[wdmmg-discuss] Tax Tree and 4iP

Mon Mar 1 12:33:10 UTC 2010

Hello,

I was asked to introduce my "Tax Tree" project to the wddmg-discussion list.

The Tax Tree was the winning entry of the idea category of last autumns'
Apps for Democracy Finland competition. The basic idea of the Tax Tree is to
display the revenue and expenditure of public sector organisations in the
form of a tree-like diagram, in which the thickness of each branch indicates
the amount of money being allocated to the "branch" in question (i.e.
department or sub-department).

Images of the idea can be viewed here:
http://www.slideshare.net/ptatters/tax-tree

I am currently negotiating with a publicly funded media organisation and a
government agency here in Finland regarding the programming of a piece of
software that would generate tree diagrams from raw data files. The
intention is to make an open-source, free software that could be adapted to
the needs of many types of organisation. It is presently too early to say
when such a piece of software will be available.

As well as displaying flows of money in the public sector, the Tax Tree
could be used to display the organisational structure of public bodies,
information on public services (the "fruit"), news articles relevant to each
branch, and public discussion on the allocation of funds. Future areas of
development include consideration of how the Tax Tree could be used as a
platform for participatory budgeting and how calculations of Social Return
on Investment could be integrated into the tree.

I'll send another message to this list when I have concrete details of the
programming of the Tax Tree software. I will be very grateful for feedback
and advice of any kind regarding the Tax Tree, and I wish you every success
with the inspirational wddmg project.

Best,
Peter Tattersall

On 24 February 2010 13:28, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:

> Dear Peter,
>
> Many thanks for your email and sorry for the delay in replying! We'd
> love to hear how it goes with the Tax Tree project.
>
> I wonder whether you could join our wdmmg-discuss list and introduce
> the idea? This will go to most of WDMMG team.
>
> All the best,
>
> Jonathan
>
> On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 2:35 PM, Peter Tattersall
> <pete.tattersall at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi Jonathan,
> >
> > Thanks for your message. Having noticed that 4iP is intended for
> > people based in or wiling to move to the UK, I think I'll give the
> > application a miss this time.
> >
> > I'm currently negotiating with a publicly funded media organisation
> > here in Finland regarding the programming of a piece of software that
> > would generate Tax Tree -type diagrams from raw data. The idea is that
> > the software could be used for the visualisation of all types of data,
> > including e.g. energy production and use, election results, party
> > funding etc. Currently I'm working on ways to enable discussion on the
> > tree's branches and how the tree could be used to display public
> > services and more abstract goods (the "fruit").
> >
> > While the plans for the Tax Tree's implementation are undefined for
> > the time being, I would be delighted if we could consider cooperation
> > later on - perhaps one day a Tax Tree diagram could be one "skin" on
> > wdmmg?
> >
> > In any case, please keep up the good work on the excellent wdmmg site.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > pete tattersall
> >
> > PS. Images of the Tax Tree can be found here:
> > http://www.slideshare.net/ptatters/tax-tree
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 10 February 2010 21:09, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
> >> (Thanks for the intro Antti!)
> >>
> >> Hi Peter,
> >>
> >> Great to 'meet' you! Could you tell us a bit more about the Tax Tree
> >> idea in relation to 4IP? I.e. would this be for UK?
> >>
> >> Would be good if you could join wdmmg-discuss and introduce your idea:
> >>
> >>  http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/wdmmg-discuss
> >>
> >> If UK orientated (as imagine it might be if for 4IP) then will be lots
> >> of synergy with WDMMG. Also does this mean you will be based in UK?
> >>
> >> All the best,
> >>
> >> Jonathan
> >>
> >> On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 8:04 PM, Antti Poikola <antti.poikola at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>> Hi Jonathan this is Peter Tattersall from Finland ... Peter This is
> Jonathan
> >>> Gray from the Open knowledge foundation UK
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> You should talk to each other about visualizing financial data.
> >>>
> >>> Peter won the Apps for Democracy Finland 09 with the idea TaxTree, and
> he is
> >>> going to send the idea to this 4iP thing (below).
> >>>
> >>> Jonathan is involved in Where does my money go service:
> >>>
> http://blog.okfn.org/2009/12/11/where-does-my-money-go-prototype-launched/
> >>>
> >>> BR,
> >>>
> >>> -Jogi
> >>>
> >>> Jonathan Gray wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Just in case anyone hasn't already seen this...
> >>>>
> >>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> >>>>
> >>>> Hi all.
> >>>>
> >>>> Apologies in advance if this is me misusing the list, but if you've
> >>>> not clocked this already, Channel 4's 4iP digital innovation fund has
> >>>> teamed up with Facebook and have up to £200k to fund suitable 4iP
> >>>> projects using data from http://data.gov.uk or
> >>>> http://data.london.gov.uk/.
> >>>>
> >>>> More info here:
> >>>> http://www.4ip.org.uk/blog/post/facebook_link_up_with_4_the_people/
> >>>>
> >>>> If you're interested then here's what we're looking for:
> >>>>
> >>>> - Ideas must cause trouble (in a good way) and inspire change.
> >>>> - We're looking for ideas that have potential for high impact. They
> >>>> must appeal to the mainstream not just to special interest groups.
> >>>> - Ideas must be sustainable, preferably financially sustainable.  We
> >>>> think the best vessel for your product is a business, though groups of
> >>>> volunteers can also work a la wikipedia. We can help with some of the
> >>>> thinking, but you must have the ambition.
> >>>> - Ideas must use at least one of the data sources or content from
> >>>> data.gov.uk or the London Datastore
> >>>> - This funding is only available to companies / individuals based in
> >>>> the UK (or willing to move to the UK)
> >>>>
> >>>> Submit your ideas through http://4ip.org.uk/submit before 28th Feb.
> >>>>
> >>>> Apologies if this kind of email breaks any list rules, I just figured
> >>>> here be the talent.
> >>>>
> >>>> All the usuals
> >>>> -Tom
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Jonathan Gray
> >>
> >> Community Coordinator
> >> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> >> http://blog.okfn.org
> >>
> >> Twitter/Identica: jwyg
> >>
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://blog.okfn.org
>
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>
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