Ben, Timothy Some nationalist fundamentalists have about 1700 candidates listed on their site, which would be a good first step for scraping http://albionalliance.org.uk/
Plus they're xenophobes so i don't mind stealing the data they took so much effot to compile. I have a project I want to build using this data to try to break down people's personal ties to political parties where they are based on preconceptions rather than actual knowledge of the candidates. 1. there is a problem with the http://www.politicalcompass.org/ applications in that they average out qualitative opinions in a linear (quantitative) manner. for example, I am anti nuclear weapons but pro nuclear power. These left and right wing positions are averaged out to define me as a centrist, but you could argue that I am centrist on neither issue. 2. Therefore, assessments of candidates should be made, issue by issue, and the result scored according to the importance to the voter. 3. So, the core of the project is questions, all framed as..."Would you vote for ..........?" and the candidates get to answer yes, no, not sure, and have a free text field. 4. Secondly, the users need to answer the same questions (without the free text field) but with, in addition, a 0-5 ranking of how important the issue is to them. 5. The questions are user generated but registered users have to register their postcodes, therefore placing them in their relevant constituencies. 6. Users can see which questions have been asked locally by other users and which ones have been answered by local candidates. By answering the questions themselves, they instantly return a ranking of candidates, scoring the candidates according to how similar their answers are to their own. 7. The candidates' score is calculated by adding the user's "importance" rankings if they agree with the candidate or subtracting them if they disagree. 8. Some questions of importance to the user may not have been asked of the local candidates, or they may have been asked but not answered. The user would need an opportunity to search a national list of questions and apply them to their local candidates or to add to the national list of questions - maybe along the lines of google moderator http://moderator.appspot.com/ 9. There is a micropage for each candidate listing their questions answered, unanswered etc PROBLEM - HOW DO YOU GET THE CANDIDATES TO ENGAGE? There has to be a transaction of value to the candidates. 1. The users, regardless of who they are "most like" in opinion, get to indicate on the site which candidate they are backing. 2. When questions are sent to candidates, they are not sent using the users email, but are instead sent using an email address under the system's domain. Candidates respond by clicking the yes link, no link or not sure link - all unique links - and then get bounced to the page where they can enter free text. 3. If a candidate signs up, they get added functions; a. They get to answer questions in the national system before they are put to them by local voters - in effect encouraging voters to ask the questions they want to answer. b. They get to add questions nationally - again helping to influence the agenda. c. They get to bulk-email (though without direct access to names and email addresses) the voters who have indicated they will back them locally. d. They get to edit their micropage with pictures, contact details, select from a choice of simple themes etc OK - that's clearly a bitch to build. BUT - I'f I could acquire a few thousand in sponsorship money, who would be up for it? Would require... 1. heavy SQL knowledge 2. some great php skills (or something similar) 3. A sprinkling of magic ajax dust Alex Hilton 07794 771 113 On Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 2:51 PM, Timothy Green <[email protected]> wrote: > A number of sites have this data spread out (Wikipedia has it per > constituency I believe, and http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/ I think, and > obviously party websites themselves), but nothing in a useful sharable > format. > > We're planning on scraping the lists together from all the different > parties' PPC lists (this is being done by Edmund von der Burg, YourNextMP I > think) and using Demoracy Club volunteers to check it and add missing > candidates. I don't know when this will be done, obviously depends on > Edmund's timescale and how fast we can get volunteers involved, but perhaps > an initial release in a few weeks? > > We've been getting quite a few requests recently, so obvious lots of people > are interested! Out of interest, if you can say, what's your planned > application? Knowing how people will use the data could feed into how we do > it. > > -t > > > On 30/01/10 14:44, Ben Furber wrote: > > Hi guys, > > > Will I be able to find the list of the known GE candidates (by > constituency, party, etc)? > > I guess this data will be (easily) available once parliament has been > dissolved and local procedures have been completed etc etc, but is there > anything now from what the parties have released themselves? > > Apologies if my failure to find this myself is down to bad googling. > > > Ben > > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list [email protected] > Archive, settings, or > unsubscribe:https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list [email protected] > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public >
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