The data is out there

There is truth in data, and the data is out there. The problem in this information age is not that we have data, but that there is so much of it, and it is very difficult to collate it and make any sense of it.

Dele Olowoyo wants to help us put it all together. His Global Intelligence app is designed to raise awareness of the issues that developing countries face, and to provide a way for people to help find solutions to these issues, through interacting with a huge array of data from The World Bank and the CIA World Factbook.

It's a lot of fun to use, giving you interactive, graphical data at the click of a button. You can learn a lot in a short space of time, and if Sir Francis Bacon was right, then knowledge is power.

Global Intelligence is one of over 100 entries in The World Bank's Apps for Development competition, which "challenges participants to develop software applications related to one or more of the Millennium Development Goals." It has been made possible since The World Bank made a plethora of information freely available back in April, 2010, as part of its Open Data Initiative.

Voting in the competition, which offers $45,000 in prizes, is open for the next 25 days. Here's its promo video: