[okfn-coord] 4IP

Thu Mar 19 15:08:26 UTC 2009

Hiya

I've now had a chance to look at this and go through 4IP's
requirements. They state "Digital democracy" (finding new ways to
scrutinise money and power) as one of their areas of particular
interest, so we should aim at that.

Initial question-

-What's the status of this as Show Us A Better Way's winning entry?
Will any money flow from that?

4IP's criteria:

•	Will it deliver 4’s public purposes?
o	To nurture new talent and original ideas
o	To champion alternative voices and fresh perspectives
o	To challenge people to see the world differently
o	To inspire change in people's lives

I don't think we can sell this idea as original (as I'm sure Julian T
would agree, it's a crying shame we don't have this already). I'm not
sure we've got a convincing diversity card to play either (point 2).
So we should probably see the last two pointers as ones the
application should speak to.

Okay, next criteria

•	Will it stir things up in 4-like fashion?
o	Do it first
o	Make trouble
o	Inspire change

We can tick each of these boxes. Fine, so...

•	Does it meet a user need? Does it scratch an important itch?

Yes, and it's timely (could we style it with more of a credit crunch angle?)

•	Is it 100% native to digital networks, with its centre of gravity in
participation or collaboration?

This is tricky. Is there actually any collaborative or participative
element in this work? Are we going to make data sets available for
other people to create visual representations from? If so, then good,
but how easily accessible will these data sets be to the lay person?
What fraction of the UK population do we think will be able to use the
datasets and get something cool to look at out of them?

•	Can it thrive without ongoing financial support from 4iP

Are we proposing building scraping tools that pull accounting
information from each of the Government departments - ie, are we
talking big initial outlay, plus small ongoing costs (minimal data
maintenance plus hosting)?

•	Can it thrive without cross promotion from TV channels?

I think we can argue this case very strongly.

Okay. I've looked through their online submissions process, and it's a
one page form (hooray!), with just a few fields:

Working Title / Elevator Pitch / Needs / Approach / Competition / Region

They don't even appear to ask for a budget at this stage. What we
really need to work on then is to flex the participative angles, and
work out whether this project has ongoing costs or not. Once we're
clear on that, I can go ahead and submit the initial proposal.

Cheers

Becky

2009/3/17 Becky Hogge <becky.hogge at gmail.com>:
> Hi Jonathan
>
> Thanks for the well-deserved prod. I've been delayed by unforseen
> circumstances, but I'm back on track now and I'll take a look at this
> tomorrow and get back to you.
>
> Bests
>
> B
>
> 2009/3/16 Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>:
>> On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 11:25 AM, Becky Hogge <becky.hogge at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I'd be delighted to help. I'll take a look at what's required, and get
>>> back to you beofre the end of this week.
>>
>> Hi Becky - just a quick ping about this. Have you had a chance to look
>> at this yet? Do you think we could apply with 'Where Does My Money
>> Go?'
>>
>>  http://www.showusabetterway.co.uk/call/2008/07/where-does-my-2.html
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> --
>> Jonathan Gray
>>
>> Community Coordinator
>> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>> http://www.okfn.org
>>
>