TICTeC Show and Tells 2021

Online, March—September 2021

Schedule

Throughout 2021 mySociety hosted a number of short, energetic and to-the-point TICTeC Show & Tell events. You can see recordings, and presentation slides from these events below.

During these hour-long virtual events speakers from across the world each had 7 minutes to share their real and in-depth research and lessons learnt related to the impacts of civic technology. TICTeC is a safe place to honestly examine what works, what doesn’t, what can be improved, what to be aware of etc, so ultimately, better digital tools are developed.

Please see resources from TICTeC Show & Tell events below.

Right to Know Day Special

Right to Know across Europe: impacts and lessons learned

Tuesday 28th September 2021, 15:00 – 16:00 BST, Zoom

Full recording

A special TICTeC Show & Tell to celebrate the International Day for Universal Access to Information, which explored the use and impacts of this vital democratic right across Europe, and how civic technology and research bolsters it. Click on the individual presentation pages below to watch the individual presentation recordings and view presentation slides where available.

Show & Tell topics and speakers:

Track 1 Track 2 Track 3

3:00 pm

3:10 pm

3:20 pm

3:30 pm

3:40 pm

3:50 pm

The FOI Clearing House: an openDemocracy investigation into freedom of information at the heart of government

3:00 pm - 3:10 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Jenna Corderoy (openDemocracy, UK)
openDemocracy's Jenna Corderoy will discuss 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.

Lost in Europe: deploying the Alaveteli network on a cross-border investigation

3:10 pm - 3:20 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Liset Hamming (The Dutch-Flemish Association for Investigative Journalists (VVOJ), Netherlands)
Ten European FOI sites were used in this Netherlands-based investigation into the thousands of children who go missing as they migrate across European borders. This FOI part of a journalistic investigative research project is led by an Alaveteli insider, running the recently launched Dutch Alaveteli site. Hear about her user experiences and national FOI differences.

Watch this space (and pay for it): Alaveteli-driven exposure of the misuse of public resources in an election campaign

3:20 pm - 3:30 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Dražen Hoffmann (Gong, Croatia)
In April 2021, Gong used the Alaveteli-powered platform ImamoPravoZnati.org (lit. WeHaveTheRightToKnow.org) to unveil the practice of funding a YouTube channel by the mayors and country prefect of a county in Croatia, ahead of the May 2021 local elections. The quaint footage of seaside towns and villages, and boasting of successful projects, in fact concealed a misuse of public resources for the purposes of incumbents’ campaigns. This practice of non-transparent media buying is one that Gong addresses continuously. The presentation will focus on how watchdog organisations and citizens can use FOI platforms to fight malfeasance in campaign finance.

Regulating Access to Information

3:30 pm - 3:40 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Alex Parsons (mySociety, UK)
The practical reality of Access to information laws depends on how effective the system of regulation and appeal is. In this Show & Tell mySociety will discuss their work comparing different systems of regulation that work in the UK, and share parts of their upcoming research comparing systems of regulation across Europe.

Running an Access to Information platform in France: obstacles and success stories

3:40 pm - 3:50 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Samuel Goëta (MaDada.fr, France)
Open data in France somehow looks like the Pisa Tower: a beautiful building (open data is mandatory by law), but leaning because its foundations (the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)) are in bad shape. In this presentation, Samuel will speak about the weaknesses of FOIA in France, how the French Alaveteli platform madada.fr manages them and the first success stories of the platform.

A change in the law for school starters in Scotland — through FOI

3:50 pm - 4:00 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Patricia Anderson (Give Them Time, Scotland)
In this Show & Tell, Patricia from the Give Them Time campaign will speak about how Freedom of Information 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. Thanks to the campaign, from 2023, all children in Scotland who legally defer their school start date, as they're not quite ready, will be automatically entitled to a further year of nursery funding.

Show and tell 1

Scrutiny, oversight & the data that makes it possible

Tuesday 23rd March 2021, 15:00 – 16:00 GMT

Full recording
Collaborative Notes
Post event Q&A

Click on the individual presentation pages below to watch the individual presentation recordings, view presentation slides and read speakers’ responses to audience questions.

Track 1 Track 2 Track 3

3:00 pm

3:10 pm

3:20 pm

3:30 pm

3:40 pm

3:50 pm

How to monitor emergency procurement with open data: lessons from 12 countries

3:00 pm - 3:10 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Camila Salazar (Open Contracting Partnership)
Unprecedented times call for quick decisions, and the pandemic has seen governments around the world implementing emergency procurement measures. In 2020, the Open Contracting Partnership launched their COVID-19 Action Research Programme, supporting 12 research teams from Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Georgia, Guatemala, Kenya, Lithuania, Nepal, Nigeria, Paraguay, Philippines, and Uruguay to analyse open procurement data and understand how these countries had deployed such powers.

Civic tech for smartphone beginners: is the future binary?

3:10 pm - 3:20 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Arran Leonard (Integrity Action)
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.

Find that Charity: a tool to help find charities and improve charity data

3:20 pm - 3:30 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
David Kane (360Giving)
360Giving helps funders publish open data about their grants by publishing it in the 360Giving Data Standard. Their vision is for grantmaking in the UK to be more informed, effective and strategic. 'Find that Charity', developed by David Kane and supported by 360Giving, is a tool for finding data about non-profit organisations.

Civic tech vs. illicit pharmacies

3:30 pm - 3:40 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Ibraheem Saleem (Code for Pakistan)
As the third-largest province of Pakistan and host to a rapidly growing population of 30.5 million citizens, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) faces numerous discrepancies in the pharmaceutical sector.

Keeping track of open data in times of political change

3:40 pm - 3:50 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
David Zamora (Open Data Barometer LAC) Silvana Fumega (ILDA)
In the last 10 years Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have been at the forefront of adoption, innovation and use of open data. Countries like Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay are recognised globally for their commitment to this agenda.

How AfricanLII saves its users $100million a year

3:50 pm - 4:00 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Amy Sinclair (AfricanLII) Paul Lenz (Indigo Trust, UK)
Paul and Amy will share 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.

Show and tell 2

Hearing every voice: lessons learned from online deliberation projects

Tuesday 20th April 2021, 15:00 – 16:00 BST

Full recording
Collaborative Notes
Post event Q&A

Click on the individual presentation pages below to watch the individual presentation recordings, view presentation slides and read speakers’ responses to audience questions.

Track 1 Track 2 Track 3

1:00 pm

1:10 pm

1:20 pm

1:30 pm

1:40 pm

1:50 pm

Our COVID consultation journey: from a small initiative to the desk of the president

1:00 pm - 1:10 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Chloé Pahud (Civocracy)
What will the post-COVID world look like? It's one of the key questions that arose during the first global lockdown of early 2020. Will the pandemic be a turning point, or will we go back to normal once the lockdown is over?

Understanding the small hurdles that block community engagement, with behavioural design

1:10 pm - 1:20 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Abigail Sellman (ideas42) Adrian Kearns (OpenUp)
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.

Don’t build it: a practical guide for those building Civic Tech

1:20 pm - 1:30 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Luke Jordan
Luke introduces a brand new guide that distills lessons learned from four years spent building Grassroot, a civic technology platform in South Africa.

It takes two: when citizens and Congress Members deliberate online

1:30 pm - 1:40 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Samantha McDonald
In the US, each Member of the House of Representatives represents an average of over 700,000 people. Understandably, this makes it difficult to accurately interpret the views and needs of their constituency. The constant flood of incoming messages from advocacy campaigns and lobbyists often leads to skewed perception of district beliefs and preferences.

Leave no-one behind: overcoming hurdles to online citizen assemblies

1:40 pm - 1:50 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Craig Morbey (FutureGov) Scott Butterfield (Blackpool Council)
FutureGov was commissioned by Blackpool Council to deliver a neighbourhood assembly on climate change to 40 local residents who were representative of the local community.

Show and tell 3

Empowering communities using geospatial technology

Tuesday 25th May 2021, 15:00 – 16:00 BST

Full recording
Collaborative Notes

Click on the individual presentation pages below to watch the individual presentation recordings, view presentation slides and read speakers’ responses to audience questions.

Track 1 Track 2 Track 3

3:00 pm

3:10 pm

3:20 pm

3:30 pm

3:40 pm

3:50 pm

#PlanTech and the geospatial ecosystem

3:00 pm - 3:10 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Ben Fowkes (Delib)
Delib's new product 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.

What are the effects of OpenStreetMapping on the mappers themselves?

3:10 pm - 3:20 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Aishworya Shrestha (Kathmandu Living Labs)
OpenStreetMap (OSM), the crowdsourced geospatial database, currently has more than seven million registered members, making it one of the largest Volunteered Geographic Information projects in the world. Its many usecases are well proven, from post-disaster response to combatting female genital mutilation; and it is fundamental for tasks from app development to daily navigation.

Open data for local self governance: learnings from five Ukrainian cities

3:20 pm - 3:30 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Nadiia Babynska (OpenUp Ukraine)
Nadiia, who project managed the GIS for Integrity cities project, discusses 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.

Digital Champions: community led development monitoring in Tanzania

3:30 pm - 3:40 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Janet Chapman (Tanzania Development Trust/Crowd2Map)
Crowd2Map is a volunteer project that has been training community activists to map their communities in rural Tanzania into OpenStreetMap for 5 years.

Disfactory: mapping and reporting illegal factories in Taiwan

3:40 pm - 3:50 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Yun Chen (g0v.tw community, Taiwan)
Disfactory is a crowdsourcing platform that enables citizens to report illegal factories on farmland in Taiwan, aiming to decrease pollution and accidents.

Visualising the future: how 3D imaging helps residents understand proposed changes

3:50 pm - 4:00 pm (10 min)
Track 1, Track 2, Track 3
Peter Kemp (Planning at the Greater London Authority)
There is a huge demand for housing in the UK's capital city, and the Mayor has committed to significantly increasing housing delivery to address London’s housing crisis.

Sponsorship opportunities

mySociety is a charity and relies on sponsorship to continue with TICTeC events and initiatives. If you’re interested in sponsoring future TICTeC events, please contact Gemma Moulder at gemma@mysociety.org.

“TICTeC has been a great way for me personally as a relatively new person in the field to get exposure to new ideas, connect with incredibly helpful people, and to generally learn about new trends from around the world.”

“TICTeC worked well as a virtual event because you felt like everyone involved was ‘in the room’ and participating. It was the closest I’ve come to having an online event ‘feel’ like a real life event.”