...plus much more news from mySociety!
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** April news
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Transparency
** WhatDoTheyKnow is 15
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Fifteen years ago, our Freedom of Information site WhatDoTheyKnow was launched. Since then, half a million pieces of information have been released via the service — with more coming out every day.
Helen, a long-time request-maker, WhatDoTheyKnow volunteer and now its Service Manager, looks back on all that our flagship FOI service has achieved ([link removed]) .
How have you used WhatDoTheyKnow? - photo of a book with Freedom of Information Act on its cover.
** Tell us about it!
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If you've used WhatDoTheyKnow to uncover information, we'd really love to know more. Please fill in our short survey ([link removed]) with some details.
Equally, if you remember the site's launch back in 2008, have feelings about its place in UK society, or ideas for its future, do share. Whatever you want to tell us about WhatDoTheyKnow, we're all ears.
You can fill the survey in here ([link removed]) , or read more about it in our blog post ([link removed]) .
** Great thanks
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We'd like to thank Mr John Cross for making a major gift to our Transparency programme. John has also volunteered his time to support the running of WhatDoTheyKnow, and his generous donation will enable us to make substantial improvements to the service.
TICTeC
** Reflections on TICTeC Labs
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Outcomes from the 2022-2023 TICTeC Labs programme
It was a whole new way of working for us: discussing issues faced by the global civic tech community, and then commissioning solutions - and all in public. So, did it work?
That was the question at hand during our Reflections on TICTeC Labs event, which you can rewatch here ([link removed]) . You can also see presentations on the six outputs of the programme, from online tools to training courses.
** The final outcomes
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Talking of outputs, there are three more to explore. The final projects to be released are an Election Violence Tracker ([link removed]) from PolicyLab Africa, media training ([link removed]) from Fundación Multitudes, and a broad set of resources around water ([link removed]) from the Demography Project.
As with all the TICTeC Labs resources, these are open source, and can be adapted or reused wherever they are useful.
mySociety's key services
** Your donations help us run projects like these
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If you're reading this newsletter, the chances are that you see the value in mySociety's work — thank you.
Donations are part of what makes that possible, so if you're able, please consider making a contribution today.
Donate now ([link removed])
Climate
** It's getting hot in here
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A screenshot of the prototype Neighbourhood Warmth tool from mySociety
The concept for our latest project, Neighbourhood Warmth, came about through one of our climate prototyping weeks ([link removed]) — we mocked up a site to show how a 'conditional commitment' model might encourage neighbours to take the first steps towards making energy improvements in their homes.
Well, things have moved on, and we're taking this one further. But we won't be working alone; we're partnering with the brilliant Dark Matter Labs, as you can read in the first of our monthly updates ([link removed]) .
Interested in a particular strand of our work? Pick and choose your mySociety newsletters here ([link removed][UNIQID]) .
** What we're reading
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* Recent changes to Twitter ([link removed]) have impacted the 'deleted tweets from politicians' service Politwoops. But all may not be lost - the site itself ([link removed]) is displaying a banner to say that they are "working to restore service soon".
* Converting election PDFs to spreadsheets? That sounds like the kind of thing we'd do. But we weren't prepared for this dramatic story ([link removed]) !
* The Alan Turing Institute has some interesting datasets and wants creative people to work with them ([link removed]) .
* We suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that we've never been jailed for publishing parliamentary proceedings ([link removed]) on TheyWorkForYou.
* Over in the US, Freedom of Information site Muckrock is giving awards ([link removed]) for the 'worst in government transparency'. We enjoyed the photo story of the officers searching for documents, not to mention the weirdly-redacted prisoners' artwork from Guantanamo.
* Worried about the rise of AI? Yeah, us too - but aww, look at this friendly clock ([link removed]) .
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