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** mySociety news
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** June 2020
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** Transparency
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** Halting the Haringey Development Vehicle
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Freedom of Information played a valuable part in a campaign that used many different approaches. SHDV, the Stop Haringey Development Vehicle campaign, protested against the council's planned sell off of property, including swathes of social housing.
Hilary Adams told us how she used WhatDoTheyKnow to support the campaign ([link removed]) , saying that requests already published on the site proved just as useful as putting in new ones.
** Learn how to use FOI
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If that story inspires you, you might be interested in a new online course from journalism platform The Ferret. They're offering the chance to learn everything you need to know about using Freedom of Information in campaigns and investigations.
Access to WhatDoTheyKnow Pro is included in the price — and the whole course costs less than a subscription, so you're ahead before you even begin! Find out more here ([link removed]) .
** WhatDoTheyKnow identifiers in Wikidata
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A new project is taking the IDs of every authority on WhatDoTheyKnow and linking them to existing Wikidata entities.
It's a bridging exercise that should open up many new possibilities — and you're welcome to pitch in. Read more here ([link removed]) .
** Job vacancy
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** Join the mySociety team
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We're currently recruiting for a new Account Manager to help look after clients of our FixMyStreet Pro and SocietyWorks services. As with all mySociety jobs, you'll be working from home as part of our supportive and friendly team. Find out more and apply here ([link removed]) .
** Community
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** FixMyStreet during London’s lockdown
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We might have thought FixMyStreet would be less useful during lockdown: after all, with fewer cars on the roads and people on the streets, perhaps reporting wasn't so crucial?
But the word from TfL is that quite the reverse is true, as Delivery Manager Sally Reader laid out here ([link removed]) .
** Climate
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** We haven't forgotten there's a climate crisis
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Covid-19 might be top of all our minds, but of course the climate emergency is still as pressing as ever.
Here's an update on where we are with our work in that area ([link removed]) .
** Events
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** Rewatch Personal Democracy Forum CEE
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The whole conference from the ePaństwo Foundation is now available on YouTube ([link removed]) for you to watch at your leisure. Our Head of Research Rebecca Rumbul speaks about Open Data together with Krzysztof Izdebski and Anna Kuliberda here ([link removed]) .
** Democracy
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** Do you use Parliament data?
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Dr Ben Worthy, an academic at Birkbeck College, is hoping to understand more about how data is used to help people monitor Parliament, and how or whether this impacts on the way they think about Parliament and democracy in the UK.
If you've used TheyWorkForYou or the official Parliament website to find out information or access data, please fill in the short survey here ([link removed]) .
** What we're reading (and listening to)
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* The very first episode of Delib's new Practical Democracy podcast covers mySociety's work in areas such as participatory budgeting and citizens' assemblies. Listen here ([link removed]) (and there are several other episodes now too).
* Joe Mitchell of Democracy Club lays out a proposal for a Centre for Democracy ([link removed]) .
* We found this in depth piece on the UX of different banks' offerings ([link removed]) surprisingly compelling. Bet you do too.
* Lockdown has led us all into some new and perhaps peculiar behaviours. But have you had a party in a spreadsheet ([link removed]) ?
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 ([link removed][UNIQID]) .
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Image credits: Haringey protest: ** Haringey Liberal democrats ([link removed])
(** CC by-nd/2.0 ([link removed])
); flooding - ** Andy Falconer ([link removed])
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