writer/coder

The UK government’s ‘Power of Information Task Force’ is holding a competition for the best way to make government data available to citizens. They are offering a 22,000 pound prize/grant to make the best idea happen. Whats really cool is that a bunch of UK agencies published new APIs to get the juices flowing and encourage some mashup-making.

On this side of the pond, a technology policy paper was released with a name that sounds like a Harry Potter book: “Government Data and the Invisible Hand.” The Princeton University authors argue that the government agencies make thier data available on their own websites when they really should be building APIs to let the public decide what to do with it.