News, opportunities and events

This could be the most interesting hour of your week

WhatDoTheyKnow, our Freedom of Information service, is looking for people to help make sure that their extensive list of public authorities is all up to date — and stays that way.

If you'd like a work-from-home volunteer position that will give you a wealth of new skills and is never boring, check out the requirements here before August 18. Volunteers work as many or as few hours as suits them, on a flexible basis.

What civic tech needs in the climate emergency

'Librarians' that can guide non-experts through complex climate data, perhaps? Or funding for journalists working in under-reported areas? How about just setting up a table at the next climate protest?

These were some of the wide-ranging ideas that emerged during TICTeC Civic Tech Surgery #5, and they'll be taken forward to help inform a working group's decisions on how to deploy a small grant. Catch up with the video and detailed notes here.

Innovations in climate tech

September 21

This online event will bring together innovators and councils for a showcase of projects making a difference at the local level. All are welcome - pop the date in your calendar and we'll follow up with more details soon.

If you're building or running an innovative climate project, come and see if there's a council interested in trying it out! The day will include the opportunity to share your own climate-related tech projects with councils who might like to trial them. If that sounds good, here's how to apply for a slot.

Climate Action Plans data is useful

Like many of mySociety's services, CAPE, the Climate Action Plans Explorer, is an open data project. That means that the information it holds can be picked up and used by anyone, and we're always delighted to hear how it is put to use by organisations pushing for sustainable change.

When we chatted to the Green Finance Institute, we discovered the part that CAPE and the associated Climate Action Plan Scorecards played in their Local Climate Bonds scheme, which is enabling councils and residents to work together to fund carbon-cutting initiatives. Read more in our case study.

Farewell to SayIt

SayIt was our transcripts publishing service, and part of the Poplus project, making it easy to publish elegant, searchable, linkable transcripts online. To demonstrate its features we imported the Leveson Enquiry, the plays of Shalespeare and 12 years of Conservative party speeches and some from Labour, too.

But all good things must come to an end, and it makes sense to streamline our offerings when resources are limited. Read more about our decision to discontinue hosting SayIt in Sam's blog post here.

Civic tech in hostile environments:

How can we thrive in challenging contexts?

September 8

Civic tech practitioners around the world are operating in the face of all kinds of hostile environments. Some face governmental resistance to their services; others are trying to keep websites up and running within a conflict zone. In Civic Tech Surgery #6, we'll discuss some of these challenges and how we might put solutions in place that will benefit organisations globally.

Everyone is welcome to join in this discussion: reserve your place here for free.

Newspeak House

The London-based civic tech hub has opened applications for the next intake of their residential programme.

They say "It is designed to support mid-career technologists gain a holistic understanding of the civic landscape in the UK [...] ideal for people who have been working professionally for several years and are now looking to grow their network and spend time reflecting deeply on how they can best have impact on the world."

Climate Emergency UK

This small but effective charity is looking for people to join their board, and especially those with a finance or HR background.

If you are interested please take a look at their person specification and then get in touch at [email protected].

What we're consuming

• We can't believe it's been five years since those MP open source photos were released.
• The Data Collective was born out of an understanding that people who work with data in charities need a place to learn from each other.
• Anonymously rate how well your company is responding to the climate crisis.
• We love a from-the-heart rant, especially when it's about interview techniques.
• And here's a 'weird epic ramble' about the Etsy homepage, from a Python developer's point of view.
• See what things people leave in books at Oakland public library.

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