Progress on Show Us A Better Way and a beta report

Now it's been a little while since the winners were announced so it's about time for an update on what we've been up to, what's coming up and how you can get involved.

In developing your ideas we have needed to balance the speed of development with the need to maximise the impact we have. There are therefore a mixture of open and closed source products and some where we are still trying to work out how we can best help.

The list below gives a quick update on where we are on the winning ideas. These will then be fleshed out more fully in later blog updates.

• Can I Recycle It? - We are providing Search Engine Optimisation to www.recyclenow.com to build awareness
• UK Cycling - We are working out whether we can unlock cycle routes, and how we can help the very strong community
• Catchment Areas - We have created a tool to show catchment areas with no IP problems. These can then be used and reused freely
• Location of Postboxes - We are working with Royal Mail to understand the issues
• Loofinder - We are looking to expand the existing SatLav service to more councils through Mobile Directgov
• Road Works API - We are again looking at the data issues
• Oldienet - We will create a mockup and seek to partner with a charity
• Free Legal Web - With OPSI have provided extra support to help establish charity
• Allotment Manager - Working to find partners to develop this
• Where Does My Money Go - We are working with the Open Knowledge Foundation to build an open source tool

These were already up and running so just go and have a look

• UK School Maps (showing where the UK’s schools are - building on data released for the competition by the Department for Children, Schools and Families);
• School Guru, which helps determine whether your child could get into a school (in Hertfordshire only at present);
• Where’s the Path, with an Ordnance Survey map and Google Maps satellite picture of any spot; and
• UK Wreck Map, showing the location of undersea wrecks around Britain’s coast.

If you are interested in what we have done here you might like to read our draft report. It has been something of a labour of love over the past couple of months and we would be delighted if you could help us refine it with comments over the next week. We will then refine the draft to draw on the comments before submitting it to the Minister for Digital Engagement Tom Watson.