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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Six stories from WhatDoTheyKnow Pro
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Links to news stories unearthed by journalists using the Pro tool.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Fundraising 101
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A beginners guide to fundraising streams
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