Show Us A Better Way: the winners are chosen
It seems like an age ago that Tom Watson and the Cabinet Office kicked off the Show Us A Better Way competition, intended to see whether there really was an entrepreneurial spirit out there that wanted to get hold of government data and make something with it.
It turns out that yes, there was. And like a team of Bob the Mashup Builders, many people said “Yes, we can!”
And now the competition has got its results. (And the Guardian reports it exclusively.)
Tom Watson, the Cabinet Office minister who pushed so hard to get it off the ground, said: “These excellent ideas are born out a truly democratic competition which has seen entries submitted for all over the world. Show Us A Better Way has really captured the imagination of people in their own communities. They are telling us what information they want and how they want to use it.
“I have been delighted by the ideas submitted and how ingenious people have been in applying the information that government already holds. This is about taking service design out of Whitehall and to the people who use it. I hope the people behind the ideas that just missed the cut will not be disheartened and will continue to develop them into working websites.”
So who are the winners? In no particular order, in the first category they are:
- Can I Recycle It? Input your postcode to find out what your council recycles
- UK Cycling A one-stop site to plan your cycling route, for those at any skill level
- Catchment Areas Shows boundaries of school catchment areas, even “fuzzily”
- Location of Postboxes Shows where the nearest one is to wherever you are
- Loofinder A mobile texting or website that tells you where the nearest public toilet is.
But there are two other categories:
Ideas where the government will develop the idea further:
- Road Works API, an interface to any and all roadworks so that organisations (such as satnav companies) or individuals could build alert systems;
- Oldienet, which would tell you about services in your area;
- Free Legal Web, which would be an authoritative mashup of expert legal commentary and public-sector information;
- Allotment Manager, for better allocation of garden allotments; and
- Where Does My Money Go, an interactive web application showing government budget data via maps, timelines, graphs and charts.
There were then another four that were declared to be “fully working” already, as prototypes, and which will be funded for further development:
- 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; andthe
- UK Wreck Map, showing the location of undersea wrecks around Britain’s coast.
The judging was difficult, and protracted. You may wonder why the ideas that got the largest number of votes on the Uservoice site didn’t automatically get the prizes? Because we recognised that there were weaknesses in the Uservoice system – one could vote without registering, or just wipe your cookies and vote multiple times – and also that the aim of the competition was to reward ideas that were truly innovative, that would stretch the capabilities of government data, and not just replicate services that already existed either within government or commercially (a surprising number of entries did, one way or another).
Thanks of course to the DCLG (£40,000), Ministry of Justice (£20,000) and Cabinet Office (£20,000), which all contributed to the prize fund.
But that’s not all: the final winner will be announced on BBC’s iPM programme on Radio 4 this Saturday. Let’s see who gets it.
- The following posts may be related...(the database guesses):
- Want the Postcode Address File for free? Just ask (updated) (21 July 2008; score: 27.07%)
- BBC's iPM looks at crime mapping in Chicago (17 June 2008; score: 24.01%)
- Do you know where your postboxes are? (15 September 2009; score: 23.4%)
- Show Us A Better Way offers £20,000 for developing prototypes (4 August 2008; score: 22.53%)
- Show Us A Better Way competition closes Sept 30: get your entries in! (24 September 2008; score: 21.21%)
November 6th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Sadly, as I write, Where’s the Path is over Ordnance Survey map quota for the day.
Try pointing your browser at the root url and then follow its bottom link and then the next bottom link.
November 6th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Once again the government shows its incompetence. A national competition is held as how to best use the reams of government data for the public good, and what is the best idea they can expert judges select…? A website that finds your nearest loo. How pathetic!!!
The search for tangible results should only go so far. Sometimes results can be a bit too tangible. So much for social justice, better health care, lower crime or higher quality education. At least I’ll know where I can drop my letter when I need to. I suppose that is why we are living in the information age… so that we can keep sending letters.
This is not only inane, but also behind the times, when it purports to be cutting edge.
November 6th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
@Bill – ah, the curse of fame. It would be good if there weren’t a limit, wouldn’t it?
@Josh – we should all only ever do things that are completely world-changing? That’s not how campaigns or politics work. Remember: the longest journey starts with the first step.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Some great winners there. Can I recycle it? hopefully will allow you to compare what your council does with neighbouring ones and up the ante on poorly performing councils.
I’m intrigued on how the Cycle route planning and School catchment area develop. They should be very useful resources.
Personally I can’t see the need for the Postbox finder. The big red thing on the street corner is normally fairly obvious round here. Elsewhere I find the locals normally quite helpful in pointing them out. How would I access the site when I need it and if I can access it using a mobile device what am I doing posting something anyway! Email it and save the planet.
Haven’t got time to write about the last one. Nature calls.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
So are all the top five going to be done, or just the main winner?
November 8th, 2008 at 12:14 am
In a response from the Royal Mail to release their data on the location of post boxes they declined the request with the reason that the most accurate information they have is the postcode. i.e. very vague location data. So how come that idea got through? Unless Tom Watson will order the Royal Mail to visit and plot a million post boxes and make it publicly available? I think a “where is my nearest post office” would be more useful given that 1000’s are being forced to close.
Some of the winning entries are very unimaginative and don’t stretch government data. However, “School Guru” stands out as being able to help people the most and I wish them luck. “Can I Recycle It” looks good but isn’t that info available from your council’s website? It should be. If there’s another competition next year hopefully the judges will scratch a bit deeper.
November 8th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Josh, I assure you that for a lot of people freedom to leave home without the fear that they’ll piss or crap themselves in public is far from pathetic. Quite world changing, even.
November 11th, 2008 at 4:47 am
Well, I;m pleased to see something has moved in the right direction.
Now, can anyone point me to a list of UK (and I don’t mean just English – given the current data on http://www.ukschoolmap.org.uk seems limited to those under OFSTED) cities, towns, and villages, with postcode for the ‘centre’ and a rough idea of population (so it would be possible to list the first 10,000 places, based on population).
I’m pretty sure that there might be some rough figures based on the council wards and numbers of properties in each ward, but cannot be sure the same level of detail is provided for all councils across the UK – I’ve only had such figures with the council tax demand for where I live now (and for past 19 years). Is there a freely available lookup to go from town / borough name to show MPs, Council {and where present, County Council} plus public resources in the area (council-run libraries, swimming pools, leisure centres) ?
Next, from BT, I’d like the range of numbers for each exchange, and the lat/long for each. I know that data is available already, but seems restricted to ISPs and competing telecom firms, not open to the public to use it with other data for an overview of an area.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:07 am
Oooops – apologies to Ave Wrigley – registrant of schoolmap.org.uk – I now see that funding will be given to expand this coverage… Some time ago I was wanting to do something on similar lines (though before Google Maps was widely usable) and got responses that left me in despair.
OFSTED was fine with the public (legit) use of the data, while all was OK from the Statistics Office in Wales, *unless* one planned to put the data on the web (!). The response I had from Scotland was a pointer to some Redhill/S London mailing list firm, that would sell me a list of schools for *several hundred pounds*.
Seemed the Scottish Education staff didn’t feel it worthwhile to keep the data available for public access, or for themselves perhaps! I didn’t bother to contact authorities in N Ireland (omit remark about whether they kept two lists…)
November 11th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Did I miss something i.e. a reality check. Most winning ideas will either find it impossible to get restricted data (National security / Copyright ) or will find a site already existing with that information ( which Tax Payers already funds). But may be thats the point, the Government Bods selected these ideas to ‘show us how awkward, restrictive, and bureaucratic it is to access to Public Information’.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
I don’t find any of the ideas particularly mind blowing but the “Can I Recycle It” is very much needed. I have found a dreadful lack of information on the internet, even on councils websites, about what can be recycled.
We have recylcing targets to meet or further financial penalties from the EU but the information just isn’t out there at the moment.
Thumbs up for this one … if it helps us avoid more fines.