Can the public help you do your job?
Short story: Check out Ed Parson’s post regarding a recent report on how social media can enable the public to help government share data. His interest in this comes from his work as Google’s geospatial technologist (i.e., he can see how Google map mashups fit into this)
Long version of the story:
You already know part of this story. You have data the public wants, but you don’t have developers to build the interface you want. Here’s the new twist on the story. Why not have your developers focus on making your data accessible via xml and turn application development over to the public? Let the public help you share information.
Crazy idea? I don’t think so. And neither does Tom Steinberg, who helped craft the Power of Information Review. They make a compelling case for the social and economic benefits to new ways of making and sharing information involving government and citizens. As one example: Sharing restaurants’ food safety information in Los Angeles led to a drop in food- borne illness of 13.3% (compared to a 3.2% increase in the wider state in the same time frame). The proportion of restaurants receiving ‘good’ scores more than doubled, with sales rising by 5.7%.
If you don’t have time to read the whole report, check out the summary provided at Comment on This. (By the way, Comment on This, itself, is a great example of how social media can help the public help the government help the public…did I get that right?..yeah..)
The UK seems to have the trick on how to get social media to work for both government and the public. One great example is the ideal government project. This project encourages government agencies to make their data accessible via xml. Then they encourage the public to figure out the best way to make this information useful. Check out their recent contest for the public to mash up public data with maps. This is a great idea because it engages the public to create the best applications to serve the public good. However, it also means that, in the not too distant future, the best place where people get your information may not be your Web site…something government agencies may have to get used to.
tag: egovernment, google map, google earth
June 18th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Sounds like the same as the aims of Guardian Technology’s Free Our Data campaign. As Ed says, at least we’ll finally get something to chew over if this analysis is done.