Parliamentary Video, done proper
I've long wanted House of Commons debates made available in ways which take best advantage of the wonders of t'Interweb. The accessibility and searchability of the web transforms our ability to hold our elected representatives to account for their actions in Parliament.
First TheyWorkForYou.com worked its magic with the text of Hansard, and now the mySociety folk have added video to the mix, courtesy of footage from BBC Parliament and some clever crowdsourcing of the necessary metadata.
Unlike Parliament's own 28-day video archive (or BBC Parliament), the TheyWorkForYou video will persist, and thus our democracy is now pleasingly embeddable. John Wilkes would have approved.
By way of example, here's George Osborne getting stuck into the Chancellor about a recent OECD report on the UK economy.
After less than a week volunteers had matched 10,000 speeches to the accompanying video clip.
So head over here to help match the remaining 25,000 - though be warned, it's surprisingly addictive once you get started.
