Data anlaysis (using existing data) ------------- Rebels who voted against this division, also voted against this division... This is flipping the possible friends on its head. Find friends between divisions. Distance metric between divisions - how many MPs (out of MPs that were present in both divisions) voted the same. "Performance tests" for government - turning excessive monitoring and testing back onto them. corruptometer, loyaltometer, evilness, sleepometer, waffle-meter Top day of week for voting. Distribution for individual MPs. - this person is never there on Thursdays! Use abstention rates to highlight interesting divisions, where lots of people didnt turn up. Pick divisions with extreme "Extra Turnouts" (for the main parties) - these will be interesting Plot "Extra Turnout" over time - so can see how abstention rates change. Show the majority for each vote (how much it was won by) Additional numeric data ----------------------- Put time of division, so can work out importance (late at night less governmental) Also length of debate leading up to division Intended length of debate It is worth looking for MPs who spoke but did not vote. This is a good way to detect active abstentions. It may also have all sorts of other interesting meanings. division.php?date=2003-06-10&number=224&showall=yes Count how many times MP spoke in a debate, or on the day How many articles do Labour MPs supply to the Times, for example? Collate all MPs articles in newspapers Provide local program for pressure groups. Parses their list of post-code membership, and creates a table of MPs who are doing the least where the group has the most supporters. Finds good targets for lobbying. Correlate voting record with geographical location. Do MPs at constituencies near each other tend to vote the same as each other? Cost in pounds / word of an MP Additional text content ----------------------- House of Lords divisions When Dream MP gives votes more context, allow anyone to vote on any division. Perhaps they have to give their postcode first. Issue sub-selector. User can log in, name an issue, and say which way votes should have gone to satisfy him on that issue. Get all manner of people to make issues for next general election. - info to help select which votes and which way should have voted - SP adopters / constituency - Auto email to adopters in each ward - include journalism, so a comment on the issue / on each vote - who made the issue is crucial, as some expertise is needed, and viewers of the site need to understand any bias that they have - Report to take into your MP constituency surgery - Let NGO entere postcodes of their supporters (in their own client app) and use these to find MPs where the most people agree with the issue, but the MP has voted the other way. Do Iraq subselection ourselves Do climate change subselection Software to follow all legislation sources: - parliamentary bills - which can be introduced into either House - white papers - on the parliamentary website I think - green papers - not sure - other consultative papers issues by departments - consultative papers issues by other statutory bodies such as regulators - papers from the downing st Performance and Innovation Unit - EDMs - private members bills - 10 minute rule bills - EC directives which have to be implemneted in domsetic law - the Queen's speech - international treaties which apart from major EU treaties are ratified under the Ponsonby Rule without a vote in parliament. Link from division to draft of Bill which is being debated http://www.parliament.uk/what_s_on/what_s_on.cfm http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200203/cmstand/cmstand.htm http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/pabills.htm http://bills.ais.co.uk http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/3370535.stm Group votes by Whitehall department, so you can see areas of interest (idea from Sirius at Oxfam) Put in EDMs, so can see who supports an EDM and follows it through to actual vote (idea from Sirius at Oxfam) http://edm.ais.co.uk/ Analyse an MP's interests by their rebellions - work out a summary of their special interests. Also link to which debates they spoke in. Committees, and voting in committee Written answers --------------- Print department Match office (secretary of state...) to department? Julian does this already prob, check how it works and use it in all the tables, as it is useful at-a-glance information. uk.org.publicwhip/wrans/2003-11-06.755W.4 - refers to uk.org.publicwhip/wrans/2003-06-03.214W which does actually exist, but crosses over two entire columns, so referencing the one in the middle doesn't pick it up. Ooops. Need some kind of ranging? uk.org.publicwhip/wrans/2003-11-06.726W.0 - there is a phrase referring to debates, but the link is given to wrans ;) uk.org.publicwhip/wrans/2003-11-06.725W.2 - has a offrep which isn't there (as well as two which we don't have indexed yet) uk.org.publicwhip/wrans/2003-10-27.110W.2 - fails to find offrep Back links to wrans that have referred to this one Check all found URL links Improve all MP name matching so no unknown ids Make "unknown" name link a better page (rather than a meaningless error) Fix broken links to mp.php?id=unknown Stats - count up how many questions/answers each person has done Some kind of "most inquisitive" on front page League table of unanswered written questions Search for all questions that are about Hansard that you can now answer, and send off the answers. Give help on how to request answers from hcinfo Usability --------- Policy syndication: http://www.livejournal.com/developer/embedding.bml Javascript, make .js file with just a "document.write" Inline frames, just inline to HTML file CGI script / serverside include List of all divisions and how an MP voted in them, including ones he wasn't present at. So you could see which ones they weren't at easily. Kind of makes sense. Abstain -> difference from expected Expected -> average no. of attendees visually draw guesses further right Pass W3C validator http://validator.w3.org/ And bobby Letter index on MP list Pie chart, rectangle graph by area for voting table Email reports to people when search queries change e.g. When your MP has voted. When he has rebelled. When an issue is voted on, and so on. RSS feed of your MP's votes Link from MP to other sources of info - Ask Aristotle - Fax your MP - Speeches on Hansard Link from search engine to - link to search Hansard? Links to other political resource websites Print reason left parliament in table at top of mp.php links.php - takes links to days and chunks, does a redirect reduce bandwidth, and do tracking of where people link through to Put divisions on same day as easy links from division page Put similar divisions on links META keywords (for search engine description) Colour blind people, or indeed blind people, need a better rebel marker than redness in MPs division list. Boldness is one idea. Log failed searches so we can improve the search engine mod_gzip to reduce bandwidth Make sure fast CGI keeps db connections somehow Share DB connection with main code and registration code Use hotcopy or similar for new db uploading http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/mysqlhotcopy.html Paragraph text needs max-width, so it can be shrunken - about the authors, so feels personal to people - consider breadcrumb trail - about section (not all FAQ?) - company name/logo at topleft, search at topright - print stylesheet media="print" removing menus > (One comment: obviously all your pages are going to get > indexed in, e.g., Google fairly shortly. For some search > terms -- names of obscurer MPs and of pieces of > legislation -- you'll be quite high up the results. It > might be worth putting a one-sentence description of the > project at the top of each results page to explain what's > going on, since some of the pages might look a touch > confusing for the first-time visitor.) Political toolbar - easy searches. Popup links automatically on MP's names in Internet Explorer. Java in Opera Win32 Gimmicks -------- MP wallplanner - show their diary Fantasy party/cabinet, based on voting. Virtual top trumps - choose your favourites, play them, lose them, try to get ones whose careers are on the up. Real top-trump cards (rebelliousness, attendance, term of office, majority, age...) Pick, say, 1997 parliament - or maybe becomes more journalistic/historical, as you want the cards to represent the MP at their most significant moment in time. Actually post a whipping sheet to MPs. This would arrive every week at the same time as their party whipping sheet. It would tell them how many voters in their constituency have registered with organisations which would like them to vote particular ways. Decentralised - get our mailing list subscribers to print the PDF and post it to them. Local newspapers - similarly contact them. Make big wall chart of cluster diagram - colour, pretty Maybe even sell it to people Stand as Public Whip candidate in election with manifesto to do as your constituents want. "Totally toady" to "Usual suspect" Broader context --------------- European Parliament. Minutes here: http://www3.europarl.eu.int/omk/omnsapir.so/calendar?APP=PV1 Attendance rates are pre processed here: http://www.europarliament.net/ Do it for all Hansards in CHEA: http://www.hansard-westminster.co.uk/links.asp Indian parliament. Give them clustering. Form UK equivalents of: "Committee for Assurances" - track all promises "Committee for Attendance" - see which seats should be declared vacant "Spectrum of Interest" - what subjects in career they followed, so can tell if would be no use as Minister for Education Analyse all task MP does, time spent, and see if they are doing either enough or implausibly too much. Dublin parliament http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/ Letter writing campaign by their constituents to MPs who use procedure in an entirely negative way - for example here, when Labour maliciously moved the house to sit in private, in order to stop the democratic discussion of the role of ministerial advisers http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/cm030314/debtext/30314-19.htm About one MP ------------ Name (title, first, last) Photo Party (link to party website) Parliamentary terms served Failed candidacy Home page Constituency address / phone / fax Parliament address / phone / fax Email Surgery times Date of birth http://www.parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/alms.cfm http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/mps97.htm http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/mps.htm http://www.election.demon.co.uk/strengths.html Bio (journalistic) http://www.politicallinks.co.uk http://www.dodonline.co.uk/politics2/BIOG/MP_BIOGS/bio.asp?id=0163 Salary Expenses - London stay (£150/night!), motoring Pension Include pay from members interests http://www.parliament.uk/faq/pay_faq_page.cfm Register of interests http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem Donations they have made (to political parties?) http://www.cleanpolitix.com Entry from Who's who Company directorships Links to info on companies involved with Recent speeches (text) http://www.publications.parliament.uk Voting record http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmhansrd.htm Committee membership Bills placed before parliament Video of them in parliament (or elsewhere) Written questions asked and answered Local council positions Mayorships Responsiveness to faxes (also photo?) http://www.faxyourmp.com/stats.php3 Voting activity Number of questions asked Time spent in parliament News mentions (Google news) Weblog mentions Search engine hits Links to their home page Comments/user provided links As much data historical, as well as current Sources: http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-816,00.html http://www.epolitix.com