£20,000 prize for best re-use of public sector information

The new Power of Information Taskforce is running a competition on the Government's behalf, offering a £20,000 prize fund to develop the best ideas submitted for transforming the use of public information in a way that will improve health, education, justice or society at large.

To help make working models of these ideas, the Power of Information Taskforce has for the first time made freely available gigabytes of information for entrants to play with, reuse, combine, represent or 'mashup' to turn it into something even more practical.

This data (none of it personal of course) consists of:

* Mapping information from the Ordnance Survey
* Medical information from NHS Choices
* Neighbourhood statistics from the ONS
* Pretty much all Offical Notices (bankruptcy, official appointments, etc) from the London Gazette
* A carbon calculator from Defra

The competition has already attracted over 150 ideas. It closes for entries at the end of September 2008.

www.showusabetterway.com