Imagine allowing an external user to mash up figures on road investment (from the local council) with road problems / potholes reported (from someone's own locally created data collection website) with information from traffic updates (perhaps from the Highways Agency) and Google Maps ... thereby giving an instant correlation of the effectiveness of expenditure with outcomes. It's even easier to envisage inclusion of information regarding planned road maintenance to turn that into a forward looking tool to allow the end-users to petition for changes in priorities in the deployment of the road maintenance budge - engaging the citizens in real decision making at a level that makes a difference to everyday life.
In order for this to work we need API's that delve into central and local government data – so what do you think people need? I'm writing a white paper at the moment and I'm interested in any experience that people have in garnering and mashing up information from government sources. Let me know... all input will be accredited (obviously!)
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