As part of a project to make available to programmer data on the government’s cuts – called APIs Against the Cuts – Sunny asked me write on the information architecture behind the False Economy website.

False Economy was built using the ExpressionEngine CMS – which has also been used by 38 Degrees, the Obama campaign and A List Apart among others. It’s built with PHP and uses a MySQL database.

False Economy crowd-sources information about:

- cuts (which I focus on below as it’s probably of most interest)
- personal testimonies about the effect of cuts
- campaigns
- events

There is a list of RSS feeds for these items here: http://falseeconomy.org.uk/go/rss

We use an XML-driven Flash map to help plot cuts. View the map here.

Cuts are placed according to their top-level postal area (eg M for Manchester, SW for South West London)

(We didn’t use a Google-based map for various reasons including the fact that many of the cuts don’t have a specific geolocation but cover a wider area. However we do ask users to supply full postcodes where possible, so the data could still be used to drive Google maps.)

Cuts are also tagged by sector.

Each cut has a unique URL, eg http://falseeconomy.org.uk/cuts/item/weir-road-reuse-recycling-centre

One way forward may be to ask all the websites currently offering some kind of cutswatch to add an RSS feed written to an agreed standard, so the equivalent bits of data on each side are wrapped in the same tags. These could all then be fed into a super-cutswatch site providing a comprehensive overview.

But others geekier than me may have better ideas.

The aim of APIs Against The Cuts is to bring together activists, bloggers, and technologists who are interested in collating, using and mining cuts related information. We’re planning an event, provisionally for mid-May.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   False Economy http://bit.ly/dTa9J8

2. sunny hundal

   How is @FalseEcon gathering and storing its data on govt cuts? Clifford Singer explains http://bit.ly/dTa9J8 (one of the techies)

3. Ron Graves

   RT @sunny_hundal: How is @FalseEcon gathering and storing its data on govt cuts? Clifford Singer explains http://bit.ly/dTa9J8 (one of t …

4. christian

   mmmm data feeds. http://t.co/IiOCnLx

5. Liberal Conspiracy

   The information architecture behind False Economy and its data on the cuts – http://bit.ly/dTa9J8

6. Rupert

   RT @libcon: The information architecture behind False Economy and its data on the cuts – http://bit.ly/dTa9J8

7. Chunkylimey

   RT @libcon: The information architecture behind False Economy and its data on the cuts – http://bit.ly/dTa9J8

8. Stardust we are

   The information architecture behind False Economy and the cuts data | Liberal Conspiracy: http://bit.ly/gLMh3Y

9. cinnamon carter

   RT @sunny_hundal: How is @FalseEcon gathering and storing its data on govt cuts? Clifford Singer explains http://bit.ly/dTa9J8

10. Ben Shoemate

    The information architecture behind False Economy and the cuts … http://bit.ly/fgsHJr

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