Apps for America competition launches - cash prizes for best mash ups of government data

In conjunction with the Data.gov launch, Sunlight Labs in partnership with Google has launched the Apps for America 2 competition to find the best mash ups using US Federal government data.

Over US$20,000 is being given away for open source online applications using the Federal datasets at Data.gov based on the following criteria:

1. Transparency: Does the app help citizens see things they couldn't see before the app existed?
   
   
2. Permanence: Will the app be usable over a long period of time? Does the idea have survivability?
   
   
3. Design & Visualization: Does the app look great? Does the app visualize data in a new and interesting way?

The UK government holds similar competitions.

I wonder what innovation the Australian government could unlock if it made public data available in machine-readable formats, then held its own competition.