November news

Landlords, tennis & democracy

Our trusty team of WhoFundsThem volunteers continue to sift through financial interests data to make it more accessible for everyone. Meanwhile, we've been looking at using machine learning to flag when MPs declare an interest in debates.

An interesting question is whether those interests affect the way that an MP speaks or votes in Parliament: Alex digs into that in this post.

Better declarations of interest for Parliamentary Questions

One of the ways we can make a difference is in highlighting processes that don’t make sense, and prodding Parliament to see what happens. We’ve spotted an issue that makes it harder for the public to understand the significance when declarations of interest are made in Written Questions — triggering a review of the process. Read all about it here.

Save the date for TICTeC 2025

It’s always an exciting moment when we reveal not only the dates, but the location, for next year’s TICTeC conference. Put 11-12 June in your diary now, and we hope to see you in the lovely city of Mechelen near Brussels.

Civic tech Pro-democracy technology

Democracy needs the help of those in our field more than ever. At TICTeC 2025, we’ll be framing our sector's work as ‘pro-democracy technology’ - and here’s the thinking behind the terminology.

Discovering TICTeC

If you find the extensive archive of videos from TICTeCs past a little daunting, you might enjoy this: mySociety staff have been getting together to discuss their pick of the bunch.

First up: we chat about Sean Russell’s session, on how to truly measure the impact of our work. Watch the video or enjoy in audio format.

Join the mySociety team

We’re on the hunt for a passionate, proactive fundraiser to join the mySociety team while our current Head of Fundraising takes maternity leave. If you’ve got skills and experience around grants and donor engagement, and an interest in our work to build a better, stronger democracy, this might be just the job for you. 

Interested? You can find out more here.

A fairer society and a more sustainable future

Thanks to renewed support from the Patrick J McGovern Foundation, we’ll be exploring the overlaps between our democracy, climate and FOI offerings, and improving accessibility where needed. See what we’ve got planned here.

Do you appreciate the work we do?

At mySociety we're very busy all the time, making democracy more accessible to everyone, and providing the tools to help people play an active part in society.

If you can help us out, please do head to our secure donate page. Every contribution helps us to work harder and faster towards a better, more inclusive society. Thank you.

A valued partner, advocate and friend

All at mySociety were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Helen Darbishire.

Helen dedicated her life to campaigning for the right to information, and the huge number of deeply-felt tributes that have been shared speak to how many lives she touched while doing so.

The picture above was taken in Madrid, where Helen helped us in bringing FOI advocates from around the world to AlaveteliCon in 2015.

Access to Information across Europe

Work continues from the many organisations working for transparency around the world — from a Hungarian think tank’s involvement in the US election, to tax havens hidden in the depths of German forests. Read all about it here.

What we're consuming

• Our own Sally Reader chats about FixMyStreet on Sheffield’s hyperlocal podcast, NUN Local.
• Martin Rosenbaum looks more closely at the council that grumbled about FOI requests from other authorities.
• Chatbots and forms: the key to saving citizens’ time?
• Talking of government forms, there’s a whole festival dedicated to them. You can attend virtually, but if you’re in the UK it’s an early start!
• The Information Commissioner’s Office is on TikTok, and having fun by the looks of it.

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