User Review: Government Spending app

May 1, 2009

While talking about TV coverage of the app, I had mentioned that writing the iPhone “Government Spending” app was a lot of fun.

I also enjoyed reading the first review on iTunes. Here is what the reviewer said about the app.

‘Wow is this an eye-opener! No opinions here, just the facts. Straight information from the government’s own databases on who’s been getting federal contracts, and for what since 2000. You can look it up by department, by state or even by item – which makes for some very interesting browsing.
Try looking up ‘land mines’, for instance, and you’ll see a sharp escalation in 2008. What’s the story behind that ??

And that, in a nutshell, is what you get from this very handy app: the straight story on what the government has been buying with your tax dollars.  This is one reference app that will actually raise more questions than it answers – as well it should. Kudos to the developers for a nice job in putting this information into a format that’s easy (and fun) to explore.’


TV coverage: iPhone Government Spending app

May 1, 2009

This is turning out to be a good week. We released the iPhone “Government Spending” app and users are enjoying this civic software app.

The app also got good TV coverage. Erik Sandoval (a news anchor for Northwest Cable News) discussed the app with me and he talked about the app on this week’s “Talkin tech” segment.

Check out the tv coverage on  http://www.nwcn.com/video/tech-index.html?nvid=357050 (our regional cable news network) or http://www.king5.com/video/?nvid=357050  (our local NBC affiliate). It is a short video.

The app is available in the app store. Writing the iPhone “Government Spending” app was a lot of fun and I’m glad that users are enjoying it. I’ll add another post with comments from the first review on iTunes.