What do you think of our plans for 2017?

By Joe Mitchell

on 6th January 2017

…
Fireworks

Update, Friday 13 January: Thanks to everyone who sent us feedback — these are no longer in draft form. We’ll get to work! Keep in touch, check up on us, and we’ll blog and email our review in the summer.

Here’s the original post.

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2017. Democracy just got real.

While you were popping champagne corks, eating grapes or ruining Robert Burns poems, we were planning for the year ahead. Well, at least the next six months. Because democracy never sleeps.

Below is a draft of our plans, and we want your feedback! Are we missing anything? Are we over-confident? Under-confident?

You might like to read our review of 2016 before you dive in…

The draft plan…

1. Data

This is the datasets we have and API services we provide.

Elections

100% coverage of local, devolved and parliamentary elections from 4 May onwards.
API used by three partners to reach 100,000 people.

Polling stations

75% coverage in Scotland.
50% coverage in England and Wales.
API used by Electoral Commission’s About My Vote page: 50,000.
API used by two partners to reach 25,000.

Candidates

100% of candidates.
API used by three partners to reach 50,000.
Datadump used by two partners to reach 50,000.

Results

Results data for 50% of First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) local elections in England and Wales.
Try to model non-FPTP elections

2. Apps

These are the services we run for voters’ direct use. And, perhaps in future, candidates’ use too.

Who Can I Vote For?

50,000 users on 4 May.
50% would recommend to a friend / ‘found site useful’.
25% ‘feel better informed’.
10% take a call-to-action (e.g. ‘Ask this candidate a question’).
5% of candidates upload a statement.
0.5% of candidates upload a video.

Where Do I Vote?

10,000 users on 4 May.
50% would recommend to a friend / ‘found site useful’.

(When Is The Next Election? / Election Alerts)

This is a potential stretch goal: SMS/email alerts for elections in your area. Dependent on Every Election’s API.

3. Labs

These are prototype projects built in-house or donated to us by others.

One non-election project (e.g. EU legislation crowdtagger?)
Adopt online register-for-a-postal-vote service?
Polling station finder widget?

4. Club

The ‘club’ is everyone involved in making stuff happen.

Funding

Secure £50,000/yr funding from the Electoral Commission.
Obtain commitment to future funding from Cabinet Office.
Crowdfund £20,000 from organisations.

Donors

50 new monthly individual donors.

Members

100 new volunteers add data.
500 new email subscribers.
Web and brand refresh (in order to project greater authority and trustworthiness — how to measure?!)

What’s missing? What’s good, bad or ugly? Let us know!

Have a read, and comment directly on the plans, or in the Disqus box below, tweet us or email us. Whatever suits you.

Also — what’s the best way to hold us accountable to these goals? Please at least bug us to come back in July 2017 to report on them. Perhaps we need some progress bars…

So, 2017, here goes!