Competition Apps4Russia 2014. Open data and "clarity" of language, money and rules
So it was no coincidence that for the 4th time already, since 2011, we have been holding the Apps4Russia application contest .
We are a non-commercial partnership "Information Culture" created just for the sake of this competition and engaged in the promotion of open data, crowdsourcing and the openness of the state as such.
In 2011, after watching how competitions for developers such as Code4America, Apps4Berlin, Apps4Finland and many others appear in the world - I was visited by the obsessive idea that the competition would be the perfect way to promote the subject of open data I was engaged in then day. With a group of caring colleagues, we spent the first competition with one nomination at our own expense, and from the second time we began to attract money from sponsors to the competition and go on an ever-increasing scale.
And so, the last 3 years we held the competition on open data. Data published by the state, business, in the form of large public projects and even by ourselves.
')
And this year, we decided to slightly change the “rules of the game” and the main focus of the competition is on clear applications - that is, on those applications that will help citizens make their lives more transparent and understandable.
Why clarity? Because all the experience with the openness of the state, data and everything connected with it shows that it is useless if people do not feel practical value in this. But the practical benefits are not the ones that state bodies are trying to create by making mobile applications or web projects on their own, but those that developers can do themselves.
We have 4 nominations in total.
This nomination is for applications about the clarity of how finances are arranged . Finance in all forms - the prices of goods, the budget of a country or an individual region, analysis of banks or credit cooperatives, how taxes are arranged and where they go, government procurement and government contracts and everything else.
In general, everything is tied to money, of public importance and, preferably, using open data.
In this nomination we will consider projects aimed at making the instructions, laws, government documents, terms of use, "texts in small print" and everything else that sets all of our requirements, obligations and restrictions clear.
For example, projects that show how our country is structured, what powers the deputies or the ministers have will fall under this nomination. All projects that help in writing laws and, conversely, in extracting knowledge from the texts of laws and structuring them in an understandable form will definitely get here. Or if someone wants to make it clear how they are arranged and how to find the necessary public services. Or if someone simplifies and explains how to pay taxes or find subsidies.
In other words, everything is formal and incomprehensible and what is being done is simple and understandable. And necessarily in the form of a technological solution.
This nomination is about what has developed very much in the world in recent years and is just developing in Russia. This is called Plain Language , in Russian - " understandable language " or " simple language ." You can read more about this in Wikipedia in the article of the same name en
It would seem where does the clarity of language and technology? The fact is that for a long time there have been special readability tests for texts that determine the complexity of the text for perception and the approximate age of the audience for which the text was written. Basically, these formulas were invented before the mass distribution of computers and contained fairly simple algorithms for counting them by the number of syllables per word, the number of words per sentence, and similar methods for measuring the complexity of words and sentences.
We adapted some of these formulas for the Russian language and they are available through the open API , and we also laid out a specially prepared training sample of texts in which there are many ready-made metrics, the audience’s education level and the 5th readability test algorithms are defined.
You can both use these materials and make something fundamentally different and yours.
This is a special nomination from the general partner of Apps4Russia Yandex for projects using Yandex technologies and open data to create simple and convenient applications for users.
In this nomination, as in others, it is important to concentrate on the topics of convenience and simplicity, clarity for the user. And Yandex technologies can be found in their special portal, api.yandex.ru, and many of them, for example, Tomita parser, can help in other nominations. For the nomination for clarity of language, it can help in identifying turnovers using office supplies.
In each category there will be cash prizes, and applications will be accepted from September 15 to November 15, and on December 1 we will summarize.
Throughout the competition there will be a series of notes on Habré in which I will write about examples of projects for each of the nominations and about where to get open data for ideas on each of them.
And for those who already understand what he wants to do and only data is needed for this - write to me (ibegtin) in a personal or comments here. I will try to help with their search.
Ivan Begtin
Director of NP "Information Culture"
We are a non-commercial partnership "Information Culture" created just for the sake of this competition and engaged in the promotion of open data, crowdsourcing and the openness of the state as such.
Short story
In 2011, after watching how competitions for developers such as Code4America, Apps4Berlin, Apps4Finland and many others appear in the world - I was visited by the obsessive idea that the competition would be the perfect way to promote the subject of open data I was engaged in then day. With a group of caring colleagues, we spent the first competition with one nomination at our own expense, and from the second time we began to attract money from sponsors to the competition and go on an ever-increasing scale.
And so, the last 3 years we held the competition on open data. Data published by the state, business, in the form of large public projects and even by ourselves.
')
And this year, we decided to slightly change the “rules of the game” and the main focus of the competition is on clear applications - that is, on those applications that will help citizens make their lives more transparent and understandable.
Why clarity? Because all the experience with the openness of the state, data and everything connected with it shows that it is useless if people do not feel practical value in this. But the practical benefits are not the ones that state bodies are trying to create by making mobile applications or web projects on their own, but those that developers can do themselves.
Nominations
We have 4 nominations in total.
"Money loves the account"
This nomination is for applications about the clarity of how finances are arranged . Finance in all forms - the prices of goods, the budget of a country or an individual region, analysis of banks or credit cooperatives, how taxes are arranged and where they go, government procurement and government contracts and everything else.
In general, everything is tied to money, of public importance and, preferably, using open data.
"Rules of the game"
In this nomination we will consider projects aimed at making the instructions, laws, government documents, terms of use, "texts in small print" and everything else that sets all of our requirements, obligations and restrictions clear.
For example, projects that show how our country is structured, what powers the deputies or the ministers have will fall under this nomination. All projects that help in writing laws and, conversely, in extracting knowledge from the texts of laws and structuring them in an understandable form will definitely get here. Or if someone wants to make it clear how they are arranged and how to find the necessary public services. Or if someone simplifies and explains how to pay taxes or find subsidies.
In other words, everything is formal and incomprehensible and what is being done is simple and understandable. And necessarily in the form of a technological solution.
"Great and powerful"
This nomination is about what has developed very much in the world in recent years and is just developing in Russia. This is called Plain Language , in Russian - " understandable language " or " simple language ." You can read more about this in Wikipedia in the article of the same name en
It would seem where does the clarity of language and technology? The fact is that for a long time there have been special readability tests for texts that determine the complexity of the text for perception and the approximate age of the audience for which the text was written. Basically, these formulas were invented before the mass distribution of computers and contained fairly simple algorithms for counting them by the number of syllables per word, the number of words per sentence, and similar methods for measuring the complexity of words and sentences.
We adapted some of these formulas for the Russian language and they are available through the open API , and we also laid out a specially prepared training sample of texts in which there are many ready-made metrics, the audience’s education level and the 5th readability test algorithms are defined.
You can both use these materials and make something fundamentally different and yours.
"Yandex.Technology"
This is a special nomination from the general partner of Apps4Russia Yandex for projects using Yandex technologies and open data to create simple and convenient applications for users.
In this nomination, as in others, it is important to concentrate on the topics of convenience and simplicity, clarity for the user. And Yandex technologies can be found in their special portal, api.yandex.ru, and many of them, for example, Tomita parser, can help in other nominations. For the nomination for clarity of language, it can help in identifying turnovers using office supplies.
Terms and prizes
In each category there will be cash prizes, and applications will be accepted from September 15 to November 15, and on December 1 we will summarize.
How to find out more?
Throughout the competition there will be a series of notes on Habré in which I will write about examples of projects for each of the nominations and about where to get open data for ideas on each of them.
And for those who already understand what he wants to do and only data is needed for this - write to me (ibegtin) in a personal or comments here. I will try to help with their search.
Ivan Begtin
Director of NP "Information Culture"
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/237605/
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