Tasty Data Goodies

Apps for America: the data.gov challenge

Sunlight Labs is turning government data into usable information and they want your help! This year, they are hosting the Apps for America contest alongside Google, O'Reilly Media, and TechWeb.

Developers interested in data transparency can win up to $10,000 for creating an app that helps the public access and understand government data released by data.gov.

The deadline for apps 11:59:59pm Pacific Time on August 7th. Winners will be announced at the Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase in Washington, DC on September 8th.

What are you waiting for? Find out more about the contest and how to submit your app.

Not a developer? You can still check out all the apps and everyone will be able to cast their vote on the three finalists between August 24th and September 7th. (How democratic!)

Charting Health Care Reform

Everyone's talking about Obama's initiative for health care reform. As a result, data and charts are popping up in the news on the confidence in and cost of reforming health care. Here's a few tasty goodies:

On Healthcare, Americans Trust Physicians Over Politicians from Gallup: Seventy-three percent of Americans are confident that physicians will recommend the right way to reform the health care system. Those polled extended significantly less confidence to President Barack Obama and six other groups that will take part in the health care reform debate.

 

Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care from the New York Times: A recent poll finds that a majority of Americans think that President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit. 34 percent disapprove of the way he's handling health care.

 

Congress: A Good Place for Health Care to Die from FiveThirtyEight: Nate Silver takes a look at Clinton's approval ratings within the context of the Health Care Debate in 1993-4.

 

Rhetoric of Rationing Health Care Overlooks Reality and graphic from the New York Times: Article exploring the idea of rationing health care. Graphic shows that the United States spends more on health care than other countries, but our survival rates aren't always better.

 

How Health Care Stole Your Pay Raise from The Atlantic: Health care could be robbing you of your bonus at work. The Atlantic explains, "health care reform isn't just about reforming care. It's about reforming the economy. New bumper sticker: 'Reform Health Care; Get a Raise!'"

Election 2.0

Years from now, you'll likely remember exactly where you were the night Barack Obama was announced the next president of the United States. And it would be difficult to forget the part that social media and online data played in this election.

Maybe you were out with friends Tuesday night, watching the election coverage on TV. And maybe you pulled out your laptop to track the numbers as quickly as counties could report them. Or maybe you were at home, curled up on your favorite armchair, perusing the Twitter Vote Report.

Wall Street Journal is calling the 2008 Presidential Election the first real "Internet Election." Indeed, this election was surrounded by plenty of innovative (and entertaining) technology. In addition to the candidate's Facebook fans, Myspace friends, and YouTube videos, here are some of Swivel's favorites:

• Live wordclouding from Election Day
• Watching SNL's impeccable impersonations and reactions to them online
• Getting friendly reminders via text message from candidates
  
• Electoral Projections on fivethirtyeight.com
• Annotated electoral college graphs 
• Interactive maps from GeoCommons

This was a truly historic election. But it wasn't just about breaking racial barriers; it was also about reaching across the barriers that separate Washington from the people of the US. The innovations in communicating and connecting with voters will change the way politicians run campaigns and they way we watch them.