By Rob O'Brien

Public competitions to mashup government data are not likely to offer value until governments actually get involved themselves, a leading e-government expert has said.

Responding to Victoria's recently launched App My State competition in his blog, senior Gartner analyst and e-government expert Anrea Di Maio said that until governments participate mashups would be more about the publicity rather than the ideas.

“I am convinced that, until government employees become active participants of these initiatives and apply their expertise and enthusiasm to rating, debating, clustering and even transforming raw ideas from activists and citizens, the main results of these contests will be the media coverage they get," he said.
 
The Victorian Government last week released 90 data sets for App My State. Criteria for applications includes: usefulness to Victorians and value to the community; uniqueness and useability; design and development; and, the overall appeal and ‘vibe’ of entries.

Competitions to innovate with government data tend to attract a niche audience of developers, drawn in by the cash prizes on offer - $100,000 in the case of App My State.

The Mashup Australia competition, run by the Federal Government's Gov 2.0 Taskforce last year received just 81 entries.

“I am pretty sure that, with such prizes, more people than the few who responded to similar contests in the US will roll their sleeves and exercise their imagination,” Mr Di Maio said.

However, he added that until governments actively participated in how data sets were being used by citizens, the value of the applications would be questionable.

“Will this lead to a radically new set of ideas? Unlikely, even if richer prizes may attract a larger audience."