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.
Continue readingDealing with Inaccurate Government Data
Developers are good at getting bits to line up, importing data and getting great conclusions out of it. Designers are great at making things look great and making those conclusions and bits easily digestible. But in all the apps I've seen, they all ultimately suffer from the same fatal flaw: accuracy.
Continue readingThe Visualization Prize Goes To
With Apps for America 2 we wanted to give a special prize to the best visualization. Part of the reson why is because we think that building up the art community inside of Sunlight Labs is a priority and just as important to our mission as the development community. The other reason is because the only way to make big data accessible to people is often by presenting simple, easy to understand visualizations.
Continue readingApps for America: The Finalists
And then there were three. After 47 great entries, we have three finalists in the Apps for America contest, and now it is time for us to figure out the winners. After taking a look at the winners, there's instructions on how to vote at the end of the post. The finalists are in random order:
Continue readingThe Apps for America Finalists
And then there were three. After 47 great entries, we have three finalists in the Apps for America contest, and now it is time for us to figure out the winners. After taking a look at the winners, there's instructions on how to vote at the end of the post. The finalists are in random order:
Continue readingVotersDaily: What it’s all about
About a week ago, Christopher Groskopf posted a question to the Sunlight Labs Google group. After completing a parser for North Dakota in the Fifty State Project he asked the question: "Has anyone addressed the parsing of federal schedules?"
Continue readingYou Gotta Speak the Language
A long time ago, my grandmother-- born and raised in Albany, Georgia-- went to Germany for my brother's wedding. She'd never been outside the country before and was excited about the trip, and of course, her grandson's wedding. While she was there though, she had a bit of a problem communicating-- see, she didn't speak German. Her solution to the problem was instinctive but not logical-- just speak English loudly and slowly. Increase volume until there's understanding. One person she encountered over there responded to her by speaking German loudly and slowly.
Her response:
Continue readingIs Government a Data Wholesaler or Retailer?
Imagine if Costco announced that they were going to take the Costco experience to Manhattan, and open up convenience stores across the the island. Further, imagine shopping at these new CostCo bodegas, all of 500 square feet, with your giant cart, selecting from what the CostCo bodega has to offer in this limited amount of space! At your local CostCo bodega you have to choose from either 400 rolls of toilet paper, 70 lbs of dehydrated mashed potatoes, or a 6 pack of giant boxes of cereal. That's pretty much all they could store in inventory at the CostCo bodega because they wouldn't have room in 500 square feet for anything else. And good luck carrying all that home!
Sounds absurd, doesn't it?
Continue readingThe Entries are In
As the submission deadline has passed, we've been taking a look at the entries. You should too. They're really great. In total, we edged out our first Apps for America by just a few entries, ending up with 47 entries.
Continue readingApp for America Deadline a few hours away
We're having an exciting time watching great apps come in -- some great stuff! Remember, get your apps in before midnight pacific time today if you want to qualify! As they come in, we're going to vet them and make sure they qualify for the basic rules of the contest, then open it up for judging by our judges over the weekend.
The entries look great so far!
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