To encourage participation we will :

• Make adding and interacting with data fun
• Reward contributors with prizes provided by local business
• Ask users to suggest and vote on ideas for new applications to be built (or data to be made available)

We want to concentrate on information that is publicly available and combine this with some extra local knowledge to make it more interesting.

Our first goal is to build fun and useful applications to introduce the idea - To start the project these applications will contain simple data like locations and events. For example :

(for location data)

• Where are all the best playgrounds?
• Where are the recycling points?
• Where are the best places to buy fish?
• Where are all the current constructions projects?

(for event data)

• When are the public holidays?
• When are the main festivals?
• When do the museum exhibitions start and finish?
• When should I take my household waste out?

Lost in Basel is a set of mini prototype apps that take public information and enhance them with the benefits of a well made web application. For example the “waste collection calendar” data is stuck behind a PDF and printed map. We extracted the data, stuck it into a spreadsheet on google docs (for collaborative editing) and then imported into our simple app - “abfall heute”. The application will provide calendar subscriptions or email alerts so you never miss the special “waste collection” times.

Our plan is to create more fun and useful information sites like this, with the same process - extract the public data and store it in an open google spreadsheet so that other people can use or update the information. Most of the hard work is around collecting and cleaning the data. For now, the google spreadsheet is a simple solution to the collaboration and data storage problem, but we think this part of the process can be greatly improved.

We want to create a platform that makes contributing data fun and rewarding. We want to make it as easy as managing a spreadsheet, or sending an email. To encourage involvement we will provide rewards to users for contributing data. These rewards will be provided by local businesses (Free spa treatment, Free meal etc.) - this will also work as an advertising network for local business. The level of contribution will range from owning / managing a whole application (e.g. managing the playground directory), adding or updating data, or just voting on data (favourite locations etc.) Another level of contribution will be to submit and vote on ideas for new applications.

We want to speed up the process of making public open data a reality and make sure its done in the right way.