The UK government has launched a competition to encourage
programmers to tap into the gigabytes of government information by
building
mashup applications.
A £20,000 prize fund to develop the best ideas to the next level
is up for grabs.
"A crack team of data ferrets working for the task force have
returned from their first forays into the bowels of government.
Data available includes
neighbourhood statistics (NeSS) data and
healthcare
services and information from the NHS," says the competition
website.
Examples of mashups already using public data include a crime
mapping application that enables users to see what crimes have
happened in their local area,
FixMyStreet
, which enables the public to report problems in their street,
andRateMyPrison.
The Power of
Information Taskforce is running the competition on the
government's behalf.