For election data that matters, we have our nerds to thank – Ben Goldacre – The Guardian

"Neither academics, nor parties, nor the media have achieved this: but 6,000 activists around the country have worked on a crowd-sourcing operation built around DemocracyClub, again set up by two volunteers, Seb Bacon and Tim Green. With the help of mySociety, they populated the YourNextMP database of candidates, itself the baby of another volunteer, Edmund von der Burg. This data is now freely available, a resource for any political theorist or technically capable adolescent, down to its rawest form.

Data is the fabric of our lives, and everywhere around us: but to be analysed, so it can generate knowledge and understanding, it must be corralled. In an ideal world, these empty frameworks would be built by national institutions: until they wake up, we have our nerds."

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Del.ici.us tags: election2010 structured data politics mysociety bengoldacre