Over the next few days I’m going to be blogging about and announcing the honorable mentions for Apps for America. The toughest part of this contest, honestly, were that there were so many really interesting apps. I hope that all the contestants make another stab at it and keep at their current apps.

Budget by Chris Zubak-Skees is one of those apps that really fit the purpose of the contest, and I really liked. Simple and to the point, Chris managed to parse and visualize our federal budget both with words and with pie charts.

I really hope this project continues. So often we have a debate about how our tax dollars are being spent but how can we possibly do so without knowing how our money is being spent? Budget helps resolve that and goes further in depth than imaginable. Allowing people to personalize Budget so that it can show how much of their money is being spent on each line item would take it even further and make it more meaningful. This is the kind of app the Office of Management and Government should take and make its own, too.

Truly deserved! Congratulations Chris.