A fabulous article about the Guardian’s MP expenses crowd sourcing experiment
Fabulous in so many ways, not least that the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts:
- mp expenses
- guardian (not-for-profit org = win!)
- open source
- web frameworks (django, php, ruby on rails, catalyst)
- rapid development
- crowd sourcing
- amazon ec2
On that last point: entire server/hardware cost: £50 (using Amazon ec2) vs “The Guardian has lead time of several weeks to get new hardware”.
And something not explicitly mentioned - really good developers are really worth it. Not just in pay, but in listening to, supporting & giving them a brief, then getting the hell out of the way and letting the sparks fly.
I confess a (very personal) weak spot for the application of IT in media environments. It’s fabulous.
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