Show Us A Better Way is a website sponsored by the UK government. It invites readers to come up with ideas for what it calls “new products” to improve the way public information is communicated.
Anyone who has ever thumbed through a 750-page document dump understands that getting the information is one thing, and sharing it in useful ways is quite another. So, what the UK gov’t is doing here is very valuable.
As a sidenote, the website sounds like it was written by someone who fell in love with Wikinomics. I imagine this person vainly trying to get his superiors to understand what he’s talking about, then finally giving up and just throwing this website online thinking, “They’ll never even see the website, so I’ll just go ahead and do it”. Not saying that’s what happened. Just saying I can easily imagine it.
Update: What do I know? My ideas about the British government were formed by reading Phineas Finn. It turns out that this lovely website was the brainchild of the UK’s Minister for the Cabinet Office, who also has a blog. Check out the comments.
HT: Contentious.
4 responses so far ↓
Tom Loosemore // July 7, 2008 at 7:24 am |
To be fair, this is driven by Tom Watson MP, who is the UK’s Minister for the Cabinet Office.
http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/?p=2080
Leslie Graves // July 7, 2008 at 9:30 am |
Thanks!
Wikinomics » Blog Archive » Wikinomics in the Blogosphere // July 7, 2008 at 2:12 pm |
[...] The State Sunshine and Open Records blog criticizes “Show us a Better Way”, a new website sponsored by the British Government, but reconsiders the statement after hearing this site is the brainchild of the U.K.’s Minister for the Cabinet Office. The website invites users/citizens to post ideas for new government services. [...]
Wikinomics » Blog Archive » The Wikinomics Roundup: Week in Review // July 13, 2008 at 10:32 pm |
[...] The State Sunshine and Open Records blog criticizes “Show us a Better Way”, a new website sponsored by the British Government, but reconsiders the statement after hearing this site is the brainchild of the U.K.’s Minister for the Cabinet Office. The website invites users/citizens to post ideas for new government services. [...]