Comments on: Reporting council spending: a taste of things to come http://phase2.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/2010/07/13/reporting-council-spending-a-taste-of-things-to-come/ Showing you where your taxes get spent Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:52:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Theunis Viljoen http://phase2.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/2010/07/13/reporting-council-spending-a-taste-of-things-to-come/#comment-377 Theunis Viljoen Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:37:27 +0000 http://www.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/?p=603#comment-377 <p>Although some Councils have already started to publish details of payments to suppliers over £500, there is obviously a reticense to develop costly reporting solutions. Councils therefore appear to publish the information in downloadable format either as Excel spreadsheets or PDF documents. Although this may 'tick' the required disclosure requirements, we do not believe that this provides real value to the public.</p> <p>Information such as this only has real value if it can be viewed in context (i.e. is a payment normal or abnormal). For a user to be able to make this interpretation, they may need to be able to look at spend in a month for a particular expense category against similar spend in previous periods or against other categories.</p> <p>BIOLAP has developed an application, driven by arcplan technology, that we will provide to Councils free of charge to allow members of the public to analyse expenditure, slice and dice information and drill through to the underlying transactions.</p> <p>Try out our free Council Expenses Dashboard at - http://www.biolap.co.uk/index.php/councilexpenses.html</p> Although some Councils have already started to publish details of payments to suppliers over £500, there is obviously a reticense to develop costly reporting solutions. Councils therefore appear to publish the information in downloadable format either as Excel spreadsheets or PDF documents. Although this may ‘tick’ the required disclosure requirements, we do not believe that this provides real value to the public.

Information such as this only has real value if it can be viewed in context (i.e. is a payment normal or abnormal). For a user to be able to make this interpretation, they may need to be able to look at spend in a month for a particular expense category against similar spend in previous periods or against other categories.

BIOLAP has developed an application, driven by arcplan technology, that we will provide to Councils free of charge to allow members of the public to analyse expenditure, slice and dice information and drill through to the underlying transactions.

Try out our free Council Expenses Dashboard at – http://www.biolap.co.uk/index.php/councilexpenses.html

]]> By: Theunis Viljoen http://phase2.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/2010/07/13/reporting-council-spending-a-taste-of-things-to-come/#comment-379 Theunis Viljoen Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:37:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/?p=603#comment-379 <p>Although some Councils have already started to publish details of payments to suppliers over £500, there is obviously a reticense to develop costly reporting solutions. Councils therefore appear to publish the information in downloadable format either as Excel spreadsheets or PDF documents. Although this may 'tick' the required disclosure requirements, we do not believe that this provides real value to the public.</p> <p>Information such as this only has real value if it can be viewed in context (i.e. is a payment normal or abnormal). For a user to be able to make this interpretation, they may need to be able to look at spend in a month for a particular expense category against similar spend in previous periods or against other categories.</p> <p>BIOLAP has developed an application, driven by arcplan technology, that we will provide to Councils free of charge to allow members of the public to analyse expenditure, slice and dice information and drill through to the underlying transactions.</p> <p>Try out our free Council Expenses Dashboard at - http://www.biolap.co.uk/index.php/councilexpenses.html</p> Although some Councils have already started to publish details of payments to suppliers over £500, there is obviously a reticense to develop costly reporting solutions. Councils therefore appear to publish the information in downloadable format either as Excel spreadsheets or PDF documents. Although this may ‘tick’ the required disclosure requirements, we do not believe that this provides real value to the public.

Information such as this only has real value if it can be viewed in context (i.e. is a payment normal or abnormal). For a user to be able to make this interpretation, they may need to be able to look at spend in a month for a particular expense category against similar spend in previous periods or against other categories.

BIOLAP has developed an application, driven by arcplan technology, that we will provide to Councils free of charge to allow members of the public to analyse expenditure, slice and dice information and drill through to the underlying transactions.

Try out our free Council Expenses Dashboard at – http://www.biolap.co.uk/index.php/councilexpenses.html

]]> By: Alex http://phase2.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/2010/07/13/reporting-council-spending-a-taste-of-things-to-come/#comment-376 Alex Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:09:42 +0000 http://www.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/?p=603#comment-376 <p>Lisa</p> <p>Thanks for this post.</p> <p>It prompted me to write about it, and its relevance to Scotland on the Communities of Practice site " Scotland Web 2 " blog</p> <p>http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.do</p> <p>Scotland is possibly even more closed than England, and appears to have many fewer activists.</p> <p>Do you have an office here, or know people in Scotland who are working for more Open government ?</p> <p>Thanks</p> Lisa

Thanks for this post.

It prompted me to write about it, and its relevance to Scotland on the Communities of Practice site ” Scotland Web 2 ” blog

http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.do

Scotland is possibly even more closed than England, and appears to have many fewer activists.

Do you have an office here, or know people in Scotland who are working for more Open government ?

Thanks

]]> By: Alex http://phase2.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/2010/07/13/reporting-council-spending-a-taste-of-things-to-come/#comment-378 Alex Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:09:00 +0000 http://www.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/?p=603#comment-378 <p>Lisa</p> <p>Thanks for this post.</p> <p>It prompted me to write about it, and its relevance to Scotland on the Communities of Practice site " Scotland Web 2 " blog</p> <p>http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.do</p> <p>Scotland is possibly even more closed than England, and appears to have many fewer activists.</p> <p>Do you have an office here, or know people in Scotland who are working for more Open government ?</p> <p>Thanks</p> Lisa

Thanks for this post.

It prompted me to write about it, and its relevance to Scotland on the Communities of Practice site ” Scotland Web 2 ” blog

http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/welcome.do

Scotland is possibly even more closed than England, and appears to have many fewer activists.

Do you have an office here, or know people in Scotland who are working for more Open government ?

Thanks

]]> By: links for 2010-07-13 : The (e)Grommet http://phase2.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/2010/07/13/reporting-council-spending-a-taste-of-things-to-come/#comment-375 links for 2010-07-13 : The (e)Grommet Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:05:11 +0000 http://www.wheredoesmymoneygo.org/?p=603#comment-375 <p>[...] Where Does My Money Go? » Blog Archive » Reporting council spending: a taste of things to come "“if you publish your data in machine readable form, you pretty much don’t have to worry about presenting this data — there is already a community who will do it all for you for FREE. Everyone wins!“" (tags: Journalism Local-Government transparency open-governement councils expenses spending open-data-standards via:mento.info) [...]</p> [...] Where Does My Money Go? » Blog Archive » Reporting council spending: a taste of things to come "“if you publish your data in machine readable form, you pretty much don’t have to worry about presenting this data — there is already a community who will do it all for you for FREE. Everyone wins!“" (tags: Journalism Local-Government transparency open-governement councils expenses spending open-data-standards via:mento.info) [...]

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