Rewatch our special Right To Know Day TICTeC
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** News from mySociety
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October 2021
** Event report
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** Right To Know across Europe
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If you missed our very special TICTeC for International Access to Information Day, never fear — the video is now available for a rewatch.
We heard incredible stories of the power of FOI, from speakers in the Netherlands, Croatia, France and Scotland, topped off with research and revelations from the UK. You definitely don't want to let this one go by! Find all the followup details here ([link removed]) .
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** Climate
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** Scoring Climate Action Plans
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We've seen the first major use of the Climate Action Plans Explorer ([link removed]) (CAPE), by the organisation Climate Emergency UK.
They trained cohorts of volunteers to become experts in Climate Action Plans, allowing them to assess and compare plans from councils around the country.
The end result will be a league table where everyone will be able to check just how their council's plan to reach Net Zero stacks up. Learn more about this project here ([link removed]) .
** Our progress this month
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Continue following along with everything we've been doing in the Climate programme. This month, it's Emily's turn at the keyboard ([link removed]) , with news on new features for CAPE, the Climate Action Plans Explorer, and revving up on our outreach activities.
** Transparency
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** The Campaign for FOI needs your help!
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The Campaign for FOI ([link removed]) is a constant and untiring advocate for Freedom of Information in the UK, always quick to point out where our rights are being eroded or the FOI Act is in danger.
As you can imagine, we wholeheartedly support their work, so we were sorry to hear that they've lost vital funding and may have to cease their activities if they can't raise it via another source.
If you care about transparency and can spare a few quid, now would be a very good time to throw it their way. Check out the Crowdfunder page here ([link removed]) . And if you can't afford to donate, you can do almost as much good by sharing it far and wide.
** FOI deserves better
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John Edwards, incoming ICO Commissioner, gave some concerning responses on the subject of FOI when he was questioned in Parliament last month.
But we think the issues run deeper than whether or not he's the right man for the job — as our researcher Alex set out in this blog post ([link removed]) , the problem is that two responsibilities have been shoehorned into a single role.
** A decade of asking the EU
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AskTheEU is the Freedom of Information site for the European Union, running on the Alaveteli platform. We helped set it up ten years ago, and we're delighted to say it's still going from strength to strength, having just processed its 10,000th full FOI request.
We looked back on its first decade here ([link removed]) .
** Democracy
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** Deliberative and representative democracy can work together
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Those commemorative days are coming thick and fast: this month also saw the International Day of Democracy.
To mark this, our trustee Julia Keutgen, who also happens to be Senior Transparency Advisor at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, shared a post ([link removed]) about the changing perceptions of democracy given the increasing popularity of deliberative platforms.
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]) .
** Vacancy
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** Perl/Python Developer
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Our commercial arm, SocietyWorks, continues its recruitment drive and is looking for experienced Perl and Python developers to work on our SaaS products for clients in local government.
Read the job description and see how to apply here ([link removed]) .
** What we're reading
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1. If you live & work/study in certain London boroughs, researchers at Imperial College are looking for participants in their new study ([link removed]) on air pollution in the urban environment. You'll find out more about your respiratory function, too!
2. Remember how we all* uploaded photos of election leaflets for posterity? Now there's this project ([link removed]) as well, aiming to 'save local political websites from the dustbins of history'.
3. Open Democracy cracked open more details ([link removed]) on how the UK government deals with its FOI responsibilities: with litigation.
4. There's a new generation of internet users... or we should say, an older generation ([link removed]) .
5. We can't say we've never input silly names when developing a test website, so this story was both amusing and slightly worrying ([link removed]) .
*Just us?
** Follow mySociety
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Image credits Birthday cake ** Imants Kaziļuns ([link removed])
; tiled wall ** Social Cut ([link removed])
; autumn leaves ** Andrew Ieviev ([link removed])
mySociety is a registered charity in England and Wales (1076346) and a limited company (03277032).
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