Regards

Arek

The rating function on this site is using a Wordpress plug-in called GD Star Rating. We’re using its default settings: that is, every mashup which receives less than 10 votes has its total rating calculated as a simple mathematical average. Every mashup with more than 10 votes, however, will have a total rating calculated using a Bayesian estimate mean, which takes into account the number of votes a mashup has when determining its overall rating.

The ratings, including both the number of votes and the overall ratings, will be taken into account when deciding who wins the People’s Choice award. However, as per the contest rules, the judges will assess each mashup on its own merits.

We’ve also added updated the site’s Disclaimer Statement to say that we’re using GD Star Rating.

The rating algorithm does not appear to be a simple average but rather some sort of a weighted measure. The implication is that, if it is the case, current ratings for all submissions may not actually reflect the opinion of the voting majority because of the relatively small number of votes and due to the fact “the crowd” will tend favor extreme ratings just to push the overall score into one or the other direction. … It will also work in favor of applications that are submitted towards the end of the contest.

A comment from web development team on this issue much appreciated, so the rules are transparent for all those who take the effort to vote.

I realise it is not supposed to be a “perfect system” but if the voting scores are to be considered in the final judgement it may be an idea to reset all scores to 1 Star, once all submissions are published, and then to allow a week or two for voting… And let the best one win!

If it is “nice”, please rate it accordingly…:-)

As to your other question, please refer to the rules:

“… All mashup entries must also use at least one of the datasets provided for this contest, but you are free to mash them with other datasets….” – input data and the points on the map are locations of Fire Brigades.

“…The Bonus Prize/s for the Transformation Challenge will be awarded for entries that significantly enhance and/or make datasets available for re-use programmatically. ” – I also provide Fire Brigades locations and locations of Police Stations in Victoria as GeoRSS feeds for others to reuse (links located just under the input data text area).

Thanks for taking the trouble to comment.

Regards

Arek