Anil Dash on Expert Labs and "Listening to the Experts"
Tech entrepreneur and blogger Anil Dash announced the launch of Expert Labs at Web 2.0 Expo NY 09. Its mission is to use the Web and online communities to crowdsource solutions to social problems. Dash explained explained:
If we can bring the right resources to bear and sufficient numbers of the right experts to help solve our social problems, there really is an order of magnitude increase in the types of problems we’re going to be able to solve
Expert Labs will work with policy makers, technologists, scientists, researchers and academics to leverage crowdsourcing as a way to “help government listen” and create better policy.
It's an independent non-profit initiative designed to help policy makers in our government take advantage of the expertise of their fellow citizens. It works by:
- Asking policy makers what questions they need answered to make better decisions.
- Helping the technology community create the tools that will get those answers.
- Prompting the scientific & research communities to provide the answers that will make our country run better.
Earlier this year Dash wrote a blog post on the Most Interesting New Tech Startup of 2009; The executive branch of the federal government of the United States. Sites such as Whitehouse.gov, Recovery.gov, Data.gov and USASpending.gov have shown a 'willingness to embrace Web 2.0 techniques to share data and make Government more open'.
The labs will run as part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science with a $500,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
For more on Expert Labs follow @expertlabs.
