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Forum One's DataMasher Places in the Top Three Finalists in the 'Apps for America 2' Contest

26 August 2009

Forum One Communications is one of the top three finalists out 47 entries in Sunlight Lab's Apps for America 2 contest, a competition to find innovative new ways to expand public access, understanding, and usage of Federal government data.

Forum One’s DataMasher.org, allows anyone to "mash-up” two sets Federal data about U.S. States to create a custom indicator, which may then be viewed by all on a State-by-State map. Visitors may create their own indicators,  leave comments on others indicators, share indicators on various social media sites, and vote for their favorites.

DataMasher.org utilizes data drawn from the new Data.gov web site, as well as other Federal Government Web sites and related sources.

Chris Wolz, President and CEO of Forum One, commented, "We're just thrilled to be selected as a finalist in Sunlight's Apps for America 2 contest. The other finalists have some great applications, but we think Datamasher is really unique in showing the power of 'web 2.0' applications and government data. Datamasher allows people to create their own new and interesting combinations of data, and share and discuss those with others. We think that allowing people to explore government data in this way will get more people interested in learning about and using data produced by the government."

There were 47 entries in the second annual Apps for America 2 contest and Forum One placed in the top three finalists. Forum One placed second in last year’s Apps for America contest with Legistalker.org, and application that enables U.S. citizens to get real-time information about their legislators' activities on social web sites, in the news, and on the Capitol floor.

Contest entries were judged based on their ability to provide citizens with access to information that was not readily available before, the long term usability, and the visual design of the application. Voting took place between August 7 and August 22.

Judges included: Tim O'Reilly, Founder, O'Reilly Media; Chris DiBona, Open Source Program Manager, Google; Clay Johnson, Director, Sunlight Labs; Allyson Kapin, Co-Founder Rad Campaign, Women Who Tech; Cyrus Krohn, Director of Local Programming at Microsoft and former Director of the Republican National Committee's e-Campaign Division.

Voting for the winning application is open to the public from August 24 through September 7. The ranking of the top three applications will be announced at Gov 2.0 Expo in Washington on September 8 at Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase.

People can follow these simple instructions to vote for their favorite application.

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