After years of FOI requests and appeals, a campaign to release EU commissioners’ travel expenses, finally found success through a co-ordinated crowdsourcing campaign.
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.
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.
Comparing different systems of regulation that work in the UK, and systems of regulation across Europe.
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.
A short video walk through of making an FOI request.
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.
See how to make a batch Freedom of Information request to multiple authorities, using the Alaveteli Pro service.
View the Alaveteli Pro dashboard, and see what happens when the responses come in from a batch Freedom of Information request to multiple authorities.
Workshop presentation on using FOI in the UK.
Short workshop on some of the things that have been made possible through UK FOI requests.
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.
In April 2021, Gong used the Alaveteli-powered platform ImamoPravoZnati to unveil misuse of public funds for political campaigns.
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.
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.
How Alaveteli’s additional features for journalists, campaigners and researchers have been used to support impactful and award winning investigations.
Basic tips and trips for ensuring your FOI requests get full and adequate responses.
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.
View the Alaveteli Pro dashboard, and see what happens when the responses come in from a batch Freedom of Information request to multiple authorities.
Users of the Alaveteli Freedom of Information (FOI) software from around the world give their top tips for setting up a FOI request site.
Users of the Alaveteli software from around the world explain their motivations behind setting up their Freedom of Information request sites.
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.
Users of the Alaveteli Freedom of Information (FOI) software from around the world explain the FOI laws in their countries.
Gavin Chait used Freedom of Information to ask every local authority in the UK to provide data on empty business premises.
Part 2 of the interview in which Gavin explains his project to make things easier for start-ups.
Open data expert Francis Davey delivers training on the UK’s Defamation Act and how this affects those running websites featuring user-generated content.
A practical example of how to use FOI to bring change in your local area.
Very short excerpts from the longer ‘Getting the most from FOI’ seminar.
Excerpts from the longer seminar.
A written account of the seminar which you can also see in video form.
A written account of the seminar which you can also see in video form.
A written account of the seminar which you can also see in video form.
A look at how organisations which support marginalised communities use and request information from public bodies, what the information unlocks and how to better support this use of access to information.
How to use FOI for environmental action.
How one woman used FOI to uncover details of a massive scandal in the UK.
Research on running an Access to Information requesting website in Europe, looking at the challenges faced by organisations, strengths and success stories.
Discover statistics on Freedom of Information in UK central government and in Scotland.
Data on how many internal reviews result in some form of new information being released.
An in depth explanation of EIR.
Trying to understand the percentage of the population who use FOI.
In what circumstances, if any, can the Freedom of Information tools mySociety builds be shown to have measurable impacts on the ability of citizens to exert power over under-performing institutions?
Research showing that online portals result in faster responses from authorities.
Research into the topics of FOI requests sent through WhatDoTheyKnow.
A small charity was able to gather significant data around councils and carbon reduction, by sending mass FOI requests and using volunteers’ help to analyse them.
How FOI was used to help save a local athletics track in a London borough.
Nice examples of FOI being deployed in order to answer a variety of questions.
How FOI can be used to challenge misinformation in advertisements.
How a journalist uncovered important details of anti-climate lobbying to the UK government with FOI.
Discover a tool from Transparency International UK, which helps people ask for more details of meetings between MPs and lobbyists.
How charity Big Brother Watch brought about a change in the law, using FOI.
Some authorities ask you to resubmit your FOI request via their own channels: this practice is illegal.
Learn how the Georgian Alaveteli site AskGov.ge uses their skills in infographics to spread the word about FOI further.
See how Transparencia.be, the Belgian Alaveteli site, published a map and made councils change their ways.
Find out what BIDs are, what they do, and what sort of FOI requests might be usefully made to them.
Which authorities might you send FOI requests to, to obtain useful information about water pollution and quality?
Using FOI in combination with the Equality Act of 2010 can have impressive results.
A written account of the project which tracked missing minors at European borders.
Don’t despair if you receive ‘information not held’ in response to your FOI requests: this can be useful information in itself.
A look at some of the common auto-responses from authorities, and why they aren’t as worrying as they may seem.
Read about the experiences of MaDada, the French Alaveteli site.
Discover our tools for collaborating across a team on large FOI projects.
Privacy International used FOI to understand how authorities are accessing social media accounts to screen job applicants, court defendants, protestors and recipients of benefits.
Link to a training course from The Ferret.
Freedom of Information was one tool used in a coordinated campaign to prevent a council from selling off a large part of its property portfolio.
A step by step explainer on how to get data out of Pro.
A widespread FOI project to learn more about the state of mental health in higher ed.
How a librarian uncovered facts about the costs of research journals across our educational institutions.
How to add a link from your FOI request/s on WhatDoTheyKnow to any news stories or research where they’ve been cited.
The channels available to you if you don’t receive a response within the allocated time.
Privacy International uncovered a wealth of information about new technologies being put into use by UK police forces, in advance of any regulation.
Greek project Vouliwatch found themselves in the extraordinary position of issuing a lawsuit to their own parliament.
The German FOI site is well-known for publicity stunts and thinking outside the box, all in the pursuit of transparency.
Follow the links to discover notes and slides about each of the sessions in this 2019 gathering of the international FOI community.
An argument for journalists putting data into the public domain after their story has broken.
From Czech Republic, learn how to leverage FOI sites to mobilise support, and to encourage citizens to engage in the democratic process.
We spoke to Patricia Anderson from the Give Them Time campaign about how Freedom of Information requests, sent via WhatDoTheyKnow, helped them get the law changed.
Some examples of how to leverage mySociety sites, including WhatDoTheyKnow, to help fight the climate emergency.
Prior to Brexit, one person used FOI to understand more about plans around the Irish border – something that did, indeed, prove to be a big problem after the event.
A dogged investigation reveals that survivors of modern slavery are not being given the treatment the government claims they are.
Discover this widespread investigation into how much property was sold by local councils in an attempt to raise money during austerity.
Charity defenddigitalme discovered that personal information of school children was being used by the government to help locate those suspected of being in the country without leave to remain.
A walk-through of the options available to you when you receive a refusal to your FOI request.
Links to examples from around the world of where FOI has been used to make a difference.
Learn about the types of information you might request from coroners, and how it can be used.
Thanks to the Local Audit and Accountability Act we all have the right to examine our council’s accounts for a set period each year.
An investigation into controversial loans sold to councils by banks, known as LOBOs, by the group Debt Resistance UK.
These examples might give you ideas for the types of information you can request.
A first-person account of uncovering evidence that brought to light a national scandal in the UK.
How the batch feature works on Pro.
Gain inspiration from some of the most impactful requests that our team can remember.
Code for Croatia repurposed the Alaveteli codebase to make a complaints platform.
On WhatDoTheyKnow’s 10th anniversary, we looked at some of the news stories large and small that have been found through FOI requests on the site.
A disability campaigner unearthed truths about eligibility criteria for state benefits.
This Alaveteli installation covers just one American state. The local journalist who runs the site explains the rationale behind it, and gives advice to others wanting to do similar.
Learn from Belgium’s Alaveteli site, which has been and remains very good at attracting publicity.
Link to an article about best and worst practices in FOI refusals.
Links to news stories unearthed by journalists using the Pro tool.
Find out what these NHS bodies do, and what sorts of information you might ask them for.
A disability activist finds the data that shows where taxis are allowed to charge more for carrying wheelchairs – or refuse to take them at all.
Interview with the group who set up the Alaveteli site for Colombia.
Follow along with the 15-month saga to see what happens when you take a refusal to the ICO.
This request for open mapping data encountered frustrations and successes along the way.
Discover what this body does, and what kind of information you can request from it.
Alaveteli site AskTheEU called upon their followers to help request the travel expenses of EU Commissioners.
A little-known method for helping followers to make requests to authorities.
Australian project Detention Logs is showing the power of FOI in bringing social change.
One woman’s campaign to rid the UK’s schools of asbestos.
Despite the government’s reluctance, FOI was used to reveal details of a controversial back-to-work scheme.
Learn how mass FOI requests were used to discover information around empty shops, to help new businesses.
An explanation of the ‘proof of receipt’ icon on Alaveteli.
FOI is used to research pay conditions for overnight care workers.
A ruling compels a high-profile football stadium to release its contract with West Ham football club.
Learn how WhatDoTheyKnow made a difference through its campaigning and advocacy for FOI.
In the era of misinformation, FOI can be used to not only discover, but also share, the truth.
Discover the arguments made in favour of FOI – they might be applicable elsewhere.
Examples from nine countries of the effects of restricting Access to Information.
One man’s campaign to ascertain whether carers were being paid a living wage by a care home that claimed to be committed to that.
After AlaveteliCon 2015, a round-up of the common challenges of running an FOI site that are the same no matter which country you are working in.
Advice on how to bring more users to your FOI site.
Researchers Savita Bailur and Tom Longley answer this question: “In what circumstances, if any, can the FOI tools mySociety builds be shown to have measurable impacts on the ability of citizens to exert power over underperforming institutions?”
Instructions for how to receive an email whenever someone uses your chosen keyword/s in a request.
Step by step walkthrough on how to follow a specific authority on an Alaveteli site, so that you get an email every time someone makes an FOI request to them.
Never made an FOI request before? Start with these simple instructions.
Surveys across all mySociety’s sites, including WhatDoTheyKnow, allowed these researchers to better understand the habits and motives of their users.
An interview with DATA, the organisation running an Alaveteli site in Uruguay.
What’s it like running an Alaveteli site in a country where FOI is not a right? Learn from Spain.
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.
A beginners guide to fundraising streams
A Show and Tell from Sara at GONG about their learnings from their data visualisations mentorship with ForSet in Georgia
Learning from OKFDe and ForSet about different ways to use FOI data to tell stories and make campaigns
A training seminar on getting the most from requesting information in the UK
A blog post about the training mySociety held on using FOI data to tell a story
A blog post about the training on creating datasets from FOI data
Blog post about the Show and Tell from Sara at GONG
A post about the proposed fine to PSNI from the ICO after their data breach in 2023
A case study on Parents for Inclusive Education’s use of FOI in their campaigns
A blog post about MaDada’s investigation into the president’s payslips
A post about Alaveteli’s new feature – blog post importing – and how it works.
Post explaining how to use the new Alaveteli feature – exploring CSVs in Datasette
A post about batch use in the UK
A post about the request categories feature for Alaveteli
A write up of the ATI COP in person meeting post TICTeC
Monthnotes of impact from the ATI COP
An investigation into the use of underqualified medical staff using WhatDoTheyKnow and Reddit
A video about Access Info’s Impact award 2024
August 2024 monthnotes from the ATI COP
A roundup of what the Access to Information network sites have been up to in September 2024
Insights from our community of practice fundraising chat