How do you know if your work is making an impact?
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mySociety and OpenUp worked closely with SPOON and the Átlátszónet Foundation, both organisations focus on improving access to government information, to explore a critical but often overlooked question: How do you know if your projects are actually making a difference?
In this insightful TICTeC session, SPOON and the Átlátszónet Foundation share their hands-on experiences, practical methodologies, and key findings from their efforts to —for the first time— track and measure the impact of their projects.
Q&A for ‘Fostering usage of pro-democracy technology’ TICTeC 2025 session
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Question and answer session for the presenters of the following TICTeC 2025 presentations:
– Changing the argument for using civic technology – Rodney Schwartz (Delib, UK)
– Solving climate data deserts on the municipal level: Climate Diaries– Giulio Carvalho (Diários do Clima, Brazil)
– Dream Con: how civic tech puts citizens at the centre of constitutional reform – Thanisara Ruangdej (GG) (WeVis, Thailand)
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Changing the argument for using civic technology
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The moral and ethical case for Pro-Democracy Technology has been made for many years. Despite decades of effort, little has changed. The argument that politicians must “do this because it’s the right thing to do” has not been successful. The rise of far-right populist parties across the world implores us to consider a different approach.
In this TICTeC 2025 presentation by Rodney Schwartz, discover the outcomes of his research and interviews with 80 European P/PPs and PDT suppliers — the first time such a large group had been surveyed.
Anti-Corruption, Collaboration, and Capacity: How African Civil Society is advancing Pro-Democracy Innovation
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There is a growing global democratic crisis, whilst civic actors in Africa have decreased access to funding and resources, and suffer significantly from massive digital inequalities. What does it take to build sustainable civic tech capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa and how can past innovations inform scalable support for digital democracy?
Hear from Carl Jacobs from OpenUp in this TICTeC 2025 presentation.
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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Fundraising and Access to Information Guide
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Insights from our community of practice fundraising chat
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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Scorecards volunteering increases climate knowledge
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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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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?
At TICTeC 2024, Ben Worthy from Birkbeck College presented a paper asking how AI can change lobbying for better or worse. It looks in turn at how AI can allow different groups to do the same things but better; and do new things. It draws on examples from the UK and US, as well as wider academic studies, to predict what may happen, and offer a framework.
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, this TICTeC 2024 presentation by Christoph Raetzsch (Aarhus University) underlines the need for collaborations between civic tech activists and journalists.
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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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. For tips on how to measure the impact and effectiveness of your civic tech tools, check out this TICTeC 2024 presentation from Shaun Russell from OpenUp in South Africa.
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.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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