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Special Mentions

There were also four special mentions. Free the Theory Test gives learner drivers access to the questions they need to be able to answer to pass the driving licence theory test; normally you can only get access by buying the official book or paying to subscribe to the official Web site. The team found the full database of questions was contained in a demo version of third-party software.

Poppy Johnson explains Blab to Betty.
Zoom Poppy Johnson explains Blab to Betty.
Blog-o-tics creates a graphic much like the election-time swing-o-meter to show whether politicians are faithfully representing their constituents. The project searches blogs for mentions of current bills and emotive words. Uni Cloud provides a better course finder for UCAS. Blab to Betty is an SMS and Web service similar to the government-funded Talk to Frank. Frank covers drugs; Betty is intended to offer confidential, non-patronising advice on sexual health matters.

Finally, the winner of the competition to redesign the home page of Direct.gov won an X-box.

Impressions

The notable thing, said Metcalfe afterwards, is that "Young people care about the same things we care about." He, like others, had expected that the interests of 15 to 18-year-olds might be quite different from that of their older counterparts. But in fact all the projects, except for the project reworking the UCAS site to provide a better course finder, were as useful to adults as to teens. Even Blab for Betty: it's not just confused teenagers who want confidential advice about sexual health, as dozens of agony aunts could testify.

The other big trend Metcalfe noted – which emerges at every such event – is the number of times projects foundered on the lack of availability of the data they need. Not that the data doesn't exist, but that it's locked away. Who would have imagined that the questions that make up the driving licence theory test would be copyrighted and jealously guarded? Or that train statistics would expire after two minutes? Or that bus schedules would be subject to licensing restrictions?

James Darling and Richard Pope.
Zoom James Darling and Richard Pope.
Richard Pope, one of the organisers noted a different trend: "The main thing was the standard of coding," he said. "They were as good as the older event. They were apologising for the quality of their code, but I've seen worse code when I've interviewed people." Pope also noted that the ethos around hack days is spreading to include industry, where as recently as three years ago it was a separate group.

Finally, there was one other frequently voiced complaint by the older women present: the weekend's dozens of coders included only three girls.

Anna Powell-Smith, one of three female mentors, thought the amount of confidence – both in coding skills and in travelling – needed to make such a trip might be a partial explanation. "I was surprised by the geographical spread," she said. "There was a big group from Lancashire."

Pope said it occurred to the organisers a little too late to try contacting schools directly. Maybe next time.

Rewired State hopes to run its next Hack the Government day in March 2010 in multiple locations around the country.

See also:

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