News from mySociety's Transparency, Democracy, Community, Climate and Research teams

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** News from mySociety
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May 2021


** New research
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** Reforming Freedom of Information
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Our new policy paper on how FOI could work better across the UK is now available — thanks to everyone who joined us on Zoom for the launch. Catch up with the video of the event here ([link removed]) , and read the paper in full on our Research site ([link removed]) .

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** UK-wide deprivation dataset
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If you know, you know: deprivation, and rurality, are measured differently across the devolved nations. Our researcher Alex describes the approach we've adopted here ([link removed]) . We're already hearing it's useful to others.


** Vacancies
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** New job opportunities
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mySociety is growing, and we're looking to fill several new roles: a Delivery Manager for our Climate Programme ([link removed]) , a Perl Developer ([link removed]) (hurry - applications for that one close at 10am tomorrow) and a Service Manager ([link removed]) for WhatDoTheyKnow.

So please spread the word to anyone who might be suitable; and, if you'd like to know about upcoming vacancies too, sign up to receive our jobs newsletter ([link removed]) .


** Events
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** TICTeC: Lessons learned from online deliberation projects
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The second in our series of ‘Show and Tell’ TICTeC events focused on online deliberation and participatory democracy.

We heard of projects in France, South Africa, USA and the UK, where digital technologies have allowed citizens to feed into public decision-making processes. Find all the materials, from slides to Q&A, and the presentations themselves, in our round-up blog post ([link removed]) .
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** Transparency
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** Be the first to use our latest FOI tool
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Here's a great opportunity for researchers, campaign groups or newsrooms to try out our new, helpful tool for free ([link removed]) — if you know of one that's using multiple Freedom of Information requests to uncover data, pass the news on!


** Meet Ma Dada
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It's always so interesting to talk to people running Freedom of Information sites in other countries, and find out where our work is the same and where it differs.

Talking to Ma Dada in France revealed at least one fact that we found very surprising indeed: to see what that was, you can read our conversation here ([link removed]) .


** Passports for fish
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This month's silliest FOI request may actually have had net value, or was it just a red herring? See what you think ([link removed]) .


** New bodies on WhatDoTheyKnow
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Adding a number of new authorities to WhatDoTheyKnow provided a good chance to list the typical tasks our volunteers undertake ([link removed]) to ensure the site runs smoothly. If keeping everything shipshape is the sort of thing you enjoy, then you might consider becoming a volunteer too.
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]) .
** SocietyWorks
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** Wasteworks
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Exciting times, as our trading subsidiary SocietyWorks launches WasteWorks. This service helps councils manage all elements of waste services online, from missed bin reports to online payments for collections — and like everything we do, of course it makes things easier for citizens too. Read all about WasteWorks here ([link removed]) .


** What we're reading and listening to
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* Care about the policing of protests? NetPol are inviting you to write to your MP ([link removed]) to demand greater transparency and accountability...
* ...and more than 14,000 people responded to the Petitions Committee's survey on protest ([link removed]) , with some great quotes in there.
* We were interested to see that What3Words may not be the best choice ([link removed]) in an emergency.
* Tch! Entitled behaviour ([link removed]) from game streamers over Google Streetview volunteers.
* Did you know the House of Lords has a podcast ([link removed]) ?
* And here's a collection of comics for good ([link removed] ) .


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Image credits Sorted petals: ** Jessica Lee ([link removed])
; fishing net: ** Fredrik Öhlander ([link removed])
.

mySociety is a registered charity in England and Wales (1076346) and a limited company (03277032).
Through our trading subsidiary SocietyWorks (05798215) we also provide commercial services.
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