Knowledge Hub
TICTeC is all about sharing research, knowledge and experiences to examine and improve the impacts of civic technology. Here we have gathered together resources from previous TICTeC events and initiatives to learn from each other.
TICTeC 2024 Funders Roundtable
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Machine Learning, AI and Parliamentary Monitoring
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A conversation about Machine Learning and AI initiatives in parliamentary monitoring.
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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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News from the ATI Network: October 2024
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A look at what happened in the ATI network in October 2024
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Fundraising and Access to Information Guide
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Insights from our community of practice fundraising chat
Notes from the ATI Network: September 2024
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A roundup of what the Access to Information network sites have been up to in September 2024
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Monitoring Sub-National Parliaments
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A PMO community of practice meeting discussing the challenges of monitoring parliaments at the subnational level
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Notes from the ATI Network: August 2024
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August 2024 monthnotes from the ATI COP
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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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Reddit, WhatDoTheyKnow and Under-qualified medical staff
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An investigation into the use of underqualified medical staff using WhatDoTheyKnow and Reddit
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Pro Credits and Pro use
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A post about batch use in the UK
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July Notes from the Network
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Monthnotes of impact from the ATI COP
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Fundraising 101
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A beginners guide to fundraising streams
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Scorecards volunteering increases climate knowledge
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Alaveteli Community of Practice: In Person Gathering
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A write up of the ATI COP in person meeting post TICTeC
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New Feature in Alaveteli: Request Categories
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A post about the request categories feature for Alaveteli
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New Feature in Alaveteli: Explore CSVs in Datasette
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Post explaining how to use the new Alaveteli feature – exploring CSVs in Datasette
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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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New Feature for Alaveteli: Importing Blog Posts
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A post about Alaveteli’s new feature – blog post importing – and how it works.
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Q&A for ‘mySociety and partners – working on climate’ session (i.e. the above three presentations)
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How a payslip taught France about their Transparency rights
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A blog post about MaDada’s investigation into the president’s payslips
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Parents for Inclusive Education Case Study
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A case study on Parents for Inclusive Education’s use of FOI in their campaigns
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Statement on the ICO fine to PSNI
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A post about the proposed fine to PSNI from the ICO after their data breach in 2023
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Fostering inclusive approaches to technological innovations for climate action
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Nature-based solutions’ pivotal role in addressing the climate crisis was acknowledged at COP28 — but such discussions often neglect examinations of the institutional power dynamics embedded in these agendas. By unpacking the dynamics at play, we can push for a nuanced understanding of technology’s potential within the context of preserving and restoring our natural environment.
Long Running PMO Sites
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A discussion about the challenges of running PMO sites for a long time
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Q&A for ‘Civic tech, AI and civil society’ session (i.e. the above presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Service design and digital government’ session (i.e. the above presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Emerging tech and democracy (2)’ session (i.e. the above presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Citizen science for climate action’ session (i.e. the above presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Emerging tech and democracy (1)’ session (i.e. the above three presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Data for climate action’ session (i.e. the above three presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Civic tech for transparency’ session (i.e. the above three presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Citizen engagement and parliamentary monitoring’ session (i.e. the above three presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Safeguarding elections and democracies’ session (i.e. the above three presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Digital infrastructures’ session (i.e. the above three presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Protecting human rights’ session (i.e. the above presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Using digital to deliberate’ session (i.e. the above three presentations)
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Q&A for ‘Civic tech in response to crisis’ session (i.e. the above three presentations)
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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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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 talk, we’ll share 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.
Data, prototyping and partnerships: mySociety’s approach to the climate/democracy problem
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Find out what works and what doesn’t, from three years of mySociety experience at the intersection of democracy and the climate crisis.
Zarino, our Climate Programme Lead, will share how we explored the challenges that communities are facing around climate, identified solutions we could test with data and technology, and then partnered with the right organisations to make those solutions effective.
Democracy under threat – how does civic tech have to shift to adapt to the problems of the current era?
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A panel discussion to dig deep into the urgency of the democratic crisis, and discuss how civic technology might need to evolve to enable true democratic governance.
OPTION 2: Civic tech in a civic democracy: opportunities and challenges in a new Parliament
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When mySociety started twenty years ago, the idea of civic tech covered a range of approaches that we now understand by different words in the UK. A lot of what was originally civic tech – an outside provocateur for better digital services – has been incorporated into official government services like GDS and the broader GovTech scene that criss-crosses local and national government. But there is room for an idea of civic tech outside this – that makes a statement about the relationship between citizens and governments – and the role technologists should play in a democracy. This panel will reflect on and discuss the current wave of civic tech, and the potential for change as the UK moves into a new Parliament.
Positive takeaways from TICTeC 2024
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A chance to share and discuss key takeaways from TICTeC 2024, and how they’ll be put into practice in work going forwards. Also, a final opportunity to network before the conference finishes for another year.
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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Following on from Nick Mabey’s keynote address, an expert panel will discuss the opportunities and challenges that civic technology presents, when it comes to democratic climate action.
Keynote address: Putting Democracy back into Climate Action
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Nick will open the second day of proceedings at TICTeC, by emphasising 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.
Welcome to TICTeC 2024: How can civic tech address today’s most pressing challenges?
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Keynote address: Joining the dots on civic tech and anti-corruption
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María will share insights drawn from a rich career working from different angles to support and defend democracy across Latin America and globally. She will share 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.
Redefined civic tech: community-centric impact stories from Georgia
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AskGov, based on the 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.
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.
OPTION 2: Let the sunshine in: Shedding light on carbon markets
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From a civic tech perspective, climate financing presents myriad challenges – from an overabundance of conflicting standards and taxonomies defining climate adaptation or mitigation, through to a lack of accessible and specialized digital tools to shed light on opaque and convoluted private and blended finance flows – obfuscating public scrutiny and fiscal transparency.
Come along to this workshop to generate integrated approaches to carbon market transparency.
Communities of practice for government: crowdsourcing knowledge and ideas for digital government services
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In the civic technology ecosystem, creating spaces and pathways for government practitioners and teams to connect and learn from one another is critical as we seek to address ongoing challenges in the design and delivery of government services, attract talent to public service, and retain people with the knowledge, skills, and abilities in government roles.
Building Government Buy-In for Civic Tech Success: Lessons from Morocco & Kosovo
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This presentation will explore the multifaceted strategies essential for cultivating government buy-in, highlighting the importance of aligning civic tech initiatives with governmental priorities, ensuring mutual benefits, and fostering an environment of trust and transparency.
Adaptive re-use of data for the adaptive re-use of high streets: building and scaling a local data service for London’s local authorities
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Despite narratives on the decline of UK high streets, there are many examples of local community partnerships applying strategies to repurpose traditional retail space and meet modern community needs. In London, this is supported by the High Streets Data Service and its adaptive re-use of big, private-sector data to deliver local, public-sector research and analysis.
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?
Using AI to process and make sense of resident input: learnings from 100 local governments
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Discover the power of artificial intelligence for processing public input, as Citizenlab draw on comprehensive insights from over 100 local governments worldwide that have implemented their AI Analysis and Sensemaking tool. Gain a new understanding of the practical applications of AI in public consultations, including challenges faced and unexplored areas for innovation.
Beyond technological disruption: what AI use cases and tools can truly improve governance?
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ACTE brings together the leading civic tech startups and organisations at the European level. Adrien shares their latest findings on how to approach the major shift imposed on our sector by AI; the way it impacts the tools and methods of civic tech, and its effects on our relationship with citizens.
OPTION 2: How can we achieve better multi-stakeholder governance? Get hands-on with vTaiwan
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This workshop provides a chance to get hands-on with the vTaiwan interface, and see first hand how it collects opinions, facilitates in-depth deliberations, and builds consensus to allow constructive discussions around any difficult issue. Members of the Ministry of Digital Affairs will also reflect on the government’s experiences of using this platform.
Civic tech and journalism: impact through collaboration
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Impact beyond a project’s runtime depends on embedding stakeholder interests from the start, to ensure uptake after a project is finished. Through European and Japanese examples of citizen-sensed data and journalistic storytelling as well as audience engagement, the presentation underlines the need for collaborations between civic tech activists and journalists.
From data to action: FloodLight’s impact on disaster response in Pakistan
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FloodLight, a volunteer-led disaster response platform, addresses the challenges of flooding in Pakistan. Launched in response to devastating floods which left one-third of the nation submerged, two million acres of agricultural land destroyed, and resulted in thousands of casualties, the platform emerged as a crucial tool in disaster management.
Empowering community action through open mapping in disaster response and climate action
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When disaster strikes anywhere in the world, the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team can mobilise thousands of volunteers, online and on the ground, to create open data that enables disaster responders to reach those in need. Open mapping is mobilising mass community action in disaster response, and open source technologies are enabling the collective mapping efforts.
Reflections on the challenges of practising digital democratic innovation
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Critical discussion of digital innovation in democracy typically points to gaps between aspirations and realities. Despite initial optimism about the potential of new technologies, research has tended to be much more pessimistic. This paper explores the space between naïve optimism and cynical pessimism by asking us to reflect on digital tools’ ability to enhance democracy in practice.
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.
Overcoming the Red Queen problem: ensuring democracy keeps pace with emerging technologies
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There is a pressing need for democratic institutions to adapt in the face of fast-evolving technologies. By showcasing successful examples of civic tech integration within the US and globally, and by proposing concrete steps for governments and civil society, the talk seeks to inspire action towards preserving democracy’s relevance and responsiveness in the digital age.
OPTION 2: Enhancing women’s and other marginalised communities’ inclusion within the civic tech sector
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Gain knowledge and experience in designing learning programmes that enhance women’s and other marginalised communities’ inclusion within the civic tech sector. This workshop aims to bridge the gender gap and foster an inclusive civic tech ecosystem that champions innovation with everyone in mind.
Using data to combat climate change
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The ‘Open Up Guide for Climate Action’ is a practical tool designed to support governments, organisations and activists in sharing specific information for targeted use, thereby incorporating open data as a central ingredient for environmental policies. Learn about its implementation in Uruguay, and consider how innovative mechanisms for data publication might work for other countries.
Routing algorithms, 20-minute neighbourhoods and hills in Scottish towns
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The Scottish government committed to support 20 minute neighbourhoods — but not all algorithms are equal, even the simplest ones. Scotland’s particularly hilly towns present a challenge. How does the 20 minute neighbourhood profile change, in different Scottish towns, when the routing algorithm takes up/down hill walking into consideration?
Data Commons is using AI to make the world’s public data more accessible and helpful
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The solution to many of the world’s big challenges will need strong data foundations, a task made complex by the need to interpret information from diverse, siloed sources. Data Commons is an open source initiative that aggregates datasets from publicly available sources globally, allowing users to ask key questions in their own words.
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.
How civic tech is unveiling corruption and championing democracy and environmental protection in Brazil
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Learn 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.
Empowering communities: Budeshi’s impact on transparency and accountability in Nigerian government projects
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Budeshi, the open-contracting tool, 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.
OPTION 2: How developments in technology and civic participation will impact the future of citizen science
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A backcasting workshop to spark new conversations and explore how developments in technology and civic participation will impact the future of citizen science. Discuss what might happen in the short to medium term future to enable decision makers and practitioners to develop more impactful and sustainable citizen science.
Empowering citizens: how Querido Diário is making Brazilian city policies accessible
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Querido Diário 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.
From data to democracy: the role of DCinbox in shaping informed citizenship and government accountability
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DCinbox is an archive of every official e-newsletter sent from members of the United States Congress, with nearly 200,000 missives spanning more than 15 years.
This data allows findings on political representation, public health information dissemination, propensities for legislators to emulate the style of the President, gendered communication, and more.
OPTION 2: Navigating uncertainty: Building civic tech in closing and conflict-affected spaces
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Even in the most open societies, civic technologists grapple with the intricate balance of bridging government and citizens — a task that grows exponentially more complex where democracy is stifled or under direct threat. Civic technology stands as a pivotal force in these environments, embodying both immense promise and significant challenges. This panel will share insights from the front lines, discussing how they’ve leveraged innovation to foster dialogue, deliver essential services, and ensure citizen participation in governance against a backdrop of adversity.
Empowering civic engagement: leveraging Ushahidi for transparent and inclusive electoral monitoring and governance
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Uchaguzi empowers citizens to report incidents during elections, enabling the monitoring of election-related events in near real-time. This enhances electoral integrity, preventing electoral fraud, and contributing to the overall credibility and legitimacy of the electoral process. Come away with actionable insights, practical tools, and a strengthened network for leveraging Ushahidi in election monitoring initiatives.
Common civic tech needs across global contexts
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Over the period of a year, The Civic Tech Field Guide team met with democracy activists working in countries whose democracies are under active threat. A surprising finding was the overlap in these groups’ needs. What resources can begin to address these needs, and what more can we, as a field, do to help?
How to build a country-led election coalitions and combat misinformation online
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In 2024, almost half the world’s population will vote in elections — but will they be informed, or misled? Country-led election coalitions are a powerful tool for combating misinformation. They identify the claims that are causing the most harm, and debunk them, serving millions of voters at a time when they most need reliable information.
Investing in digital infrastructure: how the Sovereign Tech Fund promotes civic tech and digital sovereignty
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The Sovereign Tech Fund is a new public organisation backed by the German government, which invests in open-source infrastructure in the public interest.
Open-source software significantly contributes to civic technology. Open digital infrastructure has empowered successful civic tech projects, highlighting the vital role these technologies play in creating a more participative, transparent, and responsive society.
Re-imagining critical digital infrastructure with the public
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Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs believes that the future of digital infrastructure lies in software rather than the current hardware-dominant landscape. Continuing the traditional private-public-partnership social innovation approach in Taiwan, the nation is now reinventing its digital public service lifecycle and managing to involve the voice of citizens along the way.
Moving from digital tools to digital public spaces: building infrastructures for digital citizen participation
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When thinking about digital technologies for participation as public spaces, the narrative can shift to promote a stronger role for public authorities in developing, deploying and monitoring such technologies. The Getting Civic Tech Right for Democracy work from the OECD helps suggest first recommendations towards a more holistic perspective for digital participation.
Challenges of implementing civic tech projects in adverse environments
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Technology has demonstrated how impactful it can be in promoting, protecting and remedying human rights in Zimbabwe — but implementing it in an environment of adversity is a challenge. Difficulties include poor internet infrastructure, competing platforms for users’ attention — and a hostile dictatorship that will clamp down on anything perceived as anti-government.
The critical role of civic technology and cybersecurity in sustaining Russian anti-war civil society in exile
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Learn about the strategies and cybersecurity practices of Russian anti-war civil society in exile, including the use of social media, chatbots, and encrypted communication to safely mobilise, share information, and support democratic values. There is a crucial role for cybersecurity in protecting these activities from state surveillance and interference — and upholding democracy.
Challenges of implementing civic tech projects in adverse environments
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Technology has demonstrated how impactful it can be in promoting, protecting and remedying human rights in Zimbabwe — but implementing it in an environment of adversity is a challenge. Difficulties include poor internet infrastructure, competing platforms for users’ attention — and a hostile dictatorship that will clamp down on anything perceived as anti-government.
Civic tech’s role in safeguarding democracy in East Asia
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Civic tech projects in South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan bolster democracy through citizen participation, transparency, and government accountability, but face challenges including legal charges, cyberattacks, and death threats. And above all, many need to be ever adaptable under anti-democratic governments. This research project explored the role of civic tech communities in safeguarding democracy.
Learnings from Recursive Public, a collaboration between vTaiwan and Chatham House
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vTaiwan collaborated with Chatham House for ‘Recursive Public’, part of OpenAI’s Democratic ‘Input to AI’ programme.
This piloted a framework for democratic engagement which hosts recursive discussion that continuously evolves with new inputs.
Shu-Yang explores insights, learnings and reflections from the vTaiwan community, based on real-life examples of the platform.
Deliberative mini-publics to develop more inclusive recommendations around climate change and local travel
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Rowan makes the case for integrating maxi-publics — digital participation — with mini-publics such as citizens’ juries on contentious issues such as climate change, and local transport infrastructure.
Discover how a three-pronged Local Climate Engagement programme in Lancaster in the UK helped shape ideas for action, supported by data, to present to the council.
Combining online mass-consultation with a citizens’ assembly for effective participation
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How should we deal with disinformation?
The Forum against Fakes is a nationwide debate on the topic, run by Bertelsmann Stiftung with the German Ministry of the Interior. A multistep process combines online consultation with a citizens’ assembly, with the deliberate aim of combining the strengths of both.
“Help, my civic tech project became critical national infrastructure”- reflecting on the last 15 years of UK civic tech
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It started as a fun tech project – then one day you woke up and realised the nation depends on it.
The panel look back at the UK’s civic tech scene over the last 15 years, its relationship to governmental developments and the changing needs of UK civil society.
Technology and participation: lessons from the humanitarian sector
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Many humanitarian organisations are turning to technological forms of engagement. The use of chatbots in particular, along with messaging tools to facilitate surveys and collect complaints, has been utilised to varying degrees of success in the sector. But poor deployment can lead to misaligned expectations about outcomes.
Mapping (dis)continued civic tech in post-revolution contexts
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After Egypt’s 2011 revolution, many civic tech initiatives emerged in line with the revolution’s demands for freedom and justice. The article Mennatullah will present will explore four of these — Harassmap, Zabatak, Kahrabtak and Morsi Meter — to understand the conditions needed for civic tech initiatives to continue after an initial burst of post-revolution growth.
Civic tech to advance peace: lessons from conflict-affected contexts
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See how digital deliberation tools are used in conflict-affected contexts. Discover how Pol.is is working in Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau and Sudan, and learn how to ensure that civic tech tools are used in a conflict sensitive manner, ensuring the safety of participants, and the building of trust.
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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Crating Datasets with FOI Data
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A blog post about the training on creating datasets from FOI data
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Creating datasets from FOI data
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A written account of the seminar which you can also see in video form.
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FOI advice: shorts
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Very short excerpts from the longer ‘Getting the most from FOI’ seminar.
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Telling stories with FOI data: shorts
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Excerpts from the longer seminar.
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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: summary
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A written account of the seminar which you can also see in video form.
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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 FOI: summary
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A written account of the seminar which you can also see in video form.
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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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You can use WhatDoTheyKnow for the good of the climate
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How to use FOI for environmental action.
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Using Access to Information to Support Social Change
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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.
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50 news stories uncovered by WhatDoTheyKnow’s users
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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.
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WhatDoTheyKnow and the Post Office Horizon scandal
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How one woman used FOI to uncover details of a massive scandal in the UK.
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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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CE UK and mySociety are using people power and Freedom of Information to bring transparency to local climate action
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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.
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Public-private collaborations – how can civic tech work effectively with public and private institutions?
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A global panel mulls over the challenges of working on private-public civic tech projects, as well as their solutions and ideas to tackle these.
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Ensuring civic tech is accessible – how can we lead and popularise best practice?
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Civic tech tools must be accessible and inclusive if they are to truly help everyone. Practitioners from across the world share the challenges and their solutions and ideas to tackle these.
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Storytelling and reach: how can we amplify our successes beyond the civic tech community to evidence our impact through mainstream channels?
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During this Surgery, we discussed the challenges of amplifying civic tech projects and their successes through mainstream channels with practitioners from across the world, as well as their solutions and ideas to tackle these.
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Learning from climate action – how can civic tech drive impactful societal change?
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Through the lens of climate action, we discussed the opportunities and challenges in using civic tech to encourage people to change and coordinate their behaviour in ways that can cause significant changes in society.
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Civic Tech in Hostile Environments – how can we thrive in challenging contexts?
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Globally, the civic tech community faces challenges from working in hostile environments, from facing everyday government resistance to operating in conflict and post-conflict societies. In this surgery, we discussed some of the common challenges and how we can support each other in solving them.
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The FOI Clearing House: an openDemocracy investigation into Freedom of Information at the heart of government
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The Clearing House is 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): Alaveteli-driven exposure of the misuse of public resources in an election campaign
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Quaint footage of seaside towns and villages, and boasts about successful projects, in fact concealed a misuse of public resources for the purposes of incumbents’ campaigns.
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How to monitor emergency procurement with open data: lessons from 12 countries
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Unprecedented times call for quick decisions, and the pandemic saw governments around the world implementing emergency procurement measures.
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Civic tech for smartphone beginners: is the future binary?
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As real-time data becomes increasingly important for decision-making, Integrity Action‘s DevelopmentCheck tool pushes those in positions of authority to deliver better public services and infrastructure projects.
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Find that charity: a tool to help find charities and improve charity data
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A big part of publishing high quality grants data is having good organisation identifiers. 360Giving helped develop “Find that Charity”, a tool for finding non-profit organisations.
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Civic tech vs. illicit pharmacies
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Code for Pakistan partnered with the Health Department to curb malpractices within the pharmaceutical industry, digitising and automating the license issuing, tracking and renewal process.
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How AfricanLII saves its users $100million a year
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Research findings that demonstrate how the African Legal Information Institute (AfricanLII), through the free, online, provision of legal information have achieved significant, positive, social, legal, and financial impacts for their users.
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Our COVID consultation journey: from a small initiative to the desk of the president
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What should the post-COVID world look like? Civocracy wanted to find out about the hopes and dreams of the French public — but also, what they were willing to sacrifice to make the change happen.
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Understanding the small hurdles that block community engagement, with behavioural design
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Across South Africa, municipalities recognise that community engagement in local policy-making is crucial for effective governance, but they nonetheless struggle with low and unrepresentative participation.
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Don’t build it: a practical guide for those building civic tech
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Lessons learned from four years spent building Grassroot, a civic technology platform in South Africa.
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It takes two: when citizens and Congress Members deliberate online
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Researchers invited 150 constituents that were representative of the district to a week-long, single topic, online forum with their Member of Congress.
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Leave no-one behind: overcoming hurdles to online citizen assemblies
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FutureGov was commissioned by Blackpool Council to deliver a neighbourhood assembly on climate change. But Blackpool’s population is in the top 10% most deprived in England, and they had to recognise that there were significant barriers to online participation.
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Engaging for the future: what do the public want from engagement, and how can digital deliver?
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What are the barriers preventing people from engaging in planning? How do people want to participate? What does good and effective engagement look like?
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#PlanTech and the geospatial ecosystem
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Citizen Space Geospatial incorporates interactive mapping and geospatial data throughout the digital engagement process — and it will have broad-reaching implications for the field of public participation.
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What are the effects of OpenStreetMapping on the mappers themselves?
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Generally, contributing to OSM’s mapping is regarded as a form of volunteer service. However, recent analyses suggest that experience of mapping could be as important as the data contributed.
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Open data for local self governance: learnings from five Ukrainian cities
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How to improve data and assets governance at the local level, how digitalisation can allow access to public information and the development and launch of (geo)information systems.
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Digital champions: community led development monitoring in Tanzania
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Crowd2Map trained first time smartphone users in the Serengeti District to map their communities and help protect girls from female genital mutilation.
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Disfactory: mapping and reporting illegal factories in Taiwan
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Disfactory is a crowdsourcing platform that enables citizens to report illegal factories on farmland in Taiwan, aiming to decrease pollution and accidents.
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Visualising the future: how 3D imaging helps residents understand proposed changes
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One of the key barriers to housing development is public understanding of development proposals and the true impacts these might have. Improving understanding of development proposals is as important as improving the user experience and opportunity to participate in the planning process.
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What role for Civic Tech (and data) in mitigating the climate crisis?
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We know that civic technology can do things such as help citizens hold their representatives to account; present data and information about policy and decision making in more accessible ways; and get information to the right people. The next crucial step is to understand how this wealth of skills, experience and tools can be used in the most beneficial way to mitigate the climate crisis.
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Digital tools for democracy: what’s been built and where are the spaces?
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Alex Parsons, the Research Associate at mySociety, gives an overview of tools for democracy as things stood in 2020.
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Keynote: Nanjala Nyabola
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A key theme for Nanjala is the effect that technology is having on politics — in her home country of Kenya, but also across Africa and globally.
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Technology and public participation in constitution making
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An overview of efforts to deploy technological tools in bottom-up constitution making initiatives.
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Changing a constitution
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Constitutional revision has been a long running theme for Iceland in recent years. Now they’ve been through a wide-ranging public consultation on changes to the nation’s constitution.
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Lessons learned from building democracy’s database
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Hear about ten years of successes and failures in gathering local legislative district and elected official data for the Cicero database project, as well as details about the impacts this data has had on hundreds of users.
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Future of tech and democracy at the city of Reykjavík
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Sigurlaug Anna Jóhannsdóttir is a Democracy advisor at the City of Reykjavik Council in Iceland.
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How to last in civic tech (especially now)
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Of the many live organisations listed in the Civic Tech Field Guide, only about 75 are more than ten years old. What are the factors that bring about such organisational longevity?
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Fireside chat: Hollie Russon Gilman
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Hollie Russon Gilman is particularly interested in revitalising American democracy, local innovation, and the opportunities and challenges of digital technologies to enhance governance and public policy.
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Making law freely available online: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa
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Results of a 2019 mySociety research paper examining the usage and impact of Legal Information Institution (LII) websites in sub-Saharan Africa
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Openly available air quality data: not just blue-sky thinking
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OpenAQ and a community of open data lovers set out on a mission, guided by the simple question: what if all the world’s air quality data were openly available?
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How we failed to build an online deliberation tool: experience from Taiwan
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g0v began as a hacktivist group, and went on to shape Taiwan’s digital policy. One project sought to increase online civic participation. Who could be better positioned to do this work? But things didn’t go as smoothly as anticipated.
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What does the African feminist future of civic technology look like?
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Women and sexual minorities are frequent victims of online gender-based violence. But we are yet to fully understand the impact that this has on women across Africa, and on how they access civic technology.
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Accountability through petitions: elections 2019
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Could a shift to digital accountability happen, if candidates are exposed to local and national petitions?
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Pledge trackers as catalysts for accountability
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Transparency International UK’s Promise to Practice project tracks and advocates for the implementation of governments’ anti-corruption commitments made at the 2016 London Anti-Corruption Summit.
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From citizens to data points: the datafication of citizen engagement
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Technologies such as constituent databases are helpful for collecting, storing, and analysing constituent communication, but they promote the datafication of citizen information.
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Open data: essential, not just ‘nice to have’
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Would societies around the world be better able to respond to the pandemic, if more or better open data were freely available?
That was the question put to this expert panel, in the first in our series of online TICTeC Seminars.
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Digitising parliaments: it took a pandemic
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Things that once were deemed by governments as impossible or not important enough – like remote voting – have become a reality in parliaments across the world since the emergence of COVID-19.
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Seeing like a state: lessons from building an open data support team
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Technologiestiftung Berlin started with the hypothesis that the main obstacle for progress in Open Data was a lack of digital expertise in government. This turned out to be wrong.
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How volunteers engage with government
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Volunteers drive a large proportion of civic tech activity around the world. The community organisation efforts of the Code for America network have exponentially increased the influence and impact of civic tech ideals and reshaped public expectations and government culture.
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When civic tech collaborates with government: what works?
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In countries with more autocratic governments, traditional models are not effective at improving institutional performance, and impact on citizens is often very limited. ePaństwo are testing new models and already seeing promising outcomes.
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Civic tech impact: what doesn’t work?
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This workshop provided space to explore a less talked-about side to civic tech: the very real barriers to long-term impact.
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Investing in the future of civic tech
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A panel of funders dig in deep to the question of what grantmakers want to see before they invest in civic tech.
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Empowerment of women through civic tech in Kosovo
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This research looks at grassroots programmes in Kosovo, which teach young women advanced ICT skills and the use of Open Data.
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Questioning impact: what if you find it lacking?
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What happens when a seemingly successful initiative starts to question its Theory of Change?
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Impacts of discussion platforms for young people
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Two million young people from Yemen, Libya, Egypt, DRC, Burundi, Mali and China engage in Citizens’ Voice online communities where they share diverse viewpoints in a safe, alternative civic space.
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Inclusive governance: bringing all voices on board for the design and delivery of policies and public services
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Technology has brought many opportunities to change the way that governments and citizens can interact – but it has also brought challenges.
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Fostering democractic societies to fight platform populists: the Brazilian experience
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The keynote of TICTeC 2019 and an inspiring look at what citizen-led activism and direct engagement can achieve – even when things look hopeless.
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Evaluating the impacts of voter information campaigns
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What makes effective content; what are the best methods of communication; and how best to evaluate impact on voter information, behaviour, and candidate response?
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Developing an urban barometer
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The urban barometer, uses digital technologies to engage with citizens and provide evidence on subjective aspects of wellbeing to guide policy makers
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The Open Government Partnership Multi-Donor trust fund: research on the impact of open government and participatory democracy
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The OGP and several partners established a funding mechanism, the OGP MDTF, to expand research activities in the areas of open government, public participation, and civic tech.
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Funding impactful civic tech in Latin America
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Fundación Avina worked with researchers to try to understand the evolution and impact of civic tech projects and the organisations that lead them.
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Scaling civic tech impact through the Open Government Partnership
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One of the key challenges facing civic tech initiatives is scaling: they often fail to achieve their full impact potential — not due to design issues, but a lack of an effective dissemination and scaling platform.
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What holds government back from helping civic tech projects scale?
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Classifying some of the factors that are holding back efficient public-private partnerships in civic tech, and looking at the feasibility and impact of some mitigation strategies.
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Learning from setbacks: Civocracy and citizen consultations
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During development of Civocracy, expectations were high: however, at launch, the anticipated impact was found to be disappointingly lacking.
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Being unsocial on social media: the implications for civic and political engagement
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The phenomena of political filtering and unfriending on social media, and their civic and political implications in an international context.
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Participatory budgeting in Paris
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Every year, the city of Paris puts aside 100 million Euros to fund projects chosen by its own inhabitants.
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Digital democracy as a response to the gilets jaunes
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French MP Paula Forteza joins the dots between the discontent shown by the gilets jaunes demonstrators, and the increased empowerment fostered by participatory democracy tools.
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The state of civic tech and gov tech in France
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The influences and tensions that shape the civic tech ecosystem, using local governments as a case study to see how tools are used and perceived by public institutions.
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The quest for an internet that serves us
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The Internet Health Report tells a collaborative story of how the internet is — and isn’t — a resource for good. Issues range from privacy to connectivity, to online harassment and the economics of online platforms.
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The state of open data: research findings
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Key findings from the report (published in May 2019) and in particular, how they can be useful for the civic tech community.
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The civic tech timeline: a recent history
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The Civic Tech Field Guide has collected and mapped hundreds of civic tech initiatives. The result is a comprehensive timeline demonstrating over a decade of growth in our field.
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Identifying checkable claims with machine learning
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Full Fact have developed a tool which can separate sentences containing claims from those that do not. This accelerates the process of fact-checking.
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Not all promises are equal: towards better promise trackers
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Typically, parties make hundreds of campaign promises. Some are hugely significant to the result of elections; others hardly mentioned. Despite this, Promise Trackers currently treat all promises equally.
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Participatory budgeting: the opportunities and limitations of what civic tech can do
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A deep dive into whether, and how, technologies can enhance the unique value proposition of participatory budgeting initiatives.
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Same process, different outcomes: mapping participatory budgeting in France
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What’s the difference between Brazil and France? The degree to which participatory budgeting has changed citizen engagement.
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Decidim and the Municipal Action Plan in Barcelona: co-producing and auditing public policy through a political network
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Decidim.barcelona enabled an online/offline process for the Municipal Action Plan of Barcelona, the roadmap for the government’s public policies.
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The legal story of g0v.tw
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Legal frameworks have been a vital factor in g0v’s development, from the free software community to Creative Commons licenses, open data and open government — and each provided a framework that was fundamental to g0v’s own success.
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When civic tech matures: the issues that arise in long-running projects
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Running Civic Tech websites over a long period of time brings some unique challenges, not all of which are foreseeable when setting out.
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The impacts of OpenSCHUFA on credit scoring transparency in Germany
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OpenSCHUFA, took data donated by the public, and reverse engineered the algorithms of Schufa, Germany’s credit rating system.
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The civic tech ecosystem in Nigeria
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Mapping the organisations in the accountability and civic tech space in Nigeria to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – and areas for collaboration.
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Is that grant working? Citizen monitoring in Nepal
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Sindhupalcheck was an intervention that engaged citizens to monitor a house reconstruction programme in Nepal. How impactful was it?
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Engagement metrics for social impact
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A workshop exploring how to develop better metrics that can serve organisational missions, using two technology platforms for civic engagement.
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The impact of civic technology in Latin America
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Panel discussion. With examples from Latin America used as a starting point, insights are applicable for civic tech practitioners around the world.
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Preventing abuse on Facebook during the 2018 US midterm elections
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A behind-the-scenes look at how Facebook attempted to identify and combat coordinated attempts at manipulation and voter suppression on their platform.
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mySociety research: evidence and impact
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TICTEC Local 2019 was kicked off with an overarching look at the meaning, evidence and impact of local digital. Slide deck.
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What role can digital technologies play in citizen participation?
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Panelists from the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture Media & Sport, FutureGov, Westminster University and Involve discuss how civic tech can foster citizen engagement. Notes document.
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The impact of data-enabled innovation in local public services in the UK
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How the Open Data Institute encouraged take up of their toolkit for data-informed policy development by local councils. A notes document.
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Beyond open data: how the Housing Data Coalition develops actionable, community-centered services
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Notes from an engaging presentation on how quantitative data changed housing reform law in New York.
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Civic tech to empower democracy and increase civic engagement: local examples from the US
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Learn how US civic tech organisations are deploying a variety of means to get citizens engaged.
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The impacts of civic tech for elections in the UK
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An overview of the work of Democracy Club, which leads a huge effort in crowdsourcing data every time there’s a UK election. A slide deck.
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Using machine learning to identify food bank dependency early
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Data scientists worked with a foodbank in Huddersfield to understand whether they could predict which customers are most likely to be in need of future support, so that they could intervene early. A notes document.
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Digital tools to connect those facing homelessness with the support they need
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Notes from a presentation about Proxy Address, which provides stable addresses for those facing the instability of homelessness.
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How GOV.UK common platforms are helping local authorities transform services for their residents
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Sharing components across different areas has helped GOV.UK make efficiencies in processes such as online payments. A slide deck.
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Creating a cross-local government user research plan
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A slide deck, in which Hackney and Croydon Councils present experimental approaches to user research.
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Automating environmental impact analyses to improve urban planning in New York City
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In New York, development proposals that increase density are required to assess the environmental impact of that increase. A slide deck.
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Enabling local people to participate in the design of civic and public life
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Looking at two projects which used civic tech to better engage with public: design services to be used by local people; and collecting opinions about autonomous vehicles. A notes document.
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Taking back control: why community power matters to our economy and society and what gets in its way
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Looking at four intersecting crises hitting deprived areas of the UK. A slide deck.
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So you’ve declared a Climate Emergency. Now what?
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Notes from an inspiring panel featuring representatives of the Green Party, FutureGov, Hubub and Friends of the Earth.
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The political construction of accountability keywords: lessons from action-research
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Reflections on the political origins and implications of terms in the accountability field, addressing their invention, translation, appropriation and circulation in different contexts.
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Impacts of anti-corruption pledge trackers
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Learn about a tool that had a simple research question at its heart: “What progress has the UK government made in delivering on the anti-corruption commitments made at the 2016 Anti-Corruption Summit?”
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Bridging the gap between parliament and the people
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How the Centre for Policy Analysis are using technology and multimedia tools to make information on Parliament more accessible for mainstream online audiences.
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Blockchain for civic change: can it deliver?
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A panel offers insights into Blockchain, the much-hyped technology, widely heralded as the answer to a vast array of public problems.
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Improving civic discourse on Facebook
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From Facebook’s Civic Engagement team, a presentation considering why and how they promote civic discourse among their vast userbase. A slide deck.
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Design for civic participation
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One of mySociety’s designers takes us through the main civic tech product design lessons he’s learnt while working at the organisation.
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The personal and the public: protecting sensitive data in huge datasets
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Release of a public dataset means treading the balance between utility and protection of individuals. This session explains tools that help with PII detection, and concepts like k-anonymity and l-diversity.
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Design principles for re-engaging disaffected citizens
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This paper assesses the impact of a design process to understand root causes of anti-government populism, and the means of reversing its spread.
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WriteToThem: an analysis
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This paper argues that mySociety’s contact-your-representative service seems not to generate high levels of interactivity between citizens and the elected; and is often used for purposes not intended by its makers nor necessarily appreciated by the elected.
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Crowdsourcing subjective perceptions of neighbourhood disorder: interpreting bias in open data
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Datasets produced as a result of people’s online activities offer new lines of enquiry in social science, in particular for concepts related to crime and disorder.
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What research has mySociety been doing internally?
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Looking more deeply into the use, and users, of mySociety’s street fault reporting platform FixMyStreet, and the contact-your-representative website WriteToThem.
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The Making All Voices Count programme: new lessons about donor-funded civic tech
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The potential and limits of technologies in building democratic and accountable governance; and the extent to which a donor-funded programme like MAVC incentivises a careful, critical, evaluative approach.
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Smart cities vs. civic tech: an analysis
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Where is the crossover between civic tech and smart cities – and to what extent can the former, with its years of hard-won experience, shape the latter?
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The problem with impact measurement in civic tech
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Just how meaningful are the various types of impact measurements offered by civic tech startups, really? An honest look at what has value, and what counts for very little.
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PISA4U: empowering teachers through online global peer collaboration
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How an online platform brought policy experts closer to the people their recommendations are meant to impact – teachers.
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CoFacts: the chatbot that combats misinformation
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CoFacts is a collaborative fact-checking project that combines a chatbot with a hoax database, integrated within LINE, a popular instant messenger app in Asia.
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Knowledge from failure: learnings from the Civic Tech Field Guide
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Discover the four common reasons that civic tech projects fail, gleaned from analysis of 800 tools, apps, platforms, and companies.
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Civic tech in Nigeria: what works?
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Before you build internet-dependent civic tech, makes sure your intended audience has good data coverage – and other learnings from Nigeria.
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Democracy as an obstacle to impact: the Nordic race to the bottom in open government
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Despite worldwide recognition as leaders in democratic governance, the Nordic countries have displayed consistent and remarkably similar poor performance in Open Government Partnership implementation.
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Diverting hate speech with simple online tools
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A modified version of iHub Kenya’s Umati project monitored and countered hate speech during the country’s elections of 2015. Learn about the link between events offline and hate speech online, that allow triggers to be identified.
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Civic tech for governmental change
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The appropriation by the government of civic tech tools created a dynamic of change inside government which was largely unexpected.
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Why do governments publish open data?
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A critical view on government’s motivations for publishing datasets, also exploring how these might translate into better public trust, participation, government accountability and sustainability.
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Making waves: tech for water in Sierra Leone
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Water in Sierra Leone is a complicated issue. On the one hand, availability is high; on the other, access is unequally distributed. Civic tech can help, but it’s not the whole solution.
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Social media vs traditional media in electoral coverage
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Polarisation in social media has become a major concern, with these platforms spreading misinformation, fostering confirmation bias and increasing segregation. But social media can also have a positive effect on democracy.
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The results matter: assessing technology for service provision
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A platform that allows citizens to send free, anonymous messages to local government officials, reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of communication about public services.
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Bridging the civic tech research divide
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A discussion on how to increase the ways that useful knowledge about civic tech gets created, shared, and incorporated into our projects.
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Value for money meets value for many: open contracting and civic participation
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Civic tech that can use open contracting data to save money and improve services generates massive improvements in government spending and quality of life.
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Publish What You Pay: the Data Extractors programme
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The PWYP Data Extractors Programme is a global initiative which trains participants to uncover and make sense of extractives data.
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Experience in supporting developing data literacy and increasing data usage
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A conversation about partnerships, culture, capacity and peer review.
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Words from Google: supporting the civic tech ecosystem
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Google’s commitment to the civic tech field, outlining why the search engine giant believes it to be of such critical importance in the current age.
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Responsible technology as the new normal
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Martha Lane Fox on what it means to make technology responsible, at every step of the process: the way it’s developed, the way it works for users and its impact on society.
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Two heads are better than one: working with governments
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Governments have a wealth of knowledge about the needs of their citizens. Civic tech organisations often have innovative technologies that can meet those needs.
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Exploring sense of community for online citizen engagement
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What value is created through online citizen engagement by using the community psychology Sense of Community theory to examine the behavioural aspects of eParticipation?
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Strengthening civic participation in Paraguay through online technology
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Lessons learned from implementing civic engagement processes using web-based platforms for citizens to share ideas for innovating public services and urban plans.
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Five years of Citizen Budget: an impact assessment
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With over 120 Citizen Budgets implemented across North America, Open North have undertaken research on the impact of the tool in different cities.
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Citizen participation in Rome
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Roma Capitale expects not only to boost innovation policies at local level but also to improve the civic approach to the city.
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Donor forum: good practices to support civic tech
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A discussion between donors and civic tech organisations, to surface trends within the civic tech movement, explore shared objectives of scaling, and become sustainable.
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Making responsible tech the new normal
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Following Martha Lane Fox’s keynote speech, Doteveryone asks how we can foster collaborations between policy makers, civil society and the tech industry to ensure responsible tech becomes the normal.
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Overview of The Deal
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Wigan are trying something new: a contract between residents and the council as both sides strive for a better borough. Side deck.
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FamilyStory: how technology can better support children’s services
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Better design for the case management systems used by social workers. Slide deck.
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The Consul project for citizen participation
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Consul’s participation software is used by 90 governments in 18 different countries, giving citizens a voice in decisions about their own neighbourhoods. Slide deck.
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Revealing the hidden patterns in local democracy
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New ways to look at the world, with data. This presentation included some beautiful charts for those who love data visualisation. Slide deck.
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Fixing the plumbing
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MHCLG share how they are helping Local Government to ‘fix the plumbing’, by putting the basics in place now — and quickly. Slide deck.
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Using tech and data to provide better support for new parents
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Shift discover that by removing judgement, online platforms become more accessible. Slide deck.
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Council as a platform: supporting the civics
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How do you effect the fundamental rethink from service user to service provider? Slide deck.
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Cloud – is it just pie in the sky?
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Slide deck running through the benefits of hosting in the cloud.
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Examples of civic technologies and their impacts
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Now that the Civic Technology sector has matured, we can take a step back and assess its worth.
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Fireside chat: Stephen King, Omidyar Network
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The Omidyar Network is one of the most significant benefactors for those working in Civic Tech. Through the Governance & Citizen Engagement initiative, it supports a broad range of organisations working in the US and around the world.
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How can civic tech reach more people? How can civic tech be more inclusive?
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Examples of technology projects that tackle digital exclusion. As a community, coders and activists must ensure that tools genuinely benefit the communities who need them most.
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Government led civic technology: successes and challenges
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Increasingly governments are innovating in the civic tech sphere. What are the advantages and disadvantages of citizen-to-government applications implemented by governments themselves?
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Impacts of leak sites
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Leak sites are web-based initiatives which usually employ encryption and anonymisation technologies for concealing the identity of whistleblowers.
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Impacts of civic tech projects in Pakistan
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Code for Pakistan’s applications have improved government efficiency and the experiences of hundreds of citizens who interact with government every day.
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Impacts of open data standards on transparency tools
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Most open data initiatives assume the provision of data by governments which will be used by a variety of sectors for the good of all. But for some, the promises of Open Data fall far short of the reality.
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Impacts of budeshi.ng on Nigerian public procurement
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With Budeshi it was possible to demonstrate to public institutions the benefits of using unique identifiers to link budget and procurement data to public services.
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The impacts of open contracting reforms in Ukraine and Slovakia
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Open Contracting Partnership presents evidence of the impact of open contracting reforms from Ukraine, Slovakia and beyond. What do they measure, how and why? What lessons have been learned — and what mistakes were made along the way?
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Serenata de Amor: tracking Congresspeople’s expense claims in Brazil
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Using data on Lower House representatives’ expense reimbursements, the Serenata de Amor Operation team built an artificial intelligence capable of analysing each expense and rating it for the probability of having broken the law.
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The impacts of the SmartCity platform
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The Government of Andhra Pradesh aimed to bring 110 cities and towns online, with the goals of improving service delivery to citizens, moving to data-driven governance processes, improving revenues and increasing transparency and accountability.
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Participatory city planning with open data and Minecraft in Berlin
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In 2016, the Berlin City Senate released its official 3D city model as Open Data.
The Ideation Lab converted the model to work within Minecraft, a computer game especially popular with children and young adults.
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Impacts of ‘school chooser’ digital tools
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When the sole determinant of which school children attend is their residential address, it can produce a spiral of unequal schooling conditions that are difficult to remedy.
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Impacts and challenges of civic tech experiments in India
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Venkatesh Kannaiah speaks about Civic Tech experiments in India, including I Change My City and I Paid A Bribe.
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Findings of the Taiwan Open Government Report
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Open Culture Foundation finds that there are significant structural issues at stake which, if left unfixed, will leave the concept of Open Government as little more than a beautiful slogan for Taiwan.
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An analysis of ‘g0v’ for collaborative participation
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g0v is a distributed, civic hacker community in Taiwan. Its members collaborate to bridge the information gap between the government and citizens — and to enlighten and empower citizens to oversee the government.
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The impacts of PopVote in Hong Kong
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Sharing the outcomes of a project that experimented with blockchain technologies to make an election process in Taiwan more secure from cyber attacks.
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Digital skills training for better citizen participation in France
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Video footage of TICTeC@Taipei conference session by French Digital Agency, a governmental agency overseen by the Ministry for the Economy.
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Taiwan Open Government report release forum
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This discussion, in Chinese, was livestreamed and can now be watched as a video.
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Struggling democracy: how can civic tech fight against openwashing
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Video footage of TICTeC@Taipei conference session featuring panellists from Open Culture Foundation (Taiwan), Code for Pakistan, Sinar Project (Malaysia), Thai Netizen Network and Code for Japan.
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What is civic technology? How and why is mySociety measuring its impacts?
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Dr Rebecca Rumbul presents mySociety’s research projects which strive to evaluate the impacts (both positive and negative) of Civic Technologies in many countries worldwide.
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Q&A for “Technology for civic participation/engagement”
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Audience questions for the sessions in this section of TICTeC@Taipei, covering participation tech for Taiwan, France and Hong Kong.
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TICTeC closing: all you can CHANGE!
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The inspiring wrap-up session from TICTeC@Taipei, with words from representatives of the two organisations that ran the conference, mySociety and g0v.
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Q&A for “Civic tech for following the money”
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The audience pose questions ta TICTeC@Taipei across the presentations on procurement, contracting and budget tracking.
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Q&A for “Civic tech for better communities and improved service delivery”
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Over to the audience for questions across the five sessions that made up this strand of TICTeC@Taipei.
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(Un)civic tech?
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An overview of the use of technology to enhance democratic processes, highlighting how they have often failed to meet the expectations of their time.
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Media coverage and elections: tracking news stories on politicians
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First findings from a project to bolster trust in the political system and mainstream media, through the use of transparency.
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From portal to policy: how open data can be used to achieve policy outcomes
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How an anti-corruption advocacy group in Indonesia uses open data as a tool to influence provincial mining policy.
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Open data for better health service delivery
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Three use cases in Uruguay, Mexico and Peru to show different ways in which Open Data initiatives can contribute to better health service delivery.
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Political matchmaking online: changing the electorate?
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Research into the impact of voting advice applications, which help citizens choose which candidate to opt for, by offering an explicit ranking of viable options.
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Big data platforms for a better politics
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How citizens and campaigns have used the Crowdpac platform in the US, the UK and France, with particular emphasis on the French elections.
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If you build it, will they come?
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Anna Ścisłowska argues that data is not enough to engage citizens — they need stories, crafted by journalists and analysts.
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Increasing voter knowledge of the ballot with Facebook
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Members of Facebook’s Civic Engagement team run through their democratic bolt-on to the social media site, Voting Plan. A slide deck.
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Look who’s talking
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The Open Government Partnership is perhaps the most prominent international effort to connect citizens and governments through the use of technology.
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RTI platforms as a force for positive change
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RTI (also known as FOI) laws create a new type of relationship between government and civil society. Fumega and Scrollini argue that civil society-led FOI portals have affected RTI regimes in a positive way.
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Disaster preparedness: a universal tech solution?
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In 2013, the Red Cross’s Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC) developed two smartphone app templates, one for First Aid preparedness and one for Multi-Hazard preparedness.
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What does ‘relevant open data’ even mean?
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The Global Open Data Index seeks to audit the availability of open government data relevant to civil society. But who is ‘civil society’? And which data is important to what part of civil society?
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Randomised control trials: lessons for civic tech
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What have these powerful tools taught us about state capacity, government accountability, and responsiveness? And what does the RCT literature tell us about the use of technology to improve public services and galvanise citizen groups?
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A democracy of feelings: revolutionising government through digital
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Audrey Tang, Minister for Digital, oversaw Taiwan’s transformation into one of the most open and participatory administrations in the world.
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Designing for monitorial citizenship
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A qualitative meta-analysis of the existing literature and additional original case studies, organising monitorial citizenship tools into thematic groups.
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Automating feedback – the answer for small civic tech teams?
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We all know it’s crucial, but if you’re a tiny team of developers, it’s hard to dedicate resources to study the impact of your work.
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The impacts of civic tech… on the people who make it
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When we talk about the impact of civic technology, we tend to look only at the impact on the end users. But what about the impact it has on the makers — the individuals who become creators and change agents?
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The state of civic tech: beneath the surface
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Looking beneath the surface at the state of civic tech by tracing the dependency graph — the links between software and its constituent parts.
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Discussions and decisions on Decidim: data analysis of Barcelona’s participatory democracy
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Using Decidim Barcelona’s Open Data API to analyse the political process of participatory democracy in the city.
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Designing for digital democracy
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EngageTech, not just online engagement, is critical for representative democracy. How are governments now designing for digital democracy? Slide deck.
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Creating new avenues
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Exploring the use of Bootlegger, a synchronous participatory media tool, to capture everyday stories, contributing to the production of a neighbourhood plan.
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Populism, post-truth and fake news: the role of civic tech in the post-fact world
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2017, when we were just getting to grips with the terms ‘fake news’, ‘populism’ and ‘post-truth’.
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Data collaboratives: an assessment of new ways to use data for civic impact
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While the impact of open government data has become more understood, little is known about the practice, potential and impact of sharing proprietary datasets to solve civic problems.
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WhatsApp for better public service delivery
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Governments seeking to harness existing communication trends also must grapple with the additional constraints that come with adapting to these rather inflexible platforms.
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The interested bystander, in context
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The interested bystander is an individual who is civically aware, but not civically active.
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The digital divide: why civic tech leaves 3 billion people behind
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The chasm between the digital haves and the have-nots has never been more evident. Are we all missing the point?
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From the funders
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Funders discuss what they look for when choosing which civic tech projects to support.
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Mobile civic tech: encouraging accountability or increasing inequality?
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Mobile technology has quickly become pervasive in civic tech – but there is much about its impact that we don’t yet fully understand.
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GovLab demonstrate The Open Governance Research Exchange (OGRX)
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GovLab launch OGRX, an online hub for quantitative and qualitative research on innovations in governance.
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TICTeC2015 Keynote: ‘Hey! It’s time to check your tech’
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What if your civic tech had no impact in the real world? Dr. Boulianne talks us through an analysis of more than 80 studies, because isn’t it time we checked that the internet actually has an effect on civic and political life?
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Opportunity and threat: experimenting with Mzalendo
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Research on how to obtain more users, what information appeals to those users, and how to prompt them to engage with their institutions and politicians on issues that matter to them.
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It starts with a click
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Civics through the lens of efficacy. What can individuals do to influence their communities, their societies and their nations?
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The Viewpoint project: engaging a disenfranchised community with street tech
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What can you do when residents are suffering from ‘consultation fatigue’, with a low sense of efficacy due to lack of change? A slide deck.
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The sociodynamics of online political behaviour: the case of lapetition.be
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When 90% of a petition site’s users are ‘lurkers’, it is harder to claim outcomes are representative. Slide deck.
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The politics of civic tech platforms
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Civic tech started as an idea that became a community that became a buzzword. Now, it is a market.
Slide deck.
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Approaching research as a small team of developers
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The OpenAustralia Foundation run seven projects with just three full time and one part time staff. When do they find time for research?
Slide deck with speaker notes.
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Lessons from Mexico: what works in public sector innovative and civic technology
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How do you make the Mexican government become a platform for innovation? Running through Reboot’s theory of change and outcomes. A slide deck.
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Code for All: comparative models across borders
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Looking at different setups of the volunteer network across the globe. A slide deck.
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What counts as civic tech success for Africa?
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A donor’s perspective on how to think about impact in the civic tech space in Africa. Slide deck.
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Congreso Interactivo, Elegilegi and DEMOS
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Three cases of citizen participation through technology and three different research methods used to understand impact. A slide deck.
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The haves and the have nots: is civic tech impacting the people who need it most?
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The digital divide means that a lot of people never even see those fancy civic tech interventions. Looking into the data behind the impact claims.
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It’s there for you now use it: making sure young people see the point of civic tech
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Slides from the Accountability Lab, looking at the challenges around getting young folk to adopt civic tech initiatives.
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Mapping slacktivism: patterns of low-threshold civic participation on the internet
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Looking more deeply into the impact of low-cost, low-risk online actions. A slide deck.
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ICT and governance in East Africa: preliminary study findings from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania
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A look at civic tech that has facilitated two-way interaction between representatives and citizens. A slide deck.
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Building a national toilet map for the public’s convenience
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Public toilets are essential for the wellbeing, dignity and mobility of many. Here’s how open data helps them. A slide deck.
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Civic engagement: the paradox of crowdsourcing lies
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Slide deck on which you can read the entire paper.
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Election Violence Tracker, Nigeria
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A TICTeC Labs grant allowed PolicyLab Africa to launch this project, an open-source reporting tool that enables citizens to document and report violent incidents during Nigeria’s elections.
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Training for Civic Tech Organisations on storytelling and reach
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Using a TICTeC Labs grant, Fundación Multitudes created a training course for civic tech organisations in how to get stories about their projects and successes into the mainstream media.
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Data Quality course
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Produced thanks to a TICTeC Labs grant, this course provides users with a practical introduction to accessing good data and evaluating the quality of data. Available in French too: https://lms.opennorth.ca/catalog/info/id:195
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Chilean institute harnesses digital platform to engage young people as change agents
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Produced thanks to a TICTeC Labs grant, this case study documents how the Chilean government’s National Youth Institute used a digital platform, CitizenLab, to get young people involved in policy making.
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Participation must be designed to ‘leave no one behind’: Argentina case study
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Produced thanks to a TICTeC Labs grant, this case study documents how Rosario municipality makes their digital participatory budgeting tools accessible to individuals with visual disabilities.
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In China, popular social media platform is harnessed to increase participation
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Produced thanks to a TICTeC Labs grant, this case study documents how China’s Participation Center developed a “mini app” for the popular WeChat platform, and grew the number of participatory budgeting users in Chengdu city to more than 3 million.
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Digital platform and training boost participation in rural Kyrgyzstan
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Produced thanks to a TICTeC Labs grant, this case study documents how the World Bank worked with the government to empower local communities to make decisions, facilitated by a digital platform.
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Accessibility ABCs: A practical toolkit for the global civic tech community
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Produced thanks to a TICTeC Labs grant, this guide is meant to be a resource to support the global civic tech community to make their work more accessible. It is available in Arabic, Spanish, French and English.
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Accessing quality information for civic tech success: how can we overcome barriers to accessing good data and documentation?
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Practitioners from around the world discuss the challenges of accessing quality data and information for civic tech projects, as well as their solutions and ideas to tackle these.
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The FOI Clearing House: an openDemocracy investigation into freedom of information at the heart of government
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openDemocracy’s Jenna Corderoy discussed her recent investigations into the Clearing House, a unit within the UK Cabinet Office that “advises on” and “coordinates” FOI requests referred by government departments. openDemocracy has uncovered alarming evidence that the Clearing House blocks the release of information and causes lengthy delays. openDemocracy’s investigations and subsequent FOI tribunal hearing over Clearing House documents have sparked a UK parliamentary inquiry.
Technology for civic participation/engagement: Q&A
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Questions from the floor for this TICTeC@Taipei session’s panelists.
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Civic tech for following the money: Q&A
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The audience put questions to the panel at TICTeC@Taipei.
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Civic Tech for better communities and improved service delivery: Q&A
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Questions from the audience, answered by the panel at TICTeC@Taipei.
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Digital tools for democracy: what’s been built and where are the spaces?
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An overview of what tools existed for democracy in 2020, by mySociety’s researcher Alex Parsons.
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Creating a live map of empty commercial spaces in London & findings from ‘Act Local: Empowering London’s neighbourhoods’ research
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Putting the capital’s unused commercial properties to use as ‘meanwhile spaces’. Slide deck.
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Seeing like a state: lessons from building an Open Data support team
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The ODIS project started with the hypothesis that the main obstacle for progress in Open Data was a lack of digital expertise in government. This turned out to be wrong.
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FOI helps campaigns — sometimes in unexpected ways
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How FOI was used to help save a local athletics track in a London borough.
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How many rubber bands the Royal Mail uses, and other amazing facts revealed through FOI
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Nice examples of FOI being deployed in order to answer a variety of questions.
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Freedom of Information uncovers inequalities in our schooling system
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How FOI can be used to challenge misinformation in advertisements.
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Revealing vital environmental information with WhatDoTheyKnow Pro
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How a journalist uncovered important details of anti-climate lobbying to the UK government with FOI.
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Research into mySociety’s online Freedom of Information platform, Alaveteli
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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?
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Opening up government ministers’ meetings with lobbyists
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Discover a tool from Transparency International UK, which helps people ask for more details of meetings between MPs and lobbyists.
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FOI and Chinese CCTV cameras
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How charity Big Brother Watch brought about a change in the law, using FOI.
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How many people use Freedom of Information?
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Trying to understand the percentage of the population who use FOI.
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Challenging public bodies who refuse to accept FOI requests by email
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Some authorities ask you to resubmit your FOI request via their own channels: this practice is illegal.
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How ForSet are spreading the word about Freedom of Information in Georgia
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Learn how the Georgian Alaveteli site AskGov.ge uses their skills in infographics to spread the word about FOI further.
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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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A transparency success in Belgium
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See how Transparencia.be, the Belgian Alaveteli site, published a map and made councils change their ways.
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Business Improvement Districts on WhatDoTheyKnow
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Find out what BIDs are, what they do, and what sort of FOI requests might be usefully made to them.
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Want to know more about sewage? Use WhatDoTheyKnow.com
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Which authorities might you send FOI requests to, to obtain useful information about water pollution and quality?
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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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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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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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Freedom of Information as a tool for making cycle routes more accessible
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Using FOI in combination with the Equality Act of 2010 can have impressive results.
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Lost in Europe: a cross-border investigation into missing children
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A written account of the project which tracked missing minors at European borders.
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What they don’t know: “information not held” responses
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Don’t despair if you receive ‘information not held’ in response to your FOI requests: this can be useful information in itself.
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Exploring information about Freedom of Information in the UK
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Discover statistics on Freedom of Information in UK central government and in Scotland.
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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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Don’t let the auto-responses worry you
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A look at some of the common auto-responses from authorities, and why they aren’t as worrying as they may seem.
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FOI and appeals to the regulator
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Data on how many internal reviews result in some form of new information being released.
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What are environmental information requests and how do they differ in Scotland?
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An in depth explanation of EIR.
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From the horse’s mouth: chatting to MaDada
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Read about the experiences of MaDada, the French Alaveteli site.
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Sharing is Caring
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An argument for journalists putting data into the public domain after their story has broken.
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A Million Moments for Democracy: using FOI to campaign against corruption
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From Czech Republic, learn how to leverage FOI sites to mobilise support, and to encourage citizens to engage in the democratic process.
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A change in the law for school starters in Scotland — through FOI
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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.
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How you’ve been using our services to help the climate
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Some examples of how to leverage mySociety sites, including WhatDoTheyKnow, to help fight the climate emergency.
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FOI and the Irish border issue
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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.
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After Exploitation: using FOI to understand what happens to victims of modern slavery
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A dogged investigation reveals that survivors of modern slavery are not being given the treatment the government claims they are.
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Introducing WhatDoTheyKnow Projects
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Discover our tools for collaborating across a team on large FOI projects.
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Who’s checking your Facebook profile?
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Privacy International used FOI to understand how authorities are accessing social media accounts to screen job applicants, court defendants, protestors and recipients of benefits.
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Learn everything you need to know about FOI, online
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Link to a training course from The Ferret.
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Using FOI to protect social housing and council property
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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.
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Exporting data from your batch FOI requests
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A step by step explainer on how to get data out of Pro.
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Freedom of Information and mental health in Higher Education staff
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A widespread FOI project to learn more about the state of mental health in higher ed.
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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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FOI reveals that Higher Education Institutes spend more than £330 million on access to research journals
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How a librarian uncovered facts about the costs of research journals across our educational institutions.
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Has your FOI request been used in a news story? Now you can let everyone know.
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How to add a link from your FOI request/s on WhatDoTheyKnow to any news stories or research where they’ve been cited.
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When the response doesn’t come: dealing with FOI requests that haven’t received an answer
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The channels available to you if you don’t receive a response within the allocated time.
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FOI helps reveal the new surveillance tools deployed by police
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Privacy International uncovered a wealth of information about new technologies being put into use by UK police forces, in advance of any regulation.
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Taking Parliament to court: how Vouliwatch pursued the right to transparency
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Greek project Vouliwatch found themselves in the extraordinary position of issuing a lawsuit to their own parliament.
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FragDenStaat: a lighthearted approach with a serious mission
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The German FOI site is well-known for publicity stunts and thinking outside the box, all in the pursuit of transparency.
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AlaveteliCon 2019
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Follow the links to discover notes and slides about each of the sessions in this 2019 gathering of the international FOI community.
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Sold From Under You by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism
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Discover this widespread investigation into how much property was sold by local councils in an attempt to raise money during austerity.
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Using WhatDoTheyKnow to uncover how schoolchildren’s data was used to support the Hostile Environment
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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.
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My FOI request’s been refused — so, what now?
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A walk-through of the options available to you when you receive a refusal to your FOI request.
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Why having the Right To Know matters
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Links to examples from around the world of where FOI has been used to make a difference.
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Now you can ask coroners to provide information, through WhatDoTheyKnow
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Learn about the types of information you might request from coroners, and how it can be used.
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Use your rights: The People’s Audit sheds light on council finances
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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.
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FOI: one part of the fight against the ‘lose-lose’ LOBO loans to local councils
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An investigation into controversial loans sold to councils by banks, known as LOBOs, by the group Debt Resistance UK.
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How local newspapers uncover council spending using FOI
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These examples might give you ideas for the types of information you can request.
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Truth & justice for haemophiliacs: WhatDoTheyKnow and the contaminated blood scandal
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A first-person account of uncovering evidence that brought to light a national scandal in the UK.
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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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Sending multiple FOI requests: the WhatDoTheyKnow Pro batch feature
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How the batch feature works on Pro.
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Memorable FOI requests from WhatDoTheyKnow’s first ten years
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Gain inspiration from some of the most impactful requests that our team can remember.
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ATOS, Capita, PIP… and some persistent FOI requests
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A disability campaigner unearthed truths about eligibility criteria for state benefits.
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Introducing OPRAmachine: tackling political corruption in New Jersey
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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.
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Mapping the online Access To Information network in Europe
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Research on running an Access to Information requesting website in Europe, looking at the challenges faced by organisations, strengths and success stories.
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A successful first year – how Transparencia launched with a splash
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Learn from Belgium’s Alaveteli site, which has been and remains very good at attracting publicity.
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WhatDoTheyKnow used for research on FOI refusals
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Link to an article about best and worst practices in FOI refusals.
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Croatia gets creative with Alaveteli
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Code for Croatia repurposed the Alaveteli codebase to make a complaints platform.
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Six stories from WhatDoTheyKnow Pro
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Links to news stories unearthed by journalists using the Pro tool.
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NHS Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships on WhatDoTheyKnow
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Find out what these NHS bodies do, and what sorts of information you might ask them for.
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Is your local authority making life difficult for wheelchair users?
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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.
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Introducing QueremosDatos: making access to information easier in Colombia
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Interview with the group who set up the Alaveteli site for Colombia.
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The Welsh Government and Aston Martin: the timeline of a delayed response
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Follow along with the 15-month saga to see what happens when you take a refusal to the ICO.
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Right To Know: the long path to Rights of Way data
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This request for open mapping data encountered frustrations and successes along the way.
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Now you can request information from the Police Federation of England and Wales
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Discover what this body does, and what kind of information you can request from it.
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Crowdsourcing information on EU commissioners’ travel expenses
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Alaveteli site AskTheEU called upon their followers to help request the travel expenses of EU Commissioners.
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Alaveteli for campaigners: How to create pre-written requests for your supporters
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A little-known method for helping followers to make requests to authorities.
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Detention Logs: using FOI to reveal the truth about immigration detention in Australia
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Australian project Detention Logs is showing the power of FOI in bringing social change.
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Freedom of Information and asbestos in schools
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One woman’s campaign to rid the UK’s schools of asbestos.
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Workfare: what happens when the government doesn’t want to release information?
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Despite the government’s reluctance, FOI was used to reveal details of a controversial back-to-work scheme.
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How 350 FOI requests will increase the chance of success for start-ups
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Learn how mass FOI requests were used to discover information around empty shops, to help new businesses.
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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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The small symbol that tells you all is well
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An explanation of the ‘proof of receipt’ icon on Alaveteli.
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What People Want To Know on WhatDoTheyKnow
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Research into the topics of FOI requests sent through WhatDoTheyKnow.
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Does your council break the law?
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FOI is used to research pay conditions for overnight care workers.
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Do authorities respond faster by email or through an FOI website?
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Research showing that online portals result in faster responses from authorities.
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West Ham stadium ruling: a win for transparency
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A ruling compels a high-profile football stadium to release its contract with West Ham football club.
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Publishing responses to FOI requests ‘should be the norm’, says government commission on Freedom of Information
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Learn how WhatDoTheyKnow made a difference through its campaigning and advocacy for FOI.
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WhatDoTheyKnow as fact-checker
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In the era of misinformation, FOI can be used to not only discover, but also share, the truth.
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Commission on Freedom of Information oral evidence: making a case for public disclosure
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Discover the arguments made in favour of FOI – they might be applicable elsewhere.
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What happens when you restrict Freedom of Information? Experiences from around the world
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Examples from nine countries of the effects of restricting Access to Information.
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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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Using FOI to uncover the truth about the living wage
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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.
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Learnings from AlaveteliCon (2): the challenges are the same
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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.
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Ten ways to promote Alaveteli sites
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Advice on how to bring more users to your FOI site.
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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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The Third Sector and Online Citizen Empowerment: the Case of mySociety
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Surveys across all mySociety’s sites, including WhatDoTheyKnow, allowed these researchers to better understand the habits and motives of their users.
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Assessing the Impact of Alaveteli
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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?”
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Subscribe to FOI requests on any topic
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Instructions for how to receive an email whenever someone uses your chosen keyword/s in a request.
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How to keep up with hot topics in your local area
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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.
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How to make a Freedom of Information request with WhatDoTheyKnow
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Never made an FOI request before? Start with these simple instructions.
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Qué Sabes: Changing the face of FOI requesting in Uruguay
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An interview with DATA, the organisation running an Alaveteli site in Uruguay.
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Asking for information in the face of silence
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What’s it like running an Alaveteli site in a country where FOI is not a right? Learn from Spain.
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