Bins, bombs and tower blocks

Democracy

Anti-bombing campaign uses WriteToThem

Humanity & Inclusion's recent campaign had one clear message: Stop Bombing Civilians. It really doesn't get much simpler than that!

But to back it up, they needed a more complex piece of functionality — and that's where our 'write to your MP' service WriteToThem came in.

Read all about the campaign, and how you can add your voice to it, in our recent case study.

Events

Open Data and the pandemic

Missed the first TICTeC Seminar? We heard a panel of experts discussing how the global response to the pandemic might have been quite different, if there had just been better and more accessible open data.

You can catch up with the whole thing via video or by reading the collaborative notes taken during the session. Find everything you need here — and don't forget, there are two more TICTeC Seminars to come!

Help shape future TICTeCs

If you work on, use, fund or research civic technology, we would be really grateful if you could spare some time to help us shape the future of TICTeC by filling in this survey.

LocalGovCamp 2020

We'll be running a couple of hands-on, interactive sessions at LocalGovCamp on October 6 and 7.

On Tuesday 6, join a mySociety-led discussion on how data standards across councils could open the doors to much better innovation.

And on Weds 7, we'll run a mock exercise taking you through a new and useful way of assessing and mitigating risks in new government services, from SocietyWorks.

It's all online, of course: find out more and book your place here.

Community

Tell us your tower block woes

If you live in a tower block and you're having issues around fire safety, repairs, or bad landlords, we'd really like to know about it.

Campaigning group Tower Blocks UK may be able to help you take the next step to getting things solved — and would also love to hear your circumstances in case they can help others in the same boat. Learn more about the project here.

Rubbish service, made excellent

We're expanding SocietyWorks services to cover new areas — including all manner of functionality around bins. Collection dates, ordering new ones, missed ones... there's more to it than the casual observer might have thought.

See how we're getting along, on the SocietyWorks blog, where we have also started to document our work on noise reports.

Transparency

Challenging FOI refusals: upholding the right to information

Thanks to some new funding from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, we're embarking on a project to extend the support we offer WhatdoTheyKnow users — right up to the point of challenging a refusal.

Find out all about it here.

Climate

Climate Assembly report published

You may remember that we played a small part in the UK Climate Assembly, building and hosting the website where events were live streamed, and transcripts published.

The final report form the Assembly was published earlier this month and there has, as you would expect, been plenty of coverage in the press.

But to cut through the coverage and understand what the report actually says, we recommend reading it directly. You can do that here.

Our environmental policy

Having committed to working around climate, it's only right that we look to our own carbon emissions. We've started the process of doing just that by publishing an environmental policy for mySociety: read our update.

And finally...

Research project on pollution seeks volunteers for study

INHALE, led by Imperial College London, will assess the impact of air pollution on personal health in urban environments. The project is now looking for healthy or asthmatic volunteers to participate in the study. If you live in West London, find out more.

What we're reading (and listening to)

• New design for Wikipedia — the first for ten years!
• We're really enjoying the Tip Off podcast, and its deep dives into the methods used by investigative journalists.
• Great to see Doug Paulley, friend of WhatDoTheyKnow and mySociety, continuing his activism around accessible public transport.
• A retrospective on Government Digital Services, in which we have a particular interest, going way back.
• Technology is a huge boon to everything we do... until you start counting the number of times it doesn't work quite as it ought to.
• Well done New Zealand: is this the catchiest way of explaining a voting system yet seen?

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