ATI Network: Celebrating Wins, Sharing Lessons, Shaping What’s Next
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For our final community gathering of 2025 we brought together partners from across our global community of practice to reflect on what we’ve already achieved together and what we want to achieve in the future.
Cara Raeker, lead author of the landmark report on monitoring Freedom of Information in Europe gave a keynote exploring the shifting landscape of access to information before a curated showcase of video interviews with journalists and citizens using ATI, and some highlights from previous gatherings.
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ATI Masterclass: turning requests into reporting with Fiquem Sabendo
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At this ATI Community of Practice meeting, we got a behind-the-scenes look at how Fiquem Sabendo, a Brazilian non-profit newsroom and data agency, uses Brazil’s FOI law to unlock data and support investigative journalism.
Maria Vitória Ramos, Co-founder and Director of Fiquem Sabendo, shares how they prepare FOI requests, process government data, and support journalists in turning information into impactful reporting.
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Putting transparency to the test: evaluating FOI in practice
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The recording of an ATI Community of Practice meeting to learn how we can effectively evaluate the implementation of Access to Information legislation.
Speakers: Toby Mendel (Centre for Law and Democracy), Giovanni Esposito (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Mária Žuffová (European University Institute)
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Notes from the ATI Network Day, after TICTeC 2025
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Featuring discussion of recent ATI/FOI wins, Gen Z outreach via influencers, and shared ATI challenges like batch requests and data backups.
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Q&A for ‘Access to Information for the public good’ TICTeC 2025 session
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Question and answer session for the presenters of the following TICTeC 2025 presentations:
– Infrastructure for democracy: how Abrimos.info is transforming governance in Latin America– Martin Szyszlican (Abrimos.info, Mexico)
– Unveiling the power of transparency: how Access to Information exposed systemic failures in Poland’s 2020 elections – Marzena Błaszczyk 25 (Citizens Network Watchdog, Poland)
– Data to advance equity, inclusion, and sustainability – Silvana Fumega (Global Data Barometer, Argentina)
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Unveiling the power of transparency: how Access to Information exposed systemic failures in Poland’s 2020 elections
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The 2020 Polish presidential elections demonstrated how Access to Information can play a pivotal role in uncovering abuses of power.
In this TICTeC 2025 presentation from Marzena Błaszczyk, discover how Citizens Network Watchdog Poland used FOI to file criminal complaints against mayors for illegal data transfers, holding authorities accountable, exposing institutional failures, and challenging unlawful actions.
Infrastructure for democracy: how Abrimos.info is transforming governance in Latin America
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Abrimos.info is a newly established organisation with a mission to strengthen democracy across Latin America by building and scaling digital infrastructures that promote transparency, accountability, and public participation. Discover how they are driving measurable impact in transparency around public officials’ disclosures, contracting information and Access to Information, in Martín Szyszlican’s TICTeC 2025 presentation.
Webinar: Tackling the Climate Crisis with Access to Information rights
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In this 60 minute session, investigative journalist Lucas Amin (Democracy for Sale), Anne Friel (Client Earth), and Joschi Wolf (Frag Den Staat) each shared their knowledge around using Freedom of Information as an invaluable tool for tackling the climate crisis.
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Insights on legal reform, from the ATI Network Salon with SPOON
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SPOON shared their work exposing the legal and practical gaps in the new WOO law, and pushing for collaborative, evidence-based reforms in line with international standards.
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Notes from ATI Network fireside chat: Legal reform of FOI laws in France
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Laurent and Xavier from the French Alaveteli site MaDada shared a frank and enlightening account of their process working with Access Info on the reform of ATI/FOI laws in France.
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News from the ATI Network: February 2025
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News from the network, including collaboration between Access Info, MaDada, and OKF France on aligning French access to documents law to international ATI standards.
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News from the ATI Network: March 2025
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News from the network, including a new anti-SLAPP platform from Sieć Obywatelska Watchdog Polska, and a long-fought-for ATI win for KiMitTud.
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News from the ATI Network: January 2025
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News from the network, including policy recommendations from Vouliwatch/Arthro5A, and legal reform collaboration between SPOON, MaDada, and Access Info.
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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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News from the ATI Network: November 2024
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News from the network, including legal success for FragDenStaat, impact measurement mentorship with SPOON, and a new campaign from KiMitTud.
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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
News 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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News 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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News from the ATI Network: July 2024
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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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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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Redefined civic tech: community-centric impact stories from Georgia
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AskGov in Georgia, based on mySociety’s Alaveteli platform, hosts 1,118 datasets. What sets it apart is that the data does not remain confined to the platform: through contests, fellowship programmes and datathons, storytelling and data visualisation projects are distributed to a mass audience, with topics such as the environment, corruption, transparency, gender and occupation.
This TICTeC 2024 presentation by Vero Melua from ForSet shares more.
How to use AI in analysing mass responses to FOI requests
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Authorities hold information that could clarify societal discussions — but the formats it is held in can make it challenging to interpret digitally. Fedrowanie streamlines the gathering of information from public institutions through mass FOI requests. A recent evolution from manual volunteer work to AI integration represents a leap in enhancing public discourse and governance.
In this TICTeC 2024 presentation, Marzena Blaszczyk (Citizens Network Watchdog Poland) shares their work with AI to analyse mass responses to FOI requests.
Q&A for ‘Civic tech for transparency’ session at TICTeC 2024
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Question and answer session for the following TICTeC 2024 presentations:
– How civic tech is unveiling corruption and championing democracy and environmental protection in Brazil – Maria Vitória Ramos (Fiquem Sabendo, Brazil)
– Empowering communities: Budeshi’s impact on transparency and accountability in Nigerian government projects – Nnenna Eze (Public and Private Development Centre, Nigeria)
– Have you empirically improved transparency and accountability? – Shaun Russell (OpenUp, South Africa)
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Empowering communities: Budeshi’s impact on transparency and accountability in Nigerian government projects
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Hear from Nnenna Eze (Public and Private Development Centre, Nigeria)’s TICTeC 2024 presentation on Budeshi, the open-contracting tool, which has emerged as a pivotal platform facilitating transparency and accountability in public procurement. Data from Freedom of Information requests is published on the platform to allow thorough monitoring exercises across various Nigerian states. Journalists have been trained and communities empowered to independently investigate and report on discrepancies.
How civic tech is unveiling corruption and championing democracy and environmental protection in Brazil
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Hear from Maria Vitória Ramos (Fiquem Sabendo, Brazil) about two award-winning initiatives that address the power imbalance between society and the state, using Freedom of Information and a multidisciplinary approach integrating journalism, advocacy, training, and civic technology to monitor governmental spending and provide oversight of lobbying. The results? Pivotal public reports and significant legislative reforms.
TICTeC 2024 keynote address: Joining the dots on civic tech and anti-corruption
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At TICTeC 2024 María Baron from Directorio Legislativo shared insights drawn from a rich career working from different angles to support and defend democracy across Latin America and globally. She shared insights into Directorio Legislativo’s digital anti-corruption solution, and approach to consensus building across polarised stakeholders, the latest milestone in their work to strengthen democracies across Latin America and beyond.
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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Show and Tell: GONG on Data Visualisations
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A Show and Tell from Sara at GONG about their learnings from their data visualisations mentorship with ForSet in Georgia
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Show and Tell: Data Visualisation Mentorship
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Blog post about the Show and Tell from Sara at GONG
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Creating Datasets with FOI Data
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A blog post about the training on creating datasets from FOI data
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Telling Stories with FOI Data
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A blog post about the training mySociety held on using FOI data to tell a story
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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