Mr Richards on technology, information, and people
RuminatingMar 29, 2010
Sunlight Labs is offering a $5K prize for better data visualization of complicated government data. A great headline and idea however I think it'll remain just that.
We need to get MORE USEFUL data visualization apps out there. Useful for who, you may ask. Well, how about for our government employees? Or are they being force fed through centralized government agencies that control their information technology needs? How about encouraging the proliferation of new technologies and practices?
Times are changing, and its less about doing IT work OR doing Other Work, than it is doing Other Work with IT TOOLS. Its changing the approach to work - expand your toolset and do your job a little better - and also coming up with better visualization apps.
Sunlight and others should definitely still encourage these contests. Make cool tools, better tools, for people to use. Heck, some of these may even be applicable for a government employee to help do their job. But perhaps we should also investigate whether or not these people are ready to use them.
We need to get MORE USEFUL data visualization apps out there. Useful for who, you may ask. Well, how about for our government employees? Or are they being force fed through centralized government agencies that control their information technology needs? How about encouraging the proliferation of new technologies and practices?
Times are changing, and its less about doing IT work OR doing Other Work, than it is doing Other Work with IT TOOLS. Its changing the approach to work - expand your toolset and do your job a little better - and also coming up with better visualization apps.
Sunlight and others should definitely still encourage these contests. Make cool tools, better tools, for people to use. Heck, some of these may even be applicable for a government employee to help do their job. But perhaps we should also investigate whether or not these people are ready to use them.
posted by Phil # 6:29 PM 
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