real-time data from all of their research sites and present it in a manner than Joe Sixpack himself can appreciate (you can from some agencies but not in a nice parse-able format).
The sheer amount of data these labs have / collect is amazing. IMHO if we present this data so 'everyone' can reach it, then maybe we can excite more youngsters in a science based education or career.
I can hear the ads now (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
"... you just won't be able to take a video of them, or send an MMS"
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
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Just say NO to spec work! [no-spec.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You're competing for the visibility and publicity, not prize money.
Do the former make development worth one's while in this case? Beats me.
Re: (Score:1)
The visibility part turned me off. If it was a straight cash and carry deal it might be worth evaluating. But a conference in D.C.? Are they serious?
After years of observing our government's futile tech implementation convulsions I would do anything in my power to keep my name and rep clear of initiatives like this.
Re: (Score:2)
The visibility part turned me off. If it was a straight cash and carry deal it might be worth evaluating. But a conference in D.C.? Are they serious?
After years of observing our government's futile tech implementation convulsions I would do anything in my power to keep my name and rep clear of initiatives like this.
I don't get it. The government isn't even involved. It's just a non-profit transparency NGO.
Re: (Score:2)
What about the opportunity to learn something new? (Score:2, Interesting)
Now this competition is a bit more structured and has
Notice the first app... (Score:3, Interesting)
...'FBI Most Wanted' Concentration [thatsaspicymeatball.com]. Pretty clever!
Re: (Score:1)
I love the easy to read design [fbi.gov] once you click any of those links. I know, I know. Work in progress.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
What's wrong with an RSS feed? Looks good to me...
Re: (Score:1)
Wow, I must have been asleep at my desk-completely misread the description of what that was linking to. I must have been expecting the description of how it worked within the link, I don't even know. I'm blaming the 12-5 happy hour at my work.
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I love how practically everyone on that list is Mexican. There are maybe five white people in the entire thing. You Americans have really gone and fucked yourselves.
Gee, just about everyone on that list is male. Have females gone and fucked themselves too?
Propoganda at its finest (Score:1, Interesting)
You deserve an award... (Score:3, Funny)
Crap data (Score:3, Informative)
Wow these are some amazing data sets . http://www.data.gov/catalog#raw [data.gov]
It is limited to geological, environmental, and weather datasets. Ohh yea, and the usability of the website is about as good as you'd expect from the government.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yep. It's spending and campaign contribution data I want to see side by side.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. It's spending and campaign contribution data I want to see side by side.
Here you go: http://www.data.gov/suggestdataset [data.gov]
Re: (Score:2)
Among the "raw" datasets which demonstrate that this is incorrect:
Global Trade - World Copper Smelters
Patent Grant Bibliographic Data (2009)
Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) Files, All Data, 2005
Benefits Data from the Benefits and Earnings Public Use File, 2004
Interactive Access To National Income and Product Accounts Tables
Office of Advocacy's News Update File
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Hmm... who stops you from building a site that just pulls the stuff in the background, and does fancy processing stuff with it? :)
I mean, after all, you own the data. (You belong to the people of the nation, who own the country and rule over the government, do you?)
And while we're on data.gov... (Score:2)
...how about making those divs/viewports/things-containing-the-checkboxes a little bigger here [data.gov]? There are 30 checkboxes and you can only see two at a time; I feel like a Cylon!
Re: (Score:2)
Greasemonkey them yourself! ^^
Where the whores are (Score:2)
CDC data for communicable diseases with a nice google map overlay seems a prime mobile app to me.
Horoscope Prover (Score:3, Interesting)
Interaction Graph (Score:1)
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Too bad there is no census data on the website.
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NIce idea, but unlikely (Score:2)
I think one underestimated the combined laziness of the masses if you think that simply having easy access will encourage "citizens to become more engaged with their government". At least not in any significant numbers.
Re: (Score:2)
It's like the old anti-DRM argument, though-- it only takes one bright person to crack it. In this case, it only takes one bright person to use the raw data to make the easily-digestible app that provides the right info/interest/ease to get people to start thinking. Not everyone needs to be a developer to be engaged.
why can I not just Google it (Score:2)
Leave it to the government to publish data that Google can not read.
Have you ever had anyone mention the library of congress web site as a great resource for example?
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, that's a rather good source for old public domain maps. Granted, you have to modify the URLs by hand if you want full resolution copies in something more widely readable than JPEG2000 (or at least it did the last time I needed an old map).
Great idea but needs work (Score:2)
data.gov is a super idea, long overdue, but, the available of data in a computer usable form is very scarce. Certainly the EPA has more than a handful of CSV or XML downloads available from its databases. Everything should be public this way. It's just going to take millions, if not billions of dollars, to get there. Shall we start bidding?
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IOW great idea but we don't have the money for it.
Enraged? (Score:2)
Are you sure you didn't mean:
"Data.gov is paving the way for citizens to become more /enraged/ with their government"
Re: (Score:2)
You're also against people saying "Merry Christmas" since the US has "seperation between church and state," aren't you. They were giving a specific instance of something someone could develop, not promoting the iPhone.
Read my comment On Your Iphone! It Works, Just! (Score:2)
Merry Christmas? Nice straw man. And I bet you get angry when people say "Happy Holidays" to you.
Whilst I wouldn't have phrased it quite like the OP did, I did think the same thing about the unnecessary and obligatory Iphone slashvertisement. Of course it's promotion - "Hey you can do this on your XXX" is promotion, why do you think even simple product placement in films, with no explicit mention of the product, is so important?
It's also patronising to the reader - we know what products are, we don't need t
I puked at "Iphone app" (Score:2)
Do we say web application or we say "Firefox application"? Do we say "car has four tires" or "BMW has four tires"? WTF is wrong with just mentioning phone applications? Since when iphone became the only phone capable of having "applications"? Too many people on too much kool aid here.