ATI Knowledge Hub
Shifting Landscapes: A practical guide to pro democracy tech
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The recording of the launch event for mySociety’s report ‘Shifting Landscapes: A practical guide to pro democracy tech’.
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ATI Network: Celebrating Wins, Sharing Lessons, Shaping What’s Next
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For our final community gathering of 2025 we brought together partners from across our global community of practice to reflect on what we’ve already achieved together and what we want to achieve in the future.
Cara Raeker, lead author of the landmark report on monitoring Freedom of Information in Europe gave a keynote exploring the shifting landscape of access to information before a curated showcase of video interviews with journalists and citizens using ATI, and some highlights from previous gatherings.
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ATI Masterclass: turning requests into reporting with Fiquem Sabendo
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At this ATI Community of Practice meeting, we got a behind-the-scenes look at how Fiquem Sabendo, a Brazilian non-profit newsroom and data agency, uses Brazil’s FOI law to unlock data and support investigative journalism.
Maria Vitória Ramos, Co-founder and Director of Fiquem Sabendo, shares how they prepare FOI requests, process government data, and support journalists in turning information into impactful reporting.
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Networked auditors: crowdsourcing and community-led ATI
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The recording of an ATI Community of Practice meeting discussing how organisations are using crowdsourcing and ATI laws to uncover data, monitor public projects, and drive accountability.
Speakers are: Nnenna Eze from PPDC Nigeria, Marzena Błaszczyk from Citizens Network Watchdog Poland and Stefan Wehrmeyer from FragDenStaat in Germany.
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Putting transparency to the test: evaluating FOI in practice
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The recording of an ATI Community of Practice meeting to learn how we can effectively evaluate the implementation of Access to Information legislation.
Speakers: Toby Mendel (Centre for Law and Democracy), Giovanni Esposito (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Mária Žuffová (European University Institute)
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The current state of open government and digital transparency in the Netherlands
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In this TICTeC 2025 presentation, discover three of Open State Foundation’s most impactful pro-democracy projects in the Netherlands, including a search tool to make documents of all levels of government more findable; research on late responses to Access to Information requests; and open calendars of ministerial meetings that anyone can subscribe to.
How do you know if your work is making an impact?
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mySociety and OpenUp worked closely with SPOON and the Átlátszónet Foundation, both organisations focus on improving access to government information, to explore a critical but often overlooked question: How do you know if your projects are actually making a difference?
In this insightful TICTeC session, SPOON and the Átlátszónet Foundation share their hands-on experiences, practical methodologies, and key findings from their efforts to —for the first time— track and measure the impact of their projects.
Civic tech for investigative impact: how data-driven journalism strengthens transparency and democracy
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Discover the measurable impact of civic tech to enhance transparency, accountability, and environmental protection, and how investigative journalism can utilise data tools to drive democratic outcomes.
As shared by Reinaldo Chaves from the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism in his TICTeC 2025 presentation, case studies involving Brazilian journalists show how by connecting disparate datasets, patterns of corruption, environmental violations, and misuse of public resources can be uncovered.
The impact of the Promise Tracker tool
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The Promise Tracker from Mzalendo Trust, launched in 2023, tracks government and opposition promises to enhance accountability and foster participatory democracy.
Hear more about its impact in this TICTeC 2025 presentation by Mzalendo Trust’s Gitungo Wamere and Caroline Gaita.
Keynote TICTeC 2025: A stronger democracy – through data, information and technology
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What is made possible by new forms of technology — especially in the civic participation space — and what needs to happen to make those possibilities a reality? Tech innovations are making political participation easier and more accessible across the globe, while open data and access to information continue to play a vital part in strengthening our democracies. In her TICTeC 2025 keynote address, Fernanda Campagnucci (InternetLab & University of Muenster) will draw on her latest research as lead of the State Capacity in Smart Cities for Online Participation (SCOPE) project.
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Q&A for ‘Access to Information for the public good’ TICTeC 2025 session
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Question and answer session for the presenters of the following TICTeC 2025 presentations:
– Infrastructure for democracy: how Abrimos.info is transforming governance in Latin America– Martin Szyszlican (Abrimos.info, Mexico)
– Unveiling the power of transparency: how Access to Information exposed systemic failures in Poland’s 2020 elections – Marzena Błaszczyk 25 (Citizens Network Watchdog, Poland)
– Data to advance equity, inclusion, and sustainability – Silvana Fumega (Global Data Barometer, Argentina)
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Data to advance equity, inclusion, and sustainability
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The Global Data Barometer provides fresh insights into how data is being governed, shared and used to advance the public good, with a special focus on the Global South.
In Silvana Fumega’s TICTeC 2025 presentation, learn about key recommendations for strengthening data ecosystems, including fostering collaborations between civic tech actors, governments, and researchers to promote evidence-based decision-making and policy innovation.
Unveiling the power of transparency: how Access to Information exposed systemic failures in Poland’s 2020 elections
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The 2020 Polish presidential elections demonstrated how Access to Information can play a pivotal role in uncovering abuses of power.
In this TICTeC 2025 presentation from Marzena Błaszczyk, discover how Citizens Network Watchdog Poland used FOI to file criminal complaints against mayors for illegal data transfers, holding authorities accountable, exposing institutional failures, and challenging unlawful actions.
Infrastructure for democracy: how Abrimos.info is transforming governance in Latin America
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Abrimos.info is a newly established organisation with a mission to strengthen democracy across Latin America by building and scaling digital infrastructures that promote transparency, accountability, and public participation. Discover how they are driving measurable impact in transparency around public officials’ disclosures, contracting information and Access to Information, in Martín Szyszlican’s TICTeC 2025 presentation.
Webinar: Tackling the Climate Crisis with Access to Information rights
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In this 60 minute session, investigative journalist Lucas Amin (Democracy for Sale), Anne Friel (Client Earth), and Joschi Wolf (Frag Den Staat) each shared their knowledge around using Freedom of Information as an invaluable tool for tackling the climate crisis.
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Legal Framework Reform Masterclass
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A 45 minute masterclass on legal framework reform, touching on legal analysis, how to choose your campaign and some case studies of what worked
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Impact Measuring Workshop from OpenUp ZA
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A 45 minute workshop given by OpenUp ZA on creating and using impact measures for advocacy and campaign work
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Access Info Impact Award
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A video about Access Info’s Impact award 2024
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Strategy and Planning for FOI Sites
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Datasketch (Colombia), SPOON (Netherlands) and Pidala.info (Mexico) all run websites that help people get information from public authorities. In this video, they talk about their approach to this, and how they’ve built and grown their work in very different ways.
This meeting was part of mySociety’s Access to Information Community of Practice, which is part of the TICTeC programme.
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Redefined civic tech: community-centric impact stories from Georgia
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AskGov in Georgia, based on mySociety’s Alaveteli platform, hosts 1,118 datasets. What sets it apart is that the data does not remain confined to the platform: through contests, fellowship programmes and datathons, storytelling and data visualisation projects are distributed to a mass audience, with topics such as the environment, corruption, transparency, gender and occupation.
This TICTeC 2024 presentation by Vero Melua from ForSet shares more.
How to use AI in analysing mass responses to FOI requests
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Authorities hold information that could clarify societal discussions — but the formats it is held in can make it challenging to interpret digitally. Fedrowanie streamlines the gathering of information from public institutions through mass FOI requests. A recent evolution from manual volunteer work to AI integration represents a leap in enhancing public discourse and governance.
In this TICTeC 2024 presentation, Marzena Blaszczyk (Citizens Network Watchdog Poland) shares their work with AI to analyse mass responses to FOI requests.
Can robots lobby? AI, democracy and political persuasion
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Lobbying is a negative influence often connected to corruption, secrecy and poor behaviour. But can AI change things for the better, improving the abilities of those who monitor lobbying, or helping raise awareness of problems? Conversely, will AI bring increased powers for political persuaders, perhaps even introducing the robot lobbyist?
At TICTeC 2024, Ben Worthy from Birkbeck College presented a paper asking how AI can change lobbying for better or worse. It looks in turn at how AI can allow different groups to do the same things but better; and do new things. It draws on examples from the UK and US, as well as wider academic studies, to predict what may happen, and offer a framework.
Data for democracy: a Canadian perspective on how governments can leverage civil society to hold big tech accountable
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The SAMbot project uses machine learning to evaluate abusive content sent to Canadian political candidates during elections. Bill-63, a new draft bill from Canada’s federal government which incorporates an Online Harms Act, may be the key to supporting research into how digital technologies are affecting our social fabric.
This TICTeC 2024 presentation from Sabreena Delhon and
Alex MacIsaac explores Canada’s recent data transparency efforts from the position of researchers at the Samara Centre for Democracy, and considers the potential for the new legislation to make a meaningful contribution to safeguarding Canadian and global democratic norms.
Q&A for ‘Civic tech for transparency’ session at TICTeC 2024
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Question and answer session for the following TICTeC 2024 presentations:
– How civic tech is unveiling corruption and championing democracy and environmental protection in Brazil – Maria Vitória Ramos (Fiquem Sabendo, Brazil)
– Empowering communities: Budeshi’s impact on transparency and accountability in Nigerian government projects – Nnenna Eze (Public and Private Development Centre, Nigeria)
– Have you empirically improved transparency and accountability? – Shaun Russell (OpenUp, South Africa)
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Have you empirically improved transparency and accountability?
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How can you say empirically that the work you are doing has made things more transparent in your field? If your work is nebulous and difficult to measure in real world impact, this is a challenge — and one faced by a collaboratively-made data visualisation tool aimed to make the South African parliament more transparent and accountable. For tips on how to measure the impact and effectiveness of your civic tech tools, check out this TICTeC 2024 presentation from Shaun Russell from OpenUp in South Africa.
Empowering communities: Budeshi’s impact on transparency and accountability in Nigerian government projects
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Hear from Nnenna Eze (Public and Private Development Centre, Nigeria)’s TICTeC 2024 presentation on Budeshi, the open-contracting tool, which has emerged as a pivotal platform facilitating transparency and accountability in public procurement. Data from Freedom of Information requests is published on the platform to allow thorough monitoring exercises across various Nigerian states. Journalists have been trained and communities empowered to independently investigate and report on discrepancies.
How civic tech is unveiling corruption and championing democracy and environmental protection in Brazil
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Hear from Maria Vitória Ramos (Fiquem Sabendo, Brazil) about two award-winning initiatives that address the power imbalance between society and the state, using Freedom of Information and a multidisciplinary approach integrating journalism, advocacy, training, and civic technology to monitor governmental spending and provide oversight of lobbying. The results? Pivotal public reports and significant legislative reforms.
Q&A for ‘mySociety and partners – working on climate’ TICTeC 2024 session
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Question and answer session at TICTeC 2024 for the following presentations:
– Data, prototyping and partnerships: mySociety’s approach to the climate/democracy problem – Zarino Zappia (mySociety, UK)
Scoring councils on their climate action
– Don von Rohland (Climate Emergency UK)
Fragmented climate data in the UK – Julia Cushion (mySociety, UK)
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Fragmented climate data in the UK
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Fragmented data is frustrating for everyone – it reduces the economic value of data, wastes taxpayers’ money, and prevents innovative, collaborative solutions to the climate crisis. In this short TICTeC 2024 talk, mySociety’s Julia Cushion shares some findings from mySociety’s product and policy work on improving data sharing between civil society, local/national government, and citizens.
Scoring councils on their climate action
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What difference can a small organisation make? With the right data — a lot. Climate Emergency UK first assessed every local council’s Climate Action Plan, and then moved onto marking actual climate action, publishing the results as a set of in-depth Scorecards. The real-life impacts of these scores have been notable. Find out more from this TICTeC 2024 presentation from Don von Rohland.
What is the role of civic tech in enabling the effective and democratic change needed to meet the challenge of climate change?
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At this TICTeC 2024 panel discussion, Genevieve Maitland Hudson (Social Investment Business / mySociety)
Maddy Carroll (Director, UK Programme, European Climate Foundation), Dr. Michal Nachmany (Founder and CEO, Climate Policy Radar) and Aleks Berditchevskaia (Principal Researcher, Nesta Centre for Collective Intelligence Design) discuss the opportunities and challenges that civic technology presents, when it comes to democratic climate action.
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TICTeC 2024 keynote address: Putting Democracy back into Climate Action
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Nick Mabey from E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism)’s TICTeC 2024 keynote speech. Nick emphasised the need to put democratic values, institutional strengthening, and governance innovation back at the heart of climate action if we are serious about protecting everyone from catastrophic climate damage.
Q&A for ‘Citizen engagement and parliamentary monitoring’ TICTeC 2024 session
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Q&A session for these TICTeC 2024 presentations:
– From data to democracy: the role of DCinbox in shaping informed citizenship and government accountability – Lindsey Cormack (Stevens Institute of Technology, US)
– Thailand’s first parliamentary monitoring tool – Thanisara Ruangdej (GG) (Punch Up & WeVis, Thailand)
– Empowering citizens: how Querido Diário is making Brazilian city policies accessible – Giulio Carvalho (Open Knowledge Brasil, Brazil) and Renne Rocha (Querido Diário, Brazil)
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TICTeC 2024 keynote address: Joining the dots on civic tech and anti-corruption
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At TICTeC 2024 María Baron from Directorio Legislativo shared insights drawn from a rich career working from different angles to support and defend democracy across Latin America and globally. She shared insights into Directorio Legislativo’s digital anti-corruption solution, and approach to consensus building across polarised stakeholders, the latest milestone in their work to strengthen democracies across Latin America and beyond.
Empowering citizens: how Querido Diário is making Brazilian city policies accessible
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Querido Diário, a project by Open Knowledge Brasil, meticulously maps, scrapes and publishes the official gazettes of 350 cities, rendering them accessible through a user-friendly web interface and API. The project is implemented collaboratively by a community of more than a hundred people. Discover how Querido Diário is breaking down barriers and empowering citizens to engage with their cities’ policies.
Thailand’s first parliamentary monitoring tool
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Discover WeVis’ path to launching Parliament Watch, an open-source comprehensive platform that serves as a one-stop solution for monitoring Thailand’s parliament — and the challenges they faced along the way. Inspired by platforms like TheyWorkForYou and GovTrack, but adapting them to Thailand’s own political landscape, the initiative aims to increase political transparency.
Show and Tell: GONG on Data Visualisations
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A Show and Tell from Sara at GONG about their learnings from their data visualisations mentorship with ForSet in Georgia
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Show and Tell: Data Visualisation Mentorship
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Blog post about the Show and Tell from Sara at GONG
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Creating Datasets with FOI Data
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A blog post about the training on creating datasets from FOI data
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Telling Stories with FOI Data
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A blog post about the training mySociety held on using FOI data to tell a story
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Telling stories with FOI data
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Ilya Siatitsa of Privacy International, Isaac Beevor of Climate Emergency UK and freelance journalist Rosie Taylor explain how to get media coverage for the stories you uncover via FOI.
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Getting the most from FOR
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A training seminar on getting the most from requesting information in the UK
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Getting the Most from FOI
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Basic tips and trips for ensuring your FOI requests get full and adequate responses.
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Using Freedom of Information Data for Campaigns and Visualisations
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Learning from OKFDe and ForSet about different ways to use FOI data to tell stories and make campaigns
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Source & manage Freedom of Information data for impactful investigations & campaigns with Alaveteli
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How Alaveteli’s additional features for journalists, campaigners and researchers have been used to support impactful and award winning investigations.
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Running an Access to Information platform in France: obstacles and success stories
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Samuel Goëta from MaDada speaks about the weaknesses of FOIA in France, how the French Alaveteli platform madada.fr manages them and the first success stories of the platform.
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A change in the law for school starters in Scotland — through FOI
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The Give Them Time campaign speaks about how requests sent via WhatDoTheyKnow.com helped them get the law changed, so that more children in Scotland can benefit from more time at nursery school.
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Lost in Europe: deploying the Alaveteli network on a cross-border investigation
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Ten European FOI sites were used in an Netherlands-based investigation, Lost In Europe, into the thousands of children who go missing as they migrate across European borders.
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Regulating Access to Information
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Comparing different systems of regulation that work in the UK, and systems of regulation across Europe.
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Running an Access to Information platform in France: obstacles and success stories
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Samuel Goëta from MaDada speaks about the weaknesses of FOIA in France, how the French Alaveteli platform madada.fr manages them and the first success stories of the platform.
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The FOI Clearing House: an openDemocracy investigation into FOI at the heart of government
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Jenna Corderoy discusses her investigations into the Clearing House, a unit within the UK Cabinet Office that “advises on” and “coordinates” FOI requests referred by government departments.
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Watch this space (and pay for it): the misuse of public resources in an election campaign
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In April 2021, Gong used the Alaveteli-powered platform ImamoPravoZnati to unveil misuse of public funds for political campaigns.
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How to use FOI in the UK
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Workshop presentation on using FOI in the UK.
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What can you do with FOI in the UK?
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Short workshop on some of the things that have been made possible through UK FOI requests.
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Using Pro features: Dashboard and Batch request replies
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View the Alaveteli Pro dashboard, and see what happens when the responses come in from a batch Freedom of Information request to multiple authorities.
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How to make an FOI request using Alaveteli
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A short video walk through of making an FOI request.
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Responding to and managing an FOI request with Alaveteli
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What an authority sees when they receive your FOI request, how they can respond and how the request-maker can manage a response once it is received.
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Making and sending a batch request using Alaveteli Pro
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See how to make a batch Freedom of Information request to multiple authorities, using the Alaveteli Pro service.
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Dashboard and Batch request replies on Alaveteli Pro
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View the Alaveteli Pro dashboard, and see what happens when the responses come in from a batch Freedom of Information request to multiple authorities.
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Transforming an industry through FOI
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FragDenStaat’s FOI campaign rallied members of the public to request food safety reports from their local authorities. It’s resulted in 100 court cases, and new legislation around food safety.
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How a crowdsourced FOI campaign improved EU transparency
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After years of FOI requests and appeals, a campaign to release EU commissioners’ travel expenses, finally found success through a co-ordinated crowdsourcing campaign.
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Meet The Users: Gavin Chait, part 1
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Gavin Chait used Freedom of Information to ask every local authority in the UK to provide data on empty business premises.
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Meet The Users: Gavin Chait, part 2
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Part 2 of the interview in which Gavin explains his project to make things easier for start-ups.
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WhatDoTheyKnow Helps Re-Open Cambridge Footpath
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A practical example of how to use FOI to bring change in your local area.
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Advice for those setting up an Alaveteli Freedom of Information site
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Users of the Alaveteli Freedom of Information (FOI) software from around the world give their top tips for setting up a FOI request site.
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Challenges of running Freedom of Information request sites
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In this video, users of the Alaveteli Freedom of Information (FOI) software from around the world explain the challenges of running FOI request sites in their countries.
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Motivations for setting up an Alaveteli Freedom of Information website
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Users of the Alaveteli software from around the world explain their motivations behind setting up their Freedom of Information request sites.
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Freedom of Information rights around the world
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Users of the Alaveteli Freedom of Information (FOI) software from around the world explain the FOI laws in their countries.
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Staying protected: How to avoid lawsuits in the age of user-generated content
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Open data expert Francis Davey delivers training on the UK’s Defamation Act and how this affects those running websites featuring user-generated content.
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