I’ve just submitted an idea into the competition recently announced by the Power of Information Task Force - ‘Show Us a Better Way‘ - tell us what you’d build with public information and we could help fund your idea! Here’s the idea:
What is your idea’s name
The Widget Factory
A short description of your idea
Getting Governmnet Information and Services closer to citizens through existing websites serving communities of location and interest.
Describe you idea. How does it work and who does it help?
Widgets are small areas on a website or blog which deliver information or services provided by a trusted third party. A good example is the JustGiving Fundraising Widget. This widget is tailored for the particular fundraiser and can be placed on his/her own website. The widget shows a progress bar (amount raised vs target), the comments made by the last 3 donors, information about the charity and a button to donate. See http://ruralnet.typepad.com/pride2007/ for an example.The Widget factory would demonstrate this approach for two or three Government Services with the objective of getting this idea ‘mainstreamed’ so that all future online Government services had a ‘make your own widget’ facility that could be used on a ’self-serve’ basis by bloggers or those who maintain websites for communities of location or practice.
We would ‘go with the stones that rolled’ and work with the Government Departments that were willing to collaborate but ideally would like to produce two widgets:
1 - ‘Tell Us Once’ about the birth of you child. This widget would be designed to be placed on any website where parents already gather: eg NetMums; Nursery and Schools websites etc
2 - The crime stats widget. We are always told that the fear of crime is higher than is warranted by the statistics. This widget would filter national statistics for a particular geographic area or interest group (eg older people) and display them next to the national average figures. This widget could be used on websites serving a particular geographic community or a particular target group (eg older people).
Let’s see what happens. Comment on this idea on the showusabetterway website.
Entries (RSS)
July 21st, 2008 at 10:50 am
I think it’s a good approach, Simon.
Certainly, whenever there’s a programme developed which wants to reach a wide audience online and has the right kind of call to action, I think this should be seen as part of the core comms activity.
Could I shamelessly plug the widgetised approach to consultation we’ve taken for the Science and Society consultation launched last week?
http://interactive.dius.gov.uk/scienceandsociety/share
July 21st, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Thanks Steph. This prompts another couple of thoughts:
1) Another feature the JustGiving widget has is a ’share this’ option that enables people seeing the widget to take it and place it on their own website;
2) The other things widgets are good for is for reaching ‘narrow’ audiences as opposed to ‘wide’ audiences ie not taking the whole service but a filtering the service down to meet the needs of a specific group in a specific place. For example, not all the crime statistics but just those that are relevant to you.
Simon