All change at mySociety

We're in good hands

With our Chief Executive Mark Cridge soon to move on, we're very pleased to report that we have interim leadership in place.

Longstanding mySociety-ite Louise Crow has stepped up to act as Chief Executive of mySociety until longer term decisions are made later in the year.

In parallel, Angela Dixon takes on the role of interim Managing Director of SocietyWorks. Read all about these changes, along with a look back at what's been achieved over Mark's tenure, in this blog post.

How can we make civic tech more accessible to everyone?

Our recent TICTeC Civic Tech Surgery saw experts discussing some of the issues around why civic technology — for all that it is made with good intentions — is often inaccessible to those with disabilities or alternative access needs.

You can catch up on that discussion here — and if you'd like to be part of the working group putting tangible solutions in place, why not apply to be part of the Action Lab? Better hurry though; applications close tomorrow.

Levelling up? Don't miss this climate opportunity

The government's recently published Levelling Up white paper identifies the need for data in its drive to reduce regional inequalities. But if that isn't tied in with the equally vital shift to net zero, they've missed a trick, argues our new Policy and Advocacy Manager Pauline Castres.

Both levelling up and net zero require systematic changes to the role local government plays in directing the economic activities of their area, and engaging and working with communities and citizens. Read more here.

ARIA arguments don't stack up

The Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill passed through Parliament last month. It created the new research investment agency ARIA, while explicitly and proactively exempting it from Freedom of Information requests.

But the reasoning behind this decision just doesn't stand up to scrutiny, as Alex explores in this post.

We keep adding new features

CAPE, the Climate Action Plans Explorer, is under active development. We're adding new features to this database of local councils' action plans at a really rapid rate, and you can catch up with the most recent changes in this blog post.

Meanwhile, if there's something you think we should add to CAPE that would help you use it more effectively, please do add ideas to our Trello board.

Monthly catch-up

And if you're more interested in the behind-the-scenes aspect of our climate work, you'll be glad to know we're still documenting everything we do in the Climate team, on a monthly basis. You can read our latest monthnotes, this time penned by Zarino, here.

What we're reading

• Boris bikes (yes we know they're not called that) have ended up in locations all over the world. And how do we know that? Thanks to an FOI request on WhatDoTheyKnow.
• Want to anonymise some text before sharing it? That blur tool might not be enough any more.
• Our coders thought this was a nifty idea when interviewing for a developer position.

And finally…

• If you've been binge-listening to the Trojan Horse Affair podcast like we have, you might have heard mention of a familiar website. We certainly pricked up our ears when WhatDoTheyKnow entered into this very complex story as its protagonists try multiple routes to uncovering the truth.

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