Finalists Chosen In Apps For America 2 Contest

Andurin writes "Sunlight Labs has announced three finalists for its $25,000 Apps for America 2 competition. Forty-seven apps were submitted, each relying on Data.gov and providing a useful spin on government data. This We Know compiles federal information on a local level; govpulse is a searchable version of the Federal Register; and DataMasher allows simple mashups of government data sets. Voting is now open to determine the winner in the contest."

Comments

App suggestion.

[palegray.net]

Can we have an app that tells us where out tax dollars are really going, down to the dime? Thanks.

Re:App suggestion.

[Trepidity]

I'd be happy with "down to the nearest $million", myself. With all the special allocations, supplemental funding bills, temporary shifts of funds, etc., it's nearly impossible to figure out what money is going where.

Initial thoughts on the three

[Improv]

I like the layout of ThisWeKnow, and it's probably the application that I can most imagine my mother using. DataMasher is a bit more cryptic, but much more powerful - I'm worried about people drawing the wrong implications from the simple analyses, but it's interesting in a "data mining, damn the statistics and causality" kind of way. Govpulse isn't really interesting to me.

I'd have a tough time chosing between ThisWeKnow and DataMasher, and I really hope both stick around after the award thing is over.

Data masher is for journalists hard up for a headl

[Anonymous Coward]

Data masher looks to be a great place where journalists can go when there are no real headlines to put on the news. Just mash anything together, toss on a knee-jerking headline and viola, instant news story.