[okfn-coord] Fwd: £1m prize for crowdsourcing online platform

[Rufus Pollock]

Interesting though dubious about money potential. This looks like one
of those situations where you have to contribute up-front resources
(to build the thing) with a chance of winning the prize.

I'm also a bit dubious about this as prize material. Prizes work best
when the goal is very clearly defined (e.g. Longitude, Netflix)
whereas here what they want seems rather vaguely specified ....

Nevertheless very interesting to see this happening and would be happy
to be argued out of my pessimism :)

Rufus

2009/12/30 Ian Brown <ian.brown at oii.ox.ac.uk>:
> Hubba hubba hubba... money money money...
>
> From: Rohan Silva <silvar at parliament.uk>
> Date: 30 December 2009 11:47:05 GMT
> Subject: £1m prize for crowdsourcing online platform
>
> Hi there - hope you've all had a merry and relaxing Christmas.
>
> I just wanted to flag up the £1 million competition that we have
> announced today for anyone who can develop an online platform that
> enables us to tap into the wisdom of crowds to resolve difficult
> policy challenges. In government, we will use this platform to publish
> all Green Papers, and open up the entire policy making process to the
> public. See briefing note below for more details.
>
> This really is the most radical crowdsourcing announcement ever made
> by a UK political party - not only in terms of our commitment to
> opening up the policy making process, but also because of our use of a
> Longitude/Netflix style prize.
>
> We'd be really grateful if you were able to flag up this announcement,
> and the press release below, to your contacts in the IT media. After
> all, we want lots of people to enter this competition and develop
> online collaborative platforms - so publicity is obviously crucial!
>
> All the best - <snip>s.
>
> Rohan
>
>
>
> Hunt: Solving problems together - harnessing the Wisdom of Crowds
>
>
>
> The Conservatives are today announcing a competition, with a
> £1million
> prize, for the best new technology platform that helps people come
> together to solve the problems that matter to them - whether that's
> tackling government waste, designing a local planning strategy,
> finding the best school or avoiding roadworks.
>
>
>
> This online platform will then be used by a future Conservative
> government to throw open the policy making process to the public, and
> harness the wisdom of the crowd so that the public can collaborate to
> improve government policy. For example, a Conservative government
> would publish all government Green Papers on this platform, so that
> everyone can have their say on government policies, and feed in their
> ideas to make them better.
>
>
> This is in addition to our existing radical commitment to introduce a
> Public Reading Stage for legislation so that the public can comment on
> draft bills, and highlight drafting errors or potential improvements.
>
>
>
> Launching the competition, Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said:
>
>
>
> "Conservatives believe that the collective wisdom of the British
> people is much greater than that of a bunch of politicians or
> so-called experts. And new technology now allows us to harness that
> wisdom like never before. So at this time of year, when families and
> friends are getting together, we're announcing a new idea to help the
> British people get together to help solve the problems that matter to
> them.
>
>
>
> "There are currently no technological platforms that enable in-depth
> online collaboration on the scale required by Government - this prize
> is a good and cost-effective way of getting one.
>
>
>
> "Too often policy has been ill thought through with disastrous
> consequences. When formulating and implementing policy why should we
> not listen to the hundreds of thousands of experts out there?"
>
>
>
> ENDS
>
>
>
> For further information please call Ramesh Chhabra on 07738 935 187
>
>
>
> Notes to Editors.
>
>
>
> In the bureaucratic age, decisions in government, business and other
> organisations were typically made by a small, closed group of experts.
> In the post-bureaucratic age, new technologies enable us to reject
> this top-down approach to decision-making. These new technologies
> allow us to harness the wisdom of the crowd, take advantage of the
> power of mass collaboration and make use of the information and ideas
> dispersed amongst large groups of people. Evidence from around the
> world has shown that this post-bureaucratic approach can result in
> more efficient and effective decision-making and problem solving than
> relying on small groups of experts.
>
>
>
> Harnessing the wisdom of the crowd in this way is a fundamentally
> Conservative approach, based on the insight that using dispersed
> information, such as that contained within a market, often leads to
> better outcomes than centralised and closed systems. The Conservative
> Party has already used crowd sourcing to develop new policies, for
> example through our 'Stand Up Speak Up' initiative. To make sure that
> we make best use of this approach, a Conservative government will
> offer an unprecedented £1 million prize for any individual or team
> that develops a platform that enables large groups of people to come
> together online to solve common problems and develop new policies.
>
>
>
> Harnessing the wisdom of crowds – case studies
>
>
>
> Innocentive
>
> Innocentive is a website used by leading companies such as Proctor and
> Gamble and charities such as the Rockefeller Foundation, to tap into
> the wisdom of the crowd and get answers to otherwise intractable
> research problems. There are over 160,000 scientists and other experts
> in the Innocentive network, and they are incentivised to take part
> through cash prizes for solving problems.
>
>
>
> Improvng the Netflix algorithm
>
> Netflix, a US-based DVD rental company, wanted to improve the
> algorithm it uses to recommend films to users. Instead of hiring a
> research team itself, it threw open its dataset, and offered a $1m
> prize for anyone who could improve its algorithm by 10% or more. This
> approach yielded a solution far more cheaply and quickly than relying
> on an internal team of researchers.
>
>
>
> Peer-to-patent
>
> Peer-to-Patent uses the wisdom of the crowd to improve the patent
> process, and has been trialled by the US Patent Office. Under this
> approach, patent applications are posted online, so that instead of
> relying on a small group of bureaucrats, anyone in the world can check
> whether the application is valid. This approach seems to be much
> faster and more efficient than the traditional closed approach to
> appraising patent applications.
>
>
>
> Solving maths problems
>
> In January 2009, Timothy Gowers, professor of mathematics at Cambridge
> University and a holder of the Fields Medal, posted a hitherto
> intractable maths challenge on his blog, and invited readers from
> across the world to collaborate and solve the problem. The resulting
> comment thread spanned hundreds of thousands of words and drew in
> dozens of contributors. Six weeks later, the theorem was proved.
>
>
>
> Harnessing the wisdom of crowds - 10 potential applications
>
> Here are ten ideas to get the ball rolling: ten problems (ranging from
> the serious to the somewhat seasonal) that we think could better be
> solved by the collective wisdom of the British people than by a bunch
> of experts sitting round a table. But the whole point of our
> competition is to stimulate discussion about the different problems
> that we can solve together if we had an easy to use online platform
> for collaboration...so here are some of the possibilities:
>
>
>
> 1.　　　 Identifying and rooting out wasteful government spending.
>
> 2.　　　 Designing credit card bills that anyone can understand.
>
> 3.　　　 Finding a safe place to park your bike.
>
> 4.　　　 Rating the quality of schools and hospitals, to help other
> people make informed choices.
>
> 5.　　 Making　government information - for example on how to fill
> in your tax return or set up a new business - clear, simple and useful.
>
> 6.　　     Creating new technology that blocks all spam emails.
>
> 7.　　　 Locating current and planned road works, and working out
> a route that avoids them.
>
> 8.    Deciding how National Lottery good causes money should be spent.
>
> 9.　　     Picking the England squad for the 2010 World Cup.
>
> 10.　　　Designing a strategic plan for your community or city.
>
>
> Harnessing the wisdom of crowds in policy making
>
>
>
> In the post-bureaucratic age, opening up the policy making process can
> help us to design better policy and transfer more control to
> individuals and communities. The Conservative Party is committed to
> harnessing the wisdom of crowds in a number of ways:
>
>
>
> - We will introduce a Public Reading Stage for legislation, so
> that the public can help to spot errors in legislation, and feed in
> their comments during the legislative process.
>
> - We will set government data free, enabling the public to
> collaborate and develop new social and commercial applications.
>
> - We are publishing online, and in real time, the expense
> claims of our Shadow Cabinet, enabling full and instant scrutiny.
>
> - We have published online a leaked version of the
> Government’s IT strategy, so that people can post their suggestions
> on how to develop a better set of policies.
>
> A Conservative government would seek to make extensive use of this
> approach. However, there are currently no technological platforms that
> enable in-depth online collaboration on the scale required by
> government.
>
>
>
> We are today announcing that a Conservative government will offer a £1
> million prize for any individual or team that develops an online
> platform that enables large scale collaboration and meets the
> specifications that we will be publishing alongside the official
> opening of the competition following the election. This platform will
> then be used by a future Conservative government to throw open the
> policy making process to the public, and harness the wisdom of the
> crowd. For example, a Conservative government will publish all
> government Green Papers on this innovative and open platform. The
> source code of the platform will be made openly available, so that it
> can be used by local councils, social enterprises and other
> organisations free of charge.
>
>
>
> While leading institutions such as the Gates Foundation, Google and
> Netflix have successfully made use of procurement prizes, this £1
> million prize will be the largest prize ever offered by a British
> government in the modern era. The prize will be funded from within the
> Cabinet Office budget.
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