Apps for Democracy:
November 19, 2008 by Craig Stoltz
The Washington-based Apps for Democracy competition surfaced some creative, useful mash-ups worth a look.
A contest was sponsored by the D.C. government’s [comical government redundancy nomenclature alert!] Office of the Chief Technology Officer, Mashable, and local a firm called iStrategy Labs, whose owner, Peter Corbett, is fast becoming a social grandmaster in the Washing2on ™* scene.
The event asked people to mash-up public information into applications that might actually be useful.
The “Indie” Gold Medal winner: iLive.at
Nothing truly new here–not all that different, on first pass, from a Mapquest map. It layers on some demographic pie-charts and parses facilities into useful categories–errands, recreation, Did You Know?, etc. [The location specified on the map above is the "starter" house my wife and I bought in a then-dodgy D.C. neighborhood called Mt. Pleasant. And no, I didn't know the Embassy of the Czech Republic was .7 miles away.]
Other winners pull together data for carpool match-ups [the "People's Choice" winner], pedestrians, building permits, and something called Hansen reports, which are requests for city services, from “flashing parking meters” to “dead animal pick-up.”
It’s high-fallutin’ to call this “Apps for Democracy,” which make you expect voter turnout information or government accountability reporting. It’s more like “Apps for Civic Life.” But I admit that would be a harder sell.
* That “Washing2on” coinage is mine. I’m trying to find a label that’ll stick for the surprisingly vibrant D.C.-area social media mini-industry . Hey, it’s a start. You got better? Leave a comment.
And interesting to think about what’s next for these entries–two of the winners (Stumble Safely and DC Bikes) were from Development Seed, the Drupal firm that built Knight Pulse.
I think those projects have a life beyond the contest–
“Apps for Civic Life”? Can you think of other governments that make this kind of data public? I think “democracy” is pretty fitting. Good bye, bureaucracy!
Fair point, anon.
I made too little of the government’s support here of public dissemination of the data into the hands of The People.
It’s required by law that most of this kind of information be made public, of course–by all state and local governments–but the DC government’s cooperation in an effort to get it out into citizen’s hands via creative digital applications is commendable.
And downright democratic.
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