Mapping every block
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 | This post was written by Fiona MelvilleFollowing up on yesterday’s post about the Big Society, I found an American site called everyblock. It is a hugely detailed (though not yet exhaustive) resource giving information, links, data, advice and loads more about cities, neighbourhoods, even individual blocks in some US cities.
In the news over the weekend were the first indications about what will be in the Queen’s Speech. Setting aside the fact that the Tories complained their way through 13 years of Labour pre-announcements and really ought to know better than to copy their media management style, there was some great stuff in there: scrapping ID cards and the national database, the Equitable Life bill, fulfilling the aid pledge, and so on.
But the most radical bills are the ones that open up government and give control back to individuals and communities – the police bill, the schools bills, the Great Repeal bill, the localism bill. Perhaps most significantly, a bill which reinforces the Freedom of Information Act doesn’t seem to be in the leaked list… This is the big one – the one that should reverse the presumption that data belongs to the government. It does not – it belongs to us, and unless there is a pressing reason for it to be kept secret, it should be released without us having to ask.
The localism bills are the ones that will really test whether this government means what it says. Once the legislation is through to, for example, set up an independent Office for Budget Responsbility or to require police authorities to publish detailed crime maps, the government MUST leave them to get on with it.
They cannot say ‘we support localism’ and then intervene every time someone demands action against, for example, a postcode lottery. In opposition, Francis Maude and George Osborne both underlined that they actively wanted postcode lotteries so I’m looking forward to hearing them continue to defend them once the localism bills start producing results.
But similarly, we as citizens have a responsibility to engage in our local services. As I’ve argued before, you can’t complain about politicians if you don’t vote. So equally, we can’t complain about our public services if we ignore them until something goes wrong. A resource like everyblock would enable us to have lots of information about our local areas brought together in one place.
For example, I now live in a completely different area to the one I lived in when I first came to London. I have no idea where the library is, what the recycling is like, where the nice food shops are, how to find a trustworthy plumber, what famous people live nearby, what the crime rate is… it would be great to have that all in one place, and provided by people without a financial interest in, for example, steering you towards their shop. A lot of this information will come from your council, but so often they are unable to provide it in anything approaching a usable format.
I’m sure that localism and free data will throw up some problems along the way. But I’m also sure that being open about the problems is a better way to solve them than pretending that everyone has exactly the same level of responsiveness from their government. And most importantly, I believe that opening up data, transparency about where taxpayers’ money is going, and ensuring that everyone has proper choices in how their public services are run is going to revolutionise the way we live.
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