[wdmmg-discuss] Where are the cuts? mini-app

Mon Apr 26 20:23:42 UTC 2010

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 5:49 PM, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:
> Hi Richard,
>
> Further to our discussion on Saturday here's an outline for the "where
> are the cuts" miniapp. What do you think?

I think this is really worth doing. It could be really simple,
basically a form that lets you enter:

- an authority name
- and amount, or maybe amount range e.g. £1-2  million
- a reference / citation
- details (optional)
- geographical area (optional)
- tags / categories

Then just have a running total, a url for each cut / authority etc

There should be no space for comment, the idea is to become the
attribution point for people discussing cuts, much in the way The
Straight Choice is slowly becoming for people talking about leaflets.

Richard

>
> All: On Saturday I talked with Richard and he did a great job of
> emphasizing something we're all aware of (at least those of us in the
> UK!): the biggest discussion of spending is going to take place
> post-election around spending cuts. He suggested specifically that we
> should therefore provide a simple way to record (via crowd-sourcing)
> and display spending cuts.
>
> Estimated cost is 2d (+/- 2d). Do people think this is something we
> should do (I do!)?
>
> Regards,
>
> Rufus
>
> ## Outline
>
> url: <http://knowledgeforge.net/okfn/tasks/ticket/342
>
> Post election, there will be a lot of discussion of spending cuts.
> There is an opportunity for us to inform the debate. Our aim:
>
>  * Acquire and record information on the cuts. Sources will be
> newspaper articles, etc., sourced from the general public.
>  * Display this information in an easily digestible form.
>  * Ensure this information is widely available by publicising this resource.
>
> == Implementation ==
>
> Would live at wheredoesmymoneygo.org/cuts/ . A little min-app,
> independent of everything else. Re-use key and enumeration value
> tables, but put editable data in separate "cut" table.
>
> Build a web form. Fields:
>
>  - Entity affected: Index by CRA dept, with an "Other" option.
>  - Amount.
>  - Source.
>  - Date entered.
>  - Date Effective.
>  - Function: Top-level COFOG.
>  - Free-form notes.
>
> Qu: what about duplicates? Don't care at first.
>
> Display:
>
>  - Totals by entity and function.
>  - Cuts as percentage of current spending.
>  - Timeline by effective date.
>
> Suggested approach:
>
> We could do this using a Google Form. We could then filter the data by
> hand (e.g. remove duplicates, assign correct departments and
> function). Then we could copy it into our database and republish in
> desired form.
>
> TBD: Frequency of jobs done by hand (i.e. service level).
>
> Estimated time cost: 2d +/- 2
>

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