Government makes available large amounts of numbers about other levels of (local) Government. It locks them up in boring spreadsheets, with dull tables, in much the same way it buries useful information behind the clunky direct.gov.uk portal.
Some of this data is dull, some of it is quite interesting. And when it’s all made available in machine readable formats, it becomes easier to fiddle with it and do nice things which it wasn’t actually ever intended to be used for – such as be the input to a card game. The aim is to win all the cards, by selecting a better metric than your opponent (the computer). Thanks to Matthew for the code
Why do this? Because we can (and I needed an example for the NeSS API although didn’t end up using it due the lack of a postcode lookup file for each LA) and because it’s useful to learn about the country as it is, rather than how we think it is (or we thought it was). There’s much more than can be done in this area.
For that reason, I’ve also done one based on country information (see the iQuango announcement post (which escaped when I pressed the wrong button, so is incomplete – sorry)).
iQuango.org will have two parts.
Firstly, in the same way that theUNsays.com makes what the Secretary General says alertable and commentable (like theWhitehouseSays.com and DowningStreetSays.com), we can extend that to the many, many International Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations who operate on behalf of the world community (IMF, WorldBank, IAEA et al) with substantial public interest in what they say, and potentially divergent or contradictory. The unspun announcements from the original source, easily linkable and commentable.
Once we have a few of those (starting with the easy ones and moving up) it’s then possible and easy to draw together the announcements on things of interest, made by many NGO’s working internationally. Many organisations work in similar geographic areas or on similar themes (or both) and put out press releases and announcements on their topics of interest, but it’s not something we get to see (watch tonight’s news, and see how many times Tibet is mentioned). And unless you can look across multiple areas, you get very different suggestions about what’s going on in one small part of Africa – for example – and that’s just 3 view points, and doesn’t reflect a diverse continent. How much richer would that be with MSF, World Food Programme and other agencies included, showing what they said and when they said it.
The idea is based on Larry Brilliant’s design for a global health monitoring system. This is slightly narrower in terms of inputs (english announcements from NGOs), but much simple and wider in terms of outputs (any keyword you want to search for). Not all of it needs to be (or will be) on this site – the above DSS/UNSays/WHsays/SpinDifferent model shows it can be distributed and things get pulled in. Adding an individual organisation isn’t complicated and isn’t time consuming – it just needs someone to care about that organisation. While some NGOs might help, most wont. It’ll be faster if you help.
If you’re interesting in lending a hand to cover your favourite NGO, drop me an email.
The Assault on Reason is the new book by Al Gore, covering the fall and, well, fall, of the level of political debate in the US and the level of political knowledge and engagement of the US citizenry.
While not having the sex appeal of the environment, the topic is detailed and well tied together covering the different threads of government bound by the secrecy and ideology of the Bush administration. If you’re interested in the levels of and tone of public debate, not just in the US but in the UK (or any other country) then it’s very much worth reading. The examples and narrative draw together the strategies, decisions and consequences, drawing on past decisions with their outcomes, and extrapolating to potential future consequences of near-term decisions.
One thing that’s missing (probably deliberately) is a suggestion or pointer for reversal of that decline. There’s a discussion of the internet and the scope that it provides for enhanced debate and better engagement. But that’s not particularly news. Where “An Inconvenient Truth” left off, there was a website which encouraged you to use what you’ve learnt and make a difference.
The fact that there isn’t shouldn’t be considered a weakness of the book – it’s not.
Is one option something like a “Spin School” resource? Aimed at informing those working on issues to help them learn, share and steal ideas from others in areas. The large organised groups that work to further their own interests at the expense of those without the lobbyists or strategists know the focus on spin and style, but the less organised, ad hoc groups set up to counter them may not have access to the best counter-measures. While “Bad facts don’t make for good spin”, if the conversation stays on the things that don’t matter, the things that do get ignored. And sometimes those interests will make meaningless “concessions” which are vastly overstated as large and substantial changes, or otherwise attack very close to home.
Disruptive Proactivity