The good people at mySociety have been discussing the API they’ve opened up for They Work For You. They also have a few examples of how the API might be applied.

Best of them, and possibly the best API demo I’ve seen, is a text adventure run over telnet. Entering a UK postcode will select an MP for you, and you have to guide that MP to Tony Blair’s Sedgefield constituency, doing battle with any opposing MPs you pass along the way, and eventually fight the PM himself.

Entering my parents’ Tunbridge Wells postcode unfortunately selects me a Conservative MP, but in the spirit of role-playing I guided him to Sedgefield and defeated Mr. Blair. Greg Clark MP’s verbal diarrhoea skills are not to be trifled with, and he picked up 3246 Experience Points along the way. Very entertaining.

Read more about ‘Battle your way to Sedgefield’ here, and try your hand here (or here if you really want to avoid telnet).

Recommend this post:

Related Posts

• The Future of Citizenship