The folks at Sunlight Foundation's Sunlight Labs just announced the Design for America competition.
The Sunlight folks are all about making government accountable by making it transparent, stuff like showing where the money goes, how it's spent. This contest is about finding ways to present government data so that it makes sense:
Sunlight Labs is pleased to announce our latest contest -- "Design for America." This 10 week long design and data visualization extravaganza is focused on connecting the talents of art and design communities throughout the country to the wealth of government data now available through bulk data access and APIs, and to help nurture the field of information visualization.
Our goal is simple and straightforward -- to make government data more accessible and comprehensible to the American public. We hope to enliven and engage new communities -- just as we did with Apps for America 1 and 2 -- as partners and participants in making government information more engaging to the American public.
Our contest will end with a public announcement of the winners at Gov 2.0 Expo here in Washington, DC in May, in partnership with O'Reilly andTechWeb, and with a public gallery showing of the winners.
Disclaimer: because of this kind of work, I've joined the board of Sunlight.