Posts tagged with: Apps
February 02, 2010
Civic App Contests: User-friendly local data complements journalism
The news isn’t just about stories anymore. Increasingly, people discover their own news by directly exploring local information—via software applications that make raw civic data easier to understand.
Civic data applications can be web-based (such as OaklandCrimespotting and other crime maps), mobile (such as SeeClickFix), or layered onto social media (such as the DC 311 Facebook app).
Most journalists and news orgs don’t have the technical skills to build civic data applications on their own. However, their insight into the news value of local civic data could make civic apps even more useful and engaging. If more journalists would team with programmers, the result could be a wealth of civic apps that are not only popular with (and useful to) communities, but that also help support news organizations and journalism.
Getting involved with—or even helping to organize—a local “Apps for Democracy” contest is one way to jump-start this process…
By Amy Gahran
(This is part of a series of guest posts by Amy Gahran. Amy is looking how news organizations and other institutions can implement the findings of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, This joint project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute Communications and Society program produced the report, “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age.” Read all posts in this series.)
Apps for Democracy is a Washington DC contest first held in 2008. It was created by iStrategy Labs at the request of Vivek Kundra (then-Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia, now U.S. Chief Information Officer) as a way to make DC.gov’s data catalog useful for citizens, visitors, businesses, and government agencies in D.C.
The Apps for Democracy concept is simple: Contestants compete for cash prizes by using “at least one data source from the D.C. data catalog to build an application of some kind.” The result: In its first year, the contest cost Washington D.C. $50,000 to run, and yielded 47 iPhone, Facebook, and web applications—the value of which is estimated at more than $2.3 million.
This success inspired emulation. There’s now a federal Apps for America contest (from the Sunlight Foundation), plus similar competitions in New York City and San Francisco.
Apps for Democracy recently published a guide, How to Run Your Own Apps for Democracy Innovation Contest, intended mainly for local government officials.
I was a judge in the 2009 San Francisco contest, and that experience inspired me to write this article. Despite the best efforts of sponsors Spot.us and the California Center for Investigative Reporting, that contest attracted a fairly small number of contestant teams. The winning projects were definitely good, but the apps were few.
It occurred to me then: Had local news organizations, journalists, and bloggers been more engaged in the contest run-up, the results might have been more significant—especially considering that San Francisco has an strong community of civic app developers. (See the DataSF app showcase.)
ACTION STEPS: Here are some ways that journalists, news orgs, and other members of the local news ecosystem can support—and get mileage from—a local apps for democracy contest. This is easiest if you cover a major metro area, but it also can apply to smaller cities and suburbs, or to larger regions such as counties or states:
- Download and read the contest guide. Share it with local government officials and civic activists. Talk with them about whether and how such a contest might benefit your city.
- List local civic data resources. Many agencies at all levels of government are facing new transparency mandates. There may be more local civic data available now than before—and officials might be especially willing to publicize it. Ask your local government CIO or CTO for a dataset catalog or list. Publish that information online and elsewhere, as a starting point for public discussion of how to make that data more useful and engaging. Ask citizens to vote, comment, or otherwise join this discussion.
- Assess local developer interest. If there was a local civic app contest with prizes, might they participate? Most cities have developer groups for PHP, Ruby on Rails, MySQL, and other relevant types of programming. Find these and attend their meetings or discuss the contest idea on their forums. Show them the list of available local datasets. Getting influential developers to champion the contest can be the key to success.
- Find Government 2.0 advocates in your local government. These people are typically passionate about transparency and eager to help, and they can be valuable allies in finding government support (such as funding for prizes).
- Involve local journalists. Although much more government data is being published, most of it is pretty ugly and cryptic. Ask local beat reporters and civic-minded bloggers: Which ugly local government datasets are potentially the most valuable, useful, or interesting?
- Involve your community. Apps for Democracy offers a public forum where anyone can suggest an app need or idea for Washington D.C., and community members can vote for their favorite suggestions. This is powered by Uservoice, a voting-based forum service that offers free, cheap, and premium accounts. It’s one way to gauge community demand for civic info, and gain champions in the community.
- Sponsor and promote an apps contest. News organizations could either sponsor the contest directly, or encourage advertisers or partners to sponsor it. Prizes are key, and the prizes (whether cash, goods, or services) must come from somewhere. Also, publicizing the apps contest in the news venue at least a month or two before the event can help drum up public interest and support as well as attract more (and more qualified) contestants.
- If you’re independent, Consider volunteering to help organize or promote the contest, or to recruit sponsors.
- Involve journalist advisors. As contestants enter, they can opt to confidentially disclose to contest organizers the type of data their app will use. Contest organizers then could pair developer teams with journalists who cover related local topics to add news/storytelling insight to the process. Also, encourage developers to build in ways that users can share info from or via the apps, so that more people can see the value of accessing this data. Also, encourage developers to build apps that are easy to create widgets from, for wider distribution.
- Consider alternative approaches. If a local civic apps contest doesn’t seem like the best strategy, consider borrowing ideas from civic innovation and improvement services, such as ManorLabs and SeeClickFix, to spur local civic app development.
After the contest: Be sure to use and publicize those local civic apps! Name them and link to them. Where available, embed their widgets on your site. Use the data and graphics they provide in your news coverage. Create your own local civic app showcase.
Also, apps developers often seek local advertisers and sponsors. Whether or not your community has a civic apps contest, consider approaching local developers for sponsorship and advertising opportunities. Especially if you could syndicate to their app in real time your latest headlines on topics with a similar focus. This might prove far more effective than standard brand-only marketing.
By Amy Gahran, 02/02/10 at 6:00 am
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