Finalists Chosen In Apps For America 2 Contest 64
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."
App suggestion. (Score:5, Insightful)
Initial thoughts on the three (Score:5, Insightful)
I like the layout of ThisWeKnow, and it's probably the application that I can most imagine my mother using. DataMasher is a bit more cryptic, but much more powerful - I'm worried about people drawing the wrong implications from the simple analyses, but it's interesting in a "data mining, damn the statistics and causality" kind of way. Govpulse isn't really interesting to me.
I'd have a tough time chosing between ThisWeKnow and DataMasher, and I really hope both stick around after the award thing is over.
Re:App suggestion. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be happy with "down to the nearest $million", myself. With all the special allocations, supplemental funding bills, temporary shifts of funds, etc., it's nearly impossible to figure out what money is going where.
Data masher is for journalists hard up for a headl (Score:1, Insightful)
Data masher looks to be a great place where journalists can go when there are no real headlines to put on the news. Just mash anything together, toss on a knee-jerking headline and viola, instant news story.