mySociety news

Modern slavery, Brexit, Citizens' Assemblies and more

Transparency

Using FOI to understand what happens to victims of modern slavery

The UK's immigration system is supposed to identify and offer help to victims of human trafficking and modern slavery.

Data mapping project After Exploitation discovered, using WhatDoTheyKnow, that these vulnerable people are often being let down. Read the whole story here.

IPSA Brexit documents now released

Displaying impressive persistence, journalist Jenna Corderoy has won a long battle to have research from the pro-Brexit group ERG released under FOI — part of her ongoing investigations into the funding and forces shaping the UK's future.

Public FOI and central government

What proportion of FOI requests to central government are made through WhatDoTheyKnow?

Naturally, that's something we're always interested to discover: we've taken our regular look, and here's an explainer from Alex. If you'd like to play with the figures yourself, explore our mini-site.

Help keep mySociety funded

mySociety services like TheyWorkForYou and WhatDoTheyKnow are used by millions of people a year, but we receive very little funding for our core services in the UK. If you find our services useful and are able, please consider making a regular or one-off donation.

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Democracy

Working with playbooks

Playbooks are quite the thing these days, at least in the tech world.

Not sure what they are, or how they can be of help? We're taking a good look at how playbooks can share knowledge as we undertake our various exploration projects across local government. Martin shares our findings.

What makes a good website for a Citizens' Assembly?

Plenty of excellent thinking is happening right now around Citizens' Assemblies: how they work, what they can achieve, and where their limitations lie.

Here at mySociety, we're focusing on what we know best: the digital aspects. Continuing that work, we're starting to gather, generate and share best practice around the websites that support Citizens' Assemblies. See our progress here.

Events

AlaveteliCon

For people who run FOI sites

The third AlaveteliCon will take place in Oslo, Norway, for people around the world who use FOI and technology. Want to be there? Here's how to get involved.

TICTeC Local

For those using technology in local government and communities

This November, TICTeC Local comes to City Hall in London. If you use tech in communities or local government, consider submitting a proposal for a workshop or presentation.

Did you know that you can subscribe to our special interest newsletters too? Get an extra monthly bulletin on Democracy & Campaigning, Freedom of Information, Better Cities & Councils, or Research. Pick and choose your mySociety newsletters here.

Good to know

Your data is safe with us: we've been Cyber Essentials certified.

Got a list of postcodes and need to know which constituencies they're in?

MapIt matches postcodes to wards and constituencies — and its Data Mapper tool requires no technical or coding skills. A real lifesaver for campaigners and researchers: see more here.

What we're reading

When you get a traffic ticket in Kenya, it's quite different to the system in the US. A comparison from Rachel Strohm.
National Geographic presents the sobering fact that the internet may be underwater in 15 years
mySociety folk often cover their laptops with stickers, so there was some interest in this Kickstarter.
Also of relevance to the way we work at mySociety was this parliamentary debate on flexible working.