Forum One's DataMasher Receives First Place in 'Apps for America 2' Contest

Data Comparison Application Powered by Acquia Drupal
WASHINGTON--(Business Wire)--
Forum One`s DataMasher took first place out of 47 entries in Sunlight Labs Apps
for America 2 contest, a competition in which participants were challenged to
build a web site or internet application that makes federal data more
accessible, interesting, and valuable.

Forum One was presented the award and the $10,000 first place prize at the
O'Reilly Media's Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase on Sept. 8, 2009.

Datamasher.org enables anyone to marry two sets of data representing information
about U.S. states to create a custom "mashup." The site`s data is drawn from
Data.gov as well as other federal web sites and related sources.

Mashups are displayed on a state-by-state map or in a table format, which
enables users to examine state markers and make quick comparisons between
states.

"I`m proud of our team and also honored to have beat out so many other great
applications," said Forum One`s President and CEO Chris Wolz. "What is great
about DataMasher is that it gets people exploring and goofing around with
government data sets. Who would have thought that was even possible?"

Built using Acquia`s free packaged distribution, Acquia Drupal, the site allows
visitors to create their own mashups, leave comments on existing mashups, share
mashups on various social media sites, and vote for their favorites.

"It`s great to see innovation from one of our Drupal development partners
recognized in such a prominent way," said Tom Erickson, CEO of Acquia.
"DataMasher is a great example of how Drupal can be utilized within the public
sector to build engaging, community-enabled and content-driven sites that
leverage valuable information in a creative way."

Legistalker provides real time tracking of legislators' activities on social web
sites, in the news, and on the Capitol floor in real time.

This is the second Apps for America contest and the second time that Forum One
has placed in the top three finalists. In the first contest, Forum One`s
Legistalker application was awarded second place.

A panel of expert judges choose the top three finalists based on their long-term
usability, visual design, and ability to provide citizens with greater access to
publicly available, but previously inaccessible, information. Judges included
Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Media; Chris DiBona, Google; Clay Johnson, Sunlight Labs;
Allyson Kapin, Women Who Tech; and Cyrus Krohn, Microsoft.

Once the panel selected the top three finalists, voting was opened to the public
to choose the winner August 24 through September 8, 2009.

Forum One staff plan to expand DataMasher`s capabilities and add features such
as regression modeling, additional data visualizations, and RSS feeds.

About Forum One

Forum One Communications is a web strategy and development firm based in
Alexandria, Va. Since 1996, Forum One has helped hundreds of organizations use
internet technology to solve the world's most pressing problems.

About Acquia

Acquia helps organizations of all sizes build social publishing websites
quickly, easily and with a lower total cost of ownership by leveraging Drupal,
the open source social publishing platform that blends content and community.
Our products, services and support enable companies to leverage the power,
technical innovation and economic value of Drupal while simplifying the
experience, removing the complexity and minimizing the risk. Please visit:
http://acquia.com . Download Acquia Drupal, the completely free Drupal
distribution, at http://acquia.com/downloads.

Related Blog Posts

* DataMasher: A Drupal-Based Data Visualization Tool -Forum One's Tech Blog
* Apps for America 2: Lessons Learned During Speedy Application Development
-Forum One's Tech Blog
* The Ingenuity of the American People -WhiteHouse.gov OMB Blog

For Acquia
PAN Communications
Kristin Conforti, 978-474-1900
acquia@pancomm.com
or
For Forum One
Forum One Communications
Andrew Cohen, 703-548-1855 x50
acohen@forumone.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009