Young Philly Politics' Dan U-A has entered a very exclusive club. He has obtained one of just 150 passwords to the election results compiled by the Philadelphia City Commissioners office.
When he's not trying to get a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, Dan has been on a crusade to obtain information that any other county in the country (hyperbole but probably true) gives away for free - ward by ward or division by division election results.
His quest, complete with lawyer speak of "Freedom of Information" suits and "appeals" (I'm just a caveman), was documented recently by Bob Warner of the Daily News.
Here's an idea for the City Commissioners: dump all the data on to a site in the rawest, easiest form they want. Invite the "crowd" of internet users to come up with an easy way to organize and present it. Sit back and watch us do the job for free. No million dollar contracts. No insider deals. Just let the crowd take it and run with it. It's not like election data needs to be confidential or private.
Heck, SEPTA's already doing it. And by doing it, I mean doing nothing and letting smart folks figure it out on their own.
How about it? Then maybe the rest of City government can operate this way. We could have a virtual, open-source City government that's a combination of Firefox, Twitter and Wikipedia.
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Been in town long, Dan?
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