Show Us a Better Way

Job Search Plus

Submitted by: Andy Pollard

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

The majority of ideas for enhanced services in the on-line recruitment sector already exist, both governmentally and in the private sector, they have to, because it's a competitive market, continually seeking an edge. Searches by location, trade, job type, salary etc., finding associated childcare, understanding the skills needed for particular occupations and where to find the training aren't new concepts, they're just spread around a bit .....

The trick is in better utilisation of the information & services that are already out there and providing members of the public with a service that allows them to bring together the information they want, not the information we think they want.

Job Search Plus could exploit the unique potential of national and local government by surfacing a wealth of information and on-line services tailored to the individual's needs.

By provision of a basic set of services:

- Jobsearch
- Maps
- Route-finders
- Public Transport links
- Local childcare provision
- Education & Training
- Company/employment sector data

We could offer a user definable service, which, once created by one user, can be re-used and built upon by others.

If someone wants further information outside the basic set, these can then be added

Consider the scenario; a member of the public runs a search for plumbers jobs and finds 40 matches in their area. They can then overlay this data onto a map to show where each job is. They could check on public transport between their home and the prospective employer or run a route-finder for driving. They could look up other employers in the area in the plumbing sector or look at local training or childcare provision .... the possibilities are almost endless, with the ideas coming from the service users themselves.

Offering an organically growing web experience puts government information at heart of a public service, but ownership and future development in the hands of the service users.

What information or services do you need?

National job search services (Job Centre Plus / Direct Gov)
Maps (e.g. Google Earth etc)
Public transport links & services
Route Mapping service (AA, Multimap etc)
Chilcare Provision (Direct Gov)
Education & Training (Direct Gov)
Company data (Jobcentre Plus / various)

Missing Person to IP Geolocation

Submitted by: Peter Whitfield

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

A banner style advert placed on all existing government websites which displays details of missing persons based on the last known sighting. The locations given would be those closest to the viewers location based on their IP Goelocation.

The advert would appear whenever the website was processing a transaction rather than giving a "processing please wait" type message. So for instance when on the HMRC site and you click to pay your tax bill, while the transaction is being processed details would be displayed of Missing Persons (ordered by proximity to the users location) showing a picture & name and if clicked take the user to the Missing Persons website with full details.

This would also be via a dedicated website using a google maps mashup.

What information or services do you need?

google maps, feed from missingpeople.org.uk, geolocation software

Car Share Hub

Submitted by: Mark Gallagher

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

People offering lifts can share the costs of petrol and possibly benefit from future car share lanes. People wanting lifts can form a relationship with a number of car owners and get cheap transport to thier place of work. Everyone and the environment gains as there are less cars on the road.

Lift offers can be shown, on a GIS map, as routes between setting off and arriving points. Passengers can text to the hub who can pass on the offer to the driver, if both parties agree they can be put in touch with each other and be left to make their own arrangements.

A feedback system could be employed that allows people to make a judgement about who they are dealing with. (already a good working example with ebay)

What information or services do you need?

Searchable GIS mapping with data input forms for Drivers and passangers.

DVLA data to cross check vehicles when registering.

Suitable data (not visible) to check the identity of the person registering.

Advice on insurance and maximum charges for sharing petrol costs.

Mobile phone texting facilities.

Where I want to live

Submitted by: Madi Smith

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

GIS layering of school catchment areas with scores, recycling facilities with types, historical sites and green spaces within walking distance etc. Also could show a map of car thefts or burgalaries etc but this can have a negative impact on an area and think it should be carefully thought about before being included.

What information or services do you need?

GIS maps and table info as detailed above and regularly updated to make sure it is up to date.

Thinking of Teenagers

Submitted by: Sharon Twine

Website: http://teenage feedback, links to other sites, informational and educational

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

1. To have a website for teenagers to visit, to see what is going on in their area. Providing Ideas, schemes etc
to stop them getting bored.
2. Maybe have a drop-in centre, where it is mostly controlled by teenagers (so they have some control over responsibilities, ideas and schemes)in the area... somewhere to go, if they have problems that they wish to talk about.
3. someone to attend senior schools and have an 'open day'every 3 - 6 months.

What information or services do you need?

1. local maps of interest / centres / info for teenagers
2. web-site
3. statistics on 'up to date' activities

Acts of Kindness Website

Submitted by: Brian Burchell

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

If a person has been the beneficiaciary of an act ofkindness they can express their feelings on this website. Alternatively, a person who has carried out the act can indicate the reasons why they were promted to do such a thing. Observers can record the act on the site. Another group who could benefit are those who might be feeling down could be much encouraged by learning of good things happening in the world. Finally people could read about these good examples of carrying out acts of kindness and thereby get ideas of their own on how they could help others within their circle of family, colleages and possibly strangers in need.

Treatment Finder

Submitted by: Tim Foggin

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Simply put, a user will enter their postcode and select their medical condition (and optionally the treatment that they are being excluded from).
The system will provide immediate information about where they can obtain this treatment under the NHS.
It will also provide a forum for petitioning the Govenment / DH on the basis of the inequality of the NHS

What information or services do you need?

Maps, Healthcare providers (Primary & secondary care), details of  healthcare services provided by each HC provider including drugs that for which the HA will (or will not ) provide funding.

Local To Me

Submitted by: Sanj Raj

Website: http://www.jardevelopments.com/showUsABetterWay.html

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Local To Me is web site where a postcode and/or street name is entered and all local information relating to that area is displayed. E.g. Crime, health, education, property, transport etc.

The purpose of Local To Me is to have all local information effecting you on one site ensuring it is easy to find, instead of having to search for it on different web sites. With the current central and local government web sites some of the simplest information is scattered across web sites and often buried deep within other information.

Local To Me is aimed at residents who want local information quickly and easily via the website or their mobile phones. The site will appeal across all age groups, sectors and backgrounds. As well as a source of information the site will create an awareness encouraging local residents to participate and play an active part in their community.

Key features/services that will be provided via the site include:

Local news, weather, traffic updates, maps
Local upcoming events
Local schools, education centers, providing data i.e. contact, age group, catchment, characteristics, current and previous inspection reports, grades etc
Local amenities, community centers, youth clubs, halls with relevant details
Information on local health centers, NHS hospitals, PCT, GP Surgeries e.g. contact, location, catchment, specialties, current and previous inspection reports etc
Local childcare facilities with reports
Details and interaction with local council/authorities for example:

- Departmental information e.g. contacts, cost and budgets reports
- Planning applications. Allow the resident to adjust the radius of applications since they may not want to view applications that are 2 miles away but only ones that are 200 metres away.
- Submit ideas to council and residents can vote which ones are the best
- Send pictures of vandalism, graffiti, dumped rubbish, abandon vehicles etc to the council via a GPS mobile phone, or MMS or a regular camera on a map
- Contact the council departments using an online form with real time updates as to its status. (E.g. Received, acknowledge, in-progress, being actioned, closed etc)

Local property statistics, prices, property types
Local population statistics, demographics, age, background, sex etc.
Local labour market statistics e.g. average wages, working age, unemployment, local industries, occupation type, labour supply, education, trends  etc
Local crime statistics, offence type, police manpower and budget, trends and patterns
Local pollution statistics, history and trends
MP and council member details
There will be a search function for residents to search for data/statistics/reports within the area
The site will tie in with all the local central and local public organisations providing residents with up-to-date information.
Graphical displays of statistics/data

The site does not simply list links to other external sites, it will be fully interactive thus allowing users to interact with the data and view the data without leaving the web site.

The site will be user friendly with information clearly displayed, ultimately helping the user to access information from one source:  'Local To Me'.

What information or services do you need?

Relevant statistical data, XML data, feeds etc. which will support the above.

My Tax Dollar

Submitted by: summer

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

The widget/mashup aims to promote/visually display the positive goods that tax revenues pay for and so aid tax compliance activities.  Additionally the mashup aims to give taxpayers a sense of control where their tax dollars are going. It does this by giving them an option to donate a specific percentage of their tax return monies to any number of listed charities. The idea is that this would aim to improve the social contract between the government and the community and so raise the importance and ultimately - level of tax compliance.

What information or services do you need?

Budget/exchequer information
Links to charity transaction modules
other information - to be scoped

New £20,000 prize for 'prototypes'

THe second half of the annocuncement this morning is that we have a new prize! Your ideas have so impressed Michael Wills, the Ministry of Justice minister, that he has stumped up £20,000 of his department's money to fund a prize for work up models of your idea.

If you are a keen developer who sees all the great idea and is itching to take them forward - now you can. We will be awarding prizes the extra £20,000 cash to the best implementations or prototypes we can find! We know there are some of you out there who have already been doing this, now is the time for those who have been mulling it over to dive in.

If you are an ideas man who wouldn't know javascript from php you should continue to submit your idea! We will develop the best ideas with our £20,000 fund.

Over the next few days we will be posting on some of the tools there are for development and highlighting some of the places you can go for support. In the meantime all the public information you need is here; the ideas are here.

Let the development begin!

City Veg

Submitted by: Graham Little

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Throughout the major cities and towns of this country there are vast amounts of corporate, council, government and private land that could be utilised in a more green and friendly way.

My idea is to create a Web based system through which everyone can become part of a scheme to grow and sell fresh vegetables in their own localities thus cutting the amount of miles veg has to do in this country before hitting the plate.

Corporations, Councils and People alike could sign up to be one or many of the different roles available:

Land owner
Land farmer
Produce seller
Produce buyer
Supplier (seeds, equipment, expertise)
Donator (money - to buy equipment, supplies)

The land does not need to be just gardens and fields, it could be things like roof tops where a number of raised beds could be created or large size pots could be used instead.

I would also propose that the sellers of the vegetable produce could do so at weekly or bi-weekly local markets and the Produce Seller jobs could be allocated in a manner similar to the Big Issue sellers therefore helping to provide employment opportunities to disadvantaged people in the local communities.

Prices should be set at the lowest possible to cover actual costs of growth plus small amount to help pay some wages to seller.

All registered users of any type would receive monthly statements in email or accessible on the website telling them what they have contributed to, created, sold, bought in the scheme. Companies could receive certificates and annual statements for the amount of veg they have helped to create either by providing land or money.

What information or services do you need?

Mapping system to show locations of all City farms along with color schemes allowing people to take up the various roles where available.

Mapping system to show the locations and times of the weekly, bi-weekly markets for people to know where to go and shop.

Contact system / Mapping system for people to contact councils to request usage of vacant land to be used as small plots.

www.buildingdemocracy.co.uk - new competition from the Ministry of Justice

The Ministry of Justice have launched a new competition today to find projects that will help reconnect people with the democratic process. In their words:

"We want more people to participate in our democracy, and we want you to come up with ways to make this happen."

We have been working closely with the Ministry of Justice over the past few weeks to share our experience of running something like this online. We are delighted that they have chosen to go down this route and launch our sister site: www.buildingdemocracy.co.uk

They have 10 ~£15,000 grants to give away to the projects that will reignite people's passion for democracy or the democratic process. What are you waiting for dive in!

Watch this space for further announcements later on today ....

How far to Nursery / School?

Submitted by: Wendy McMahon

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

This helps parents when choosing a nursery for their child. It is particularly useful in rural areas where local nursery provision may be more htan 2 miles away. Many local authorities offer assistance in travel to nursery school, where the nearest one is over 2 miles away, by a walking route. I fell foul of this when I moved house, because I only had access to routeplanning software which didn't show footpaths, and so was not aware that my nearest nursery was not considered to be the one I enroled my children in. It would work in a similar way to the yell.com site, but show the nearest matches, taking into account walking routes, rather than straight line distance or driving routes. The results could also indicate whether you would be considered for assistance with transport to school. Similarly for primary schools, and with a 3 mile limit for secondary schools

What information or services do you need?

Maps, Local Authority lists of nurseries and schools, with addresses.

Broadband everywhere

Submitted by: Cliff York

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

There are several national public sector networks being built which are mutually exclusive - N3, schools broadband, local government etc, which connect up all schools and public buildings, yet this infrastructure is underutilised especially at night. BT coverage in rural areas is "patchy" and the 21st century network will probably miss even larger sections of the community than the 20th Century network does.

So, how about letting the public sector provide a community service eg to farmers, community centres, post offices, pubs!, that currently can't get decent broadband from anywhere else because these don't have enough volumes to attract suppliers to provide it? This could be done by wireless extension from existing public sector wired/fibred infrastucture - for example.

A UK map showing the location of ALL broadband infrastructure and the owning suppliers details  connectivity in once place would be a start. 

After all, most of the other ideas on this site presume there is fast/full connectivity everywhere in the UK and this simply isn't the case.

What information or services do you need?

A change in government thinking (and financing)to allow public sector to become Internet Service Providers in their own right and fill the broadband holes left by the private sector.

Access to infrastructure location information - tricky no doubt for private sector, but government could encourage public sector to identify broadband coverage in their area, and hence collate a UK wide picture.

Realtime TFL bus mapping

Submitted by: Marcus Tucker

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

The main aim is to answer the most basic question everyone has when thinking about leaving the house to catch a specific bus - "How far away is the next one?"

I envisage the system having an interactive mapping system (perhaps Google Maps) at its core, and allow you to select the specific bus stop you're interested in either via lookup (i.e. address/name/postcode similar to the TFL Journey Planner) or by manually navigating around the map and clicking on the stop.

Once selected, it would display tabular information about the bus routes stopping at that stop, including the (estimated) time remaining (e.g. 12 mins away), arrival time (e.g. 15:47), and distance by road (e.g. 2.4km) for the next bus for each route.

The position of the bus would be shown graphically on the map, with the textual data also shown for a specific bus when it is clicked.

All data (both textual and graphical) would of course update every few seconds via AJAX-style polling.

In any case, knowing from experience how long it takes you to reach the bus stop and how far away the bus is will allow you to leave the house so that you arrive with only a minute to spare, instead of relying on pot luck as one has to at the moment.

The system could even let you select your house (perhaps persisted between sessions via cookies but without requiring authentication) so that it can calculate an estimated walking time to the bus stop (more functionality that can be leveraged from the TFL Journey Planner), and even give you a visual & audio warning (if desired) when it is time to leave the house!

Another more complicated use case is where two or more different buses would take you to the desired destination but they stop at different stops (which can be a considerable distance apart), the system would let you track these multiple stops & routes, see which bus will arrive at which stop first, and hence decide which one to walk to! (I often have this problem with the southbound 46 and 214 services through Camden Town when I want to take a bus to King's Cross)

It may also be helpful to include details (both textual and live route tracking) of the previous bus for each selected route, not only because of natural curiosity in wanting to know whether you just missed one, but also because its progress (or lack thereof) could indicate problems with the route.

There are clear touchpoints with the TFL Journey Planner, not only in reusing functionality, but by enhancing the Journey Planner site with additional functionality provided by this new service.

What information or services do you need?

- Interactive mapping

- Place name / station name / stop name / postcode lookup

- Realtime bus position information*

* = This may currently only consist of waypoints, in which case the intermediate position of a bus between two stops can be calculated by using the average speed of the previous bus that passed between the same two stops to estimate the current position of the following bus. This interpolated position information should itself be implemented as a standalone web service which can easily be queried/polled/leveraged by other public & private web applications, including other "Show Us A Better Way" initiatives.

FreeData Live

Submitted by: Gary Rowland

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

FreeData Live would provide the one point of access for all freely available data to be published in a more visual means. It would be a government sponsored site and allow all persons/any one who would like to be able to see and use the information regardless of their IT expertise, to see, use analyse and produce reports, via the website rather than download data in the normal fashion and spend hours trying to produce meaningful views of the data/information.

What information or services do you need?

The solution will allow any data from any resource to be published by the government departments and then depending on the content of the data i.e stats, postcodes, zip codes, the required analysis would be presented e.g. views, reports, graphical, geographical

Forge Better

Submitted by: David Durant

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

IT developers can contribute their free time to work on open source projects to create some of the very good ideas being described here.

Projects would be listed in the same way as SourceForge (popularity (page hits), number developers, number source commits, plans, needs, etc).

Developers can then be enticed to work on these kind of projects to benefit everyone and see their work available to potentially millions of people.

What information or services do you need?

Requires an infrastructure similar to SourceForge (source code management, issue tracking, wiki, forums, email lists) which could be built using open source tools or implemented by a 3rd party supplier (such as CollabNet or IBM's Jazz).

Would potentially require a two-tier system (pre-prod and live).

Medical Research Programmes

Submitted by: Graham Little

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

The system should compose of a number of components.

A centralised database that contains a list of all medical trials currently going on in the UK either in the NHS environment or in the private medical environment.

A middle tier service component allowing access to course listings from third party computer applications with the ability to add/edit/search the listing.

A web display tier allowing other users to add/edit/search the listings through the generic web interface.

Users should be able to browse by disease, location and any other factors that seem relevant.

Another use for the data would be for people to ask for updates from those running the research programmes as and when the programme passes through the various stages of development.

What information or services do you need?

All information to do with current medical research programmes that are ongoing in the UK.

Integrated Authentication system into NHS, Government medical Regulatory Bodies to allow access to certain levels of information.

Where You Live

Submitted by: Charles Looker

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Central government provides a web site where the user enters their postcode. The next page is divided into frames, one each for County Council, Police Force, District Council, Parish Council, ?Health authority. The central server identifies the correct authorities for the postcode and calls an Active Server Page (or similar) with a standard name from each authority. Each authority is encouraged to put a lead story, or failing that a general statement about themselves, into the standard-named page at their web address. The postcode could be passed as a parameter, so that authorities could provide different stories for different parts of their area (e.g. divisions of police forces).

What information or services do you need?

Content from local authorities, police forces and health authorities.

School Holiday Support

Submitted by: Jayne Menagh

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Lists all above activities available within an area defined by postcode. Helps all in the community and particularly working parents or those struggling to entertain their kids.

What information or services do you need?

See above - just general information as to what schemes are available, locations, activities, dates and times etc

Does it need to go to the tip?

Submitted by: Mark Gallagher

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Painless, cost free recycling. You have some 'junk' cluttering up your house, its too big or too troublesome to try and sell it. You log on to 'one man's rubbish', find your house on the GIS map and fill out a form describing what you have. You give a day and time that it will be left outside your house, first to collect gets it. No negotiating, no transporting and the 'junk' is put ot good use by someone else.

This is a simple way of taking some of the pressure off land fill sites. As the site becomes more established specialist collectors will emerge making some of the more obscure items recyclable.

Its low cost, its got great growth potential, everyone benefits especially the the environment.

What information or services do you need?

GIS mapping.

A simple eform to fill out on site.

Some tender loving care to allow the site to grow to full enormous potiential.

You're on the BBC!

Thanks to your creativity and hardwork this competition was featured on iPM on Radio 4 at the weekend. They did a piece looking at the steps we are taking to garner your ideas and how awe are planning to turn them into reality. Now a few of you may have missed this due to the unfeasibly early time of 5.45am on Saturday morning, but iPM is actually designed as both radio broadcast and podcast. The show notes and download link are here.

As part of the show the iPM program carried a short interview with our minister, Tom Watson. A full version of the interview is below. It carries some good insights into the thinking behind this site, what the challenges were, etc.

Add IPM Radio4's channel to your page

Oh and some final good news - iPM is moving to 5.30pm on Saturday - so you can preserve your weekend lie in next time you're on the radio.

Which Hospital

Submitted by: John Lowther

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Patients log on to a website to enter their particular hospital service requirement, whether outpatient service or procedure to be performed. Website would bring back all hospitals that fit the criteria. This could be filtered to local area, or give a selectable radius for the search. The website could allow votes to be entered for positive experiences. Pts to see scores. All pts could benefit.

What information or services do you need?

Hospital services offered from picklist or freetext entry for search. Facility for patients to leave positive vote with hospital to upload (auditable).

Planes,Trains & Automobiles ( or Buses, Cars & Feet )

Submitted by: Jonathan Mayer

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

The following idea is NOT new, I do this type of work in house anyway for major public sector clients.

What is new is the levelling of the playing field which enables a range of smaller organisations and interested individuals to access the same
insights into their locality as larger public and commercial organisations possess without relying on the latter to disseminate their information into the public domain.

Questions that the User might have:-

1) I own a country pub/restaurant. How many people aged 18-24 live within 20 minutes drivetime of me??
2) We run a local Tourist Attraction. If the Number 7 Bus Route gets cancelled, can people still get to us by public transport??
3) The local Post Office might be closing, what are my alternatives and the associated additional travel costs (fuel etc)
4) I am a local charity and need to design an efficient local leaflet drop in a certain area - what is the best route for my volunteers?

Users can be Small/Medium Enterprises/Local Campaign & Democracy Groups/Local Government Agencies/Individuals etc

At it's simplest Level - (the Demo) , the system requires:-

1) A Postcode/Full Address or Click on a Map
2) Type of Analysis Required - Public Transport/Car/Walking - Time of Day
3) Times Required 5/10/15 minutes
4) Data Required - Age/Gender/Ethnicity etc ( Drop Down Boxes )
5) Press GO

System then:-
1) Geocodes address/location
2) Creates Travel Time based Isochrones
3) GIS  spatially analyses each Isochrone against Census (Output Area) Geographies
4) Request required Demographic Data
5) Builds a Dashboard with Underlying Map ( OpenSpace ) with overlaid Isochrones and Charts and Table based on Data
6) Dashboard is interactive - click on Isochrone changes data
7) User can download Data & Geography in different formats PDF Report/ KML (for use in Google Earth)/SHP format for GIS/Excel format for Analysis
8) If Data is not private then saves Infomration to Library for public consumption through sending links to friends/
9) If Data is private - System does not save

What information or services do you need?

Public Data Required:-

Royal Mail PAF (Geocoded)
PostCode Geographies
National Public Transport Data (NPTDR)
OS Integrated Transport Network (ITN)
ONS Datasets
ONS Statistical Geographies
POI Datasets (Dentists/Doctors/Supermarkets)

Private Data Required (if Possible for a Demo):-

Navteq Road Speed Data

System Requirements:-

Cheap Internet GIS System

Manifold GIS - http://www.manifold.net/index.shtml
or
UMN Mapserver - http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/

Free Backend Database
SQL Server 2008 Express (Spatial Support) - http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/default.aspx
or
PostGRESS - http://www.postgresql.org/ with PostGIS - http://postgis.refractions.net/

High Quality (Fast/Adaptable) Routing System for Isochrone Creation

This is optional for the demo as Manifold GIS can accomplish this already however I am very impressed with the following software and it's speed
and it should be part of a fully fledged solution

- RW NetServer 3.14 - http://www.routeware.dk/rwnetserver/rwnetserver.php
The vast majority of my budget would be be spent on:
1) Routeware
2) Commercial Datasets where applicable eg alternatives to ITN and Navteq Datasets should these prove unavailable for the demo.
From a Front End perspective, I would design the initial demo in AJAX/ ASP.NET or maybe Adobe Flex/ASP.net ( for added interactivity)

Where Can I Live?

Submitted by: Christopher Osborne

Website: http://www.cloudsourced.com/Diss/simple/test3.php

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Where Can I Live?
Its difficult to chose an area to live, especially if you are moving to a new city.  In the age of two hour commutes and rising petrol prices it makes sense to chose an area that is easily commutable by public transport, bicycle, on foot or car.  People are more environmentally aware but lack easy tools to help them change their lifestyles.  Everyone knows house prices are high, but where are the places you can afford to live in? 

This website allows you to name a location you commute to, choose the property type you are looking for (no of beds/sale/rent), how much you can afford, transport type and the maximum time you want to travel for.  The website then searches and displays all of the surrounding areas which you can afford and travel to within the time limit.

Its very simple to use and displays the results on a Google Map so you can scroll around and investigate the suggested areas.  Clicking on one of the points displays average property price, journey time and a range of links to search for available properties in that area.  Comparison feature to show you how much time/money/carbon you can save by using different forms of transport.

The site will have environmental and health benefits: it encourages people to chose an area where they can commute to work by public transport, hopefully getting people on bikes or walking to work and improving their health, better air quality and less road accidents by getting people out of cars.

I have already done a lot of work on this project in my spare time and have a demo/proof of concept online here:
http://www.cloudsourced.com/Diss/simple/test3.php

The demo is for London and the tube only. 

I have considerable expertise in this field and just need time and money to expand the service.

Plans for expansion: use the Department of Transport API and create a UK-wide system for all forms of transport.  Using the Edubase and ONS neighbourhood statistics to give more information about areas and possibly create better searching like show me an area 20mins from here with a school and low crime rates etc.

What information or services do you need?

Access to Transport Direct's API for public transport locations, travel time data and carbon caluclator.

Transport for London's "Journey Planner" data.

Royal Mail postcode data.

Edubase for schools info.

Use the ONS neighbourhood statistics API to display more detailed information about areas.

Access to National Public Transport Access Node database.

Ordnance Survey ITN data.

Neighbourhood Watch Widget

Submitted by: Simon

Website: http://simonberry.ruralnet.org.uk/2008/07/26/show-us-a-better-way-ii/

Describe your 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

Neighbourhood Watch Groups are very effective at reducing crime, the fear of crime and increasing community cohesion. However they face real communication challenges especially when a large proportion of the community works away from the community (eg in rural areas) or do not have email or who are not online (eg the older members of the community living on their own).

The Neighbourhood Watch widget would deliver the following functionality to every community website, blog or neighbourhood watch website that wanted it. Its availability may even stimulate the creation of new community websites. This is what it would do:

1 - Allow website visitors to log incidents: petty crime, anti-social behaviour and suspicious activity in the neighbourhood
2 - Allow visitors to the website to register to receive notifications of such incidents in the following formats: email; RSS; SMS text to their mobile phone; SMS text-to-voice to their landline phone; via twitter
3 - Allow registered visitors to turn the notification facility off or pause it
4 - Display the last 5 incidents reported in the neighborhood
5 - Have a 'Get Your Own Widget' button which would take visitors to the central 'widget generator' and allow them to specify their location and get their own widget for their own website
6 - When someone registered an incident the widget would send the details to the Police. To do this the widget would need real-time access to Government data
7 - A beat officer (ha!) or Community Support Officer could also register to receive notifications to their mobile phones when they were on duty in a particular neighbourhood
8 - The widget would also indicate that if they are reporting an emergency they should call 999!

What information or services do you need?

Real-time contact information for local Police Forces
Postcode database

Gaps in public transport

Submitted by: Bob Irving

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

My idea is almost a one-off process. It is to identify significant population centres that are close together but completely cut off by public transport. For example, the towns of Faringdon and Lechlade are only 6 miles apart, but to travel between them, you have to go to Swindon which is a round trip of 40 miles and takes over an hour. It could be possible to extend one of the local bus services to fill this gap if people realised that it was there, but because it is across county boundaries, it's not addressed.

It could be used by local government transport planners looking at ways to reduce their area's carbon footprint under the Nottingham declaration on Climate Change.

Physically it would consist of a county map showing the towns etc and the 'missing' routes high-lighted.

What information or services do you need?

Most of the info is already there in the www.transportdirect.info website, viz. distances and travel times. This would have to be related to population / post code statistics to select the district and compare the speed of travel to neighbouring districts by public transport against the speed by car.

Issues would be:
     Determining population centres
     Determining acceptable speed of travel - eq. is an hour really acceptable to travel 6 miles.
Would be good if it could estimate the cost of providing the extra link but I don't know where that info would come from.

Walk to work

Submitted by: Robert Jones

Website: http://www.walktowork.co.uk

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Most UK postcode areas (KT11 etc.) are 3 to 4 miles across and are therefore 'walkable'. There are many, many vacancies on your doorstep but are difficult to find. This list would not be limited to 'public bodies' but would be open to all employers. A charge of £5 per month, per ad' would need to be made (similar to a card in a shop window). I have piloted this idea on and off since 2001 and received the following testimonials -

'I have to say the response from your site has been excellent, and the calibre of people applying has been very good'. Fairmile Hotel

'very encouraging.   I hope the site will go from strength to strength.' BUPA Care Homes 

'we had 8 replies, filled the vacancy and we will certainly use WALKTOWORK again.' Portofino Fine Linens 

'Just to advise that the position has now been filled - thanks to you.' Lloyds Pharmacy

'It's been a while since I was desperate for staff but here I am again.Please could I post a vacancy on your wonderful site' Premier Lodge.

'a great idea.' et al

Why hasn't this idea been developed further?, I hear you ask. I am way past my sell by date and energy levels are on the wane!

What information or services do you need?

Access to all vacancies in the public sector.

Structured Feedback

Submitted by: Kashif Butt

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Identifying a person is really difficult. It takes time and even you may loose something important which could be saved if you already new something about certain person. If this feedback is structured that person can be identified more easily. When entering any feedback one must enter his/her indentification which can be seen by certain authorities only. This would result more safe and secure community.

Domestic Energy Index

Submitted by: Peter Gerlam

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

We can monitor our domestic energy cost easily but how do we know if a house if efficient or not and also if its improving or falling (poor boiler performance for example).
What should we aim for when doing changes to our properties in various locations in the UK, ie in general we need higher insulated houses further north BUT there will no doubt be local variations that this web site would solve.

Imagine this: I have a house, use the same heating settings, amount of light and hot water from year to year BUT the energy usage go up and down. Why?,-the weather will change from year to year so this DEFAULT usage will go up and down and its very much down to the weather. Having this variable weather data would allow a website to publish an index (for all UK locations) to see if the energy usage should have been higher/lower. Allowing users to make changes or not based on proper data rather than guessing.

The index would be set based on a typical domestic/average UK house at for example 0 using 10 years worth of data to create a statistical average. It will then show +/- % in coming years giving everyone a proper reference point. Ay house owners consumption will then be relative to this set index and they can follow up on this year after year. It could also be a selling tool as an efficient house is cheaper to run (like a car)and might hence be easier/quicker to sell.

What information or services do you need?

MET office data, Google and/or OS maps, energy engineers and some statisticians to allow the starting point.

Clean up my neighbourhood

Submitted by: A Groom

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

If I want to report a problem to the local council, I have to find out who best to speak to, and give them a very detailed description of the location and nature of the problem. I would appreciate an interactive online map of my neighbourhood, like Google Maps, where I can pinpoint the exact location of a problem, and select the type of problem, e.g. faulty streetlight, dumped rubbish, vandalism, maybe even antisocial behaviour. My report is then automatically communicated to the correct authority. The authority reports progress on the problem, which I can view by returning to my map. I could also see what other problems have been reported in my area, and the progress on those - this could minimise problems being reported more than once. It would help residents like me to report problems quickly and simply, and monitor their resolution. It would help other residents who would also benefit from a cleaner, better maintained neighbourhood. It would help the local authorities to manage the provision of their services and improve communications with residents.

What information or services do you need?

Maps, in the style of Google Maps;
Contact details of local council service providers e.g. street lighting, road repair, vandalism clean-up, refuse collection etc.;

WreckMap

Submitted by: A Shobrooke

Website: http://www.southwestmafia.com/forumswm/vbgooglemaphse.php

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

A searchable/user updatable map showing position of wrecks and other underwater features. Help fishermen avoid them - a cause of damage to nets and sites. A research tool for divers and other interested parties. These are also likely to be the people to correct positions and confirm indentity.

What information or services do you need?

UK Hydrograpic Office wreck/feature data.

We have created a site from a diver's point of view using Google tools.

How Much Do I Waste?

Submitted by: Steve Meredith

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

To show geographically (using an online map) which Council / town / county produces the most/least waste and type of waste.

What information or services do you need?

Statistics on tonnage of waste collected by the council via the bin men/women each week. Are statistics for the type of waste available? (e.g. glass, plastic etc)?

Central Data Store

Submitted by: Will Young

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Agencies such as local authorities collect mountains of data from traffic counts to people's origins, destinations or about future developments. This dats costs alot of money and is usually only used for its original purpose when in many cases it could help many other aplications. Although Local Councils collect this data and usually hold it, it is still very difficult to access or even know of its existance unless someone is already aware of it first hand. Maybe all government agencies should be obliged to pass on all information collected in the public domain (provided it is made anonymous) to a central point to be made available to an agency such as National Statistics where it can then be made available to all either in its raw form or via mapping and other tools.

What information or services do you need?

GIS database, probably ESRI

Shipping Forecast Feed

Submitted by: Alex MacCaw

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Well, the feed would be fairly simple to put together.

It would help programmers put together mashups of the Shipping Forecast and possibly location data to provide sailors with the latest weather forecast seamlessly.

Country Activity Hot Spots

Submitted by: Mrs Mary Green

Website: http://Doesn'thave just - just as a concept at the moment though protected by IPR and Design Rights

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

I would like an information portal which can demonstrate country pursuit/activity centres by radius. For example within a 50 mile radius all accredited riding schools, water sports centres, tennis centres, swimming pools, hiking centres, cycling centres, etc etc. should appear when the mouse hovers over. Prices, contact details, opening, availability, facilities, special features, food availability, access, parking etc should all be made available. Whether the centre is approved, non approved or regulated would also be good information, as would public transport links etc. The site could have a direct link through to the "centres" for internet bookings etc and there could also be a "customers blog".

What information or services do you need?

Maps
Services symbols
Accreditation services
Statistics - opening hours, times etc, ratings status
Links to websites for direct access

Online roll call vote access by legislator

Submitted by: J.H. Snider

Website: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/presspol/research_publications/papers/discussion_papers/D46.pdf

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Representative democracy requires that citizens have easy access to the votes of their elected representatives. Elected legislators are least comfortable providing roll call vote access by legislator. But it is the type of access most useful to citizens.

What information or services do you need?

Roll call votes and related information should be accessible in a downloadable, structured (XML) format.

MyServices

Submitted by: Kevin Parker

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Whether you've lived in one place all your life or just moved in, finding the right person to contact about illegal dumping, cracks in the pavement, the name of the county councillor or the contact informaton of the MEP can be a daunting task. We all know our postcode and, if we're in local, national or super-national government we know what areas we are responsible for. We need a site where you can enter a post code and get the contact information of all branches of government.

What information or services do you need?

Responsibility, name, title, phone number and email address of the responsible person and their geographic coverage by post code.

Access the NHS via your post code

Submitted by: Katherine Tyrrell

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Yesterday I tried to look up the PAL service at the local Primary Care Trust for a friend whose 80 year old Dad is very ill - and where there seems to be a problem with health care after discharge from hospital. I asked my friend for his address - and found he came on the boundary area between two PCTs. I couldn't work out which PCT covered him - and neither could his daughter.

How is she supposed to ask for help and/or complain if she can't tell which PCT covers him - and one of them doesn't even have a link to the PAL service on their website!!!

Ideally, what I wanted was a website - on (say) the directgov site or a "very easy to remember" domain name website - and all I had to do was enter a post code which would then immediately generate details of the
- nearest GP practice(s)
- nearest dentist(s)
- nearest NHS approved chemists
- nearest hospital with emergency services
- nearest hospital with a walk-in service
- responsible Primary Care Trust
- nearest/responsible local acute care trust
- nearest/responsible local mental health care trust

A sort of 'find your council' equivalent for NHS services

There's nothing on the first page of Direct Gov or the Health gateway page of Direct Gov which does this - I checked! It needs to be very much upfront.

What information or services do you need?

I don't need any information - you've got it all.
I also don't have the expertise to build this.
I'm now retired but many moons ago used to be contracted by the Dept of Health to investigate the consumers' experience of service delivery and latterly inspected social care services. It was always very apparent to me that people understand very little about what NHS services are provided never mind where they are!

Something very simple would be extremely helpful to people when they have a medical emergency / move to a new area / are staying somewhere temporarily / get a toothache but have no dentist / want to make a complaint etc etc. Basically any of the reasons why you'd want to know the location of NHS services.

Just match up your OS data with the NHS database
Use whatever model you used for Find my Council???

I can produce a more detailed spec for this and/or work with somebody to develop this if that's helpful as I know from experience exactly what's needed.

Word processor for multimedia

Submitted by: David Weinberger

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Take an audio or video file. Auto-generate a text transcript, using an existing tool, with embedded timecodes. Create a minimal text editor that lets a user cut and paste the text transcript. Press a button and the system edits the audio/video file, using the edited text transcript (with its hidden timecodes) as its guide. This makes public multimedia content immediately editable by the public, without having to acquire and learn how to use an audio or video editor.

What information or services do you need?

I need a programmer.

IM Intelligent

Submitted by: Martin Craig and Faye-Louise Craig

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

How does it work? An intelligent instant messaging application that can tie similar customers queries together into one messaging box, enabling an agent to answer many questions simultaneously. Queries can be tied together through an application filtering the words used in a question.

This service would be useful on sites such as Jobcentre Plus website, where you need to contact the call centre to request information on how to apply for a job. Further examples include the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform website, where businesses and employees can get answers to questions more easily than telephoning.

Who does it help? Customers. From a customers point of view the benefits include, being able to find the information they require much faster than searching through the many menus and FAQs located on government websites.

The service would be more efficient for customers than using a telephone and would also avoid any frustration caused by the complicated menu systems now used on telephone answering services.

The service would also be more efficient for government agents currently working on the telephones, as they can answer several customer queries at once, where as using the telephone, agents can only answer one person's query at a time.

What information or services do you need?

It would tie into all databases currently available to the public and enable agents to pass the relevant information over to the customer.

Crime tips

Submitted by: Nick

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

A user may see an advertisement on any website or visit a website made specifically for this service. (users would be directed to the website primarily through ads targeted to their location).
The advertisement or website uses technology that accurately maps a person's ip address to their location. (this technology already exists, example: IP-Address.com
With this information a list of wanted criminals/fugitives known to be in that user's area is retrieved from a database and is displayed to the user.
If the user has any information on the criminal they can anonymously submit a 'tip' through an online form or by calling so that information can be used by the law to apprehend the criminal.

What information or services do you need?

- Cooperation with the law to provide fugitives names, pictures etc.
- Technology that can accurately map an ip address of an online user to a location
- A service that distributes advertisements to UK websites on the internet

Eye on Land.

Submitted by: Neil

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

A aerial picture/map based UK planning portal that empowers the public to monitor illegal operations and provides the evidence based feedback. This would provide the 2 missing parts of planning; the anonymous visual input on enforcement and the necessary feedback of outcomes to the local public.

At a basic level it would be an unified extension of the existing planning portals. This would be visual and available on line and by simple touch screen interactive units in Town Halls. The public would have access to all authorized and historic site permissions and applications for both development, dumping and quarrying operations and be linked back to the local council computers. This is just an extension of existing services.

The key would be the ability of the public to send pictures and pin locations to the portal showing unauthorized activity. These could be anonymous and they would be followed up by the local planning, listed building etc. enforcement officers. Once the enforcement officers have inspected the site official pictures would be display showing the locals that the problem is being dealt with, or that a lawful/permitted development letter has been issued. An electronic version of "Council Aware" stickers like "Police Aware" stickers on cars.

The drive to do this would be from the Councils as it could be positioned as a marketing exercise to promote the good work that the planning system achieves. If all the withdrawn, refused and appealed applications were shown, the public would get an impression of how the council and elected members are helping their community. At present all the good work protecting the community is brushed under the carpet. How can a system be run that notifies you of a blot on the landscape before even a planning officer has seen it. They invite you to comment and then allow the application to be withdrawn. Having an application withdrawn is a major success and cost saving. Where is the feedback in the current system to the public?

What information or services do you need?

All the information available in current planning portals. A new conduit for enforcement operations to be directed to existing local enforcement contacts.

Free (and cheap) fun and interesting places to visit

Submitted by: Mrs Valerie Wood-Gaiger MBE

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Throughout the country there are many places to visit that are free, or cost very little, many of these are run by charities, or are government funded, but there is no National Directory listing them.
Commercial Directories only list places that can afford to pay for entry.
Stately Homes and Theme Parks can be great fun but are expensive and should be saved for special treats.

E.G. A Thorpe Park family ticket costs £105.

St Fagans Open air museum is free.

There are thousands of wonderful interesting, educational and fun places to visit throughout the country and a directory would be of great benefit to everyone but especially families on low incomes and the many grandparents (over 60%) who care for their grandchildren on a regular basis.

Initially the directory could be on line only but it would be great to publish it too and make it available in libraries throughout the country.

What information or services do you need?

A researcher to help compile the list.
Money to publicise it and then money to print.

As a publisher we could do this very cheaply.

Who Owns Britain?

Submitted by: Rob Dunfey

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Disputes frequently occur between neighbours with regards to property boundaries, I even think there has been a prime time TV series on the issue. If people could navigate to a simple map, click the feature in question and find who was responsible for the disputed fence, grass verge, path, etc. issues could be quickly resolved.

The service could even be accessed via location aware mobile phones.

Finding who owns property is especially difficult for tenants in rented accommodation.

What information or services do you need?

Land Registry data
Ordnance Survey mapping data

Skynet

Submitted by: jman

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Various points in an area like lamp posts, bus stops have a wide range bluetooth chip in them. Only 4% of people in the UK do not have a mobile phone. All those people who have a phone will mostly have bluetooth on their phone. So if I am lost, or i need a postcode or if i want to check local area information, receive bus timings, download a tune or just check my email i could do so ...easily.The possibilities are truely endless. As the chips are located in the lamp post they are safe from theft, powered by a current.The same current the lamp uses. This will also encourage a nation of us sofa lovers to go out more as well.

ps i know wifi is already available but not everyone has wifi. You cant take a laptop to the park and use to check your email.

What information or services do you need?

maps, internet, email,

Local Business Finder and rater

Submitted by: Dave Goodbourn

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Upon entering the site, you enter your full postcode. This will then open up a Google map with various icons all over it. each icon will represent a business. You will be able to filter each type of business to eliminate unwanted icons on the screen.

The beauty of this model is that smaller businesses will also be represented not just the large companies that can afford to advertise. Also you'll be made aware of businesses that aren't on your main travel route.

If you click on any of the icons you'll get a whole host of details about the company, contact details and customer ratings and comments. E.G. Bens the Bakers, you must try their home made swiss bun, it's the best in town *****

Yell.com already has one, but it's both limited to businesses in their directory which means it won't list all businesses, and not very informative. Plus you can't rate/leave comments about the service/products.

What information or services do you need?

Google Maps
Business Directory

Keeping public footpaths public

Submitted by: Anne Dagen

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

User can enter one or more locations and / or map references where they believe a footpath may exist. They see a section of map showing any footpaths joining the locations. To allow for minor inaccuracies, they also see any footpaths in an area of, say, 1 mile on either side. Hovering over a footpath shows its status - e.g. open, suspended, extinguished.....

This helps walkers and others who use the footpaths for leisure and other purposes. It also helps the owners of non-access-land crossed by footpaths since it reduces confusion about where the paths lie.

What information or services do you need?

Maps. Definitive footpaths. Planning decisions re changing status and / or location of footpaths. Indicator of how up to date the information provided is.

Pharmacy Opening times

Submitted by: Julian Burgess

Website: http://opening-times.co.uk

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Finding a pharmacy out of hours is often difficult, they often operate a late night service on rota basis. My website would coordinate this information so that you could enter your postcode and see a map showing all the nearby pharmacies and the opening times and if they are open now.

What information or services do you need?

Pharmacy opening times,
postcode geocoding service
Mapping service

Online UK Awareness

Submitted by: Monim Albeer

Website: http://Not yet but I have already built the data framework.

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

Using an extensible (XML) framework, public data sources can be used by the website to create presentations about certain topics. For exampe How to report Fly Tipping in your area or The first steps to working out what you want to be (for school children).

Because the presentations would be animated and interactive, the site would be a great source of information in general for the public and a help to councils for example to get their messages across (they could have links on their council we pages to how to presentations).

What information or services do you need?

Initially core data like council services, nhs services, maps and statistics but the beauty of the system is that because data is encapsulated in XML, moving forward most data is likely to be avaiable in this format as it is the W3C standard for data transfer.

API's into the data sources would be needed and administrators could add new data sources for people to use to create their presentations.