[LINK] Government Lobbyist Analysis Tool

[Tom Worthington]

LobbyClue was judged the Best in Show at the Australian Government 2.0
GovHack at the ANU in Canberra: 
<http://team7.govhack.net.tmp.anchor.net.au/>.

It is a web service which shows the relationships between lobbyists, 
companies and government ministers. A tag cloud shows who are the most 
active lobbyists and network diagrams show which lobbists work for which 
clients. The results are remarkable and may scare some of the lobbyists.

You can first select a tag cloud of lobbyists, with the most active
lobbyists shown in the largest text. Clicking on a lobbyist displays a
diagram showing all the companies the lobbyist works for.

One problem is that the diagrams use Flash, which is a bit slow on my
netbook. A HTML version suitable for iPhones and other smart phones 
could prove very popular in Parliament House. A simple indented list of 
text could do in place of the fancy graphics. This could also be made to
meet accessibility guidelines.

An improved version of LobbyClue has been submitted to the 
MashupAustralia Contest, which closes at 4PM today: 
<http://mashupaustralia.org/>.


ps: The Auditor General might like to get an enhanced version of 
LobbyClue which would also correlate email, SMS and telephone 
communication between government ministers, public servants and 
lobbyists, then cross check this with contracts awarded. This could 
reveal patterns of potential corrupt behaviour which require further 
investigation. The software would not reveal details of what the call or 
messages were about and thus would not breach the privacy of the people 
involved to a great extent. In any case, by taking on a public office, 
or by being granted special access to people with a public office, the 
people involved have have to accept greater scrutiny of their actions.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/people.php?StaffID=140274