MySociety
Encyclopedia
mySociety is an e-democracy
project of the UK-based registered charity named UK Citizens Online Democracy
, that aims to build "socially focussed tools with offline impacts". It was founded by Tom Steinberg
in September 2003, and started activity after receiving a £250,000 grant in September 2004. Steinberg says that mySociety was inspired by a collaboration with his then-flatmate James Crabtree which spawned Crabtree's article "Civic hacking: a new agenda for e-democracy".
In response to the EU Directive on Reuse of Public Sector Information 2005, the UK government created an Office of Public Sector Information to promote public sector information reuse. OPSI now runs a government data unlocking service to help people find and reuse government data with licensing or format restrictions.
In March 2006 The Guardian
started a "Free our Data" campaign, which got INSPIRE a proposal for free open geodata, passed into EU law.
In April 2007, Cabinet Office
Minister Hilary Armstrong
commissioned Ed Mayo
and mySociety director Tom Steinberg to draft a "Power of Information Review" on how the government could serve the public's information needs better. The resulting report led Cabinet Minister Tom Watson
, MP to create a Power of Information Task Force. They launched the ShowUsABetterWay competition to award £20,000 to the best application reusing public government data.
E-democracy
E-democracy refers to the use of information technologies and communication technologies and strategies in political and governance processes...
project of the UK-based registered charity named UK Citizens Online Democracy
UK Citizens Online Democracy
UK Citizens Online Democracy is a registered charity in England and Wales, number 1076346.At present, UKCOD's main activity is running the mySociety project. mySociety builds websites which give people simple, tangible benefits in the civic and community aspects of their lives...
, that aims to build "socially focussed tools with offline impacts". It was founded by Tom Steinberg
Tom Steinberg
Tom Steinberg is the founder and director of mySociety the organisation which runs democracy and transparency websites in the UK, including TheyWorkForYou and WriteToThem...
in September 2003, and started activity after receiving a £250,000 grant in September 2004. Steinberg says that mySociety was inspired by a collaboration with his then-flatmate James Crabtree which spawned Crabtree's article "Civic hacking: a new agenda for e-democracy".
Projects
mySociety projects include:- Downing Street e-Petitions — petitionPetitionA petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....
s are collated on the website of the Prime MinisterPrime Minister of the United KingdomThe Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
's Office. - FixMyStreetFixMyStreetFixMyStreet is a mySociety website through which users can report potholes, broken street lights and similar problems with streets and roads in England, Scotland and Wales to their local council or related organisation, and see what reports have already been made.-History:The site was initially...
— a map based application that helps people inform their local authorityLocal government in the United KingdomThe pattern of local government in England is complex, with the distribution of functions varying according to the local arrangements. Legislation concerning local government in England is decided by the Parliament and Government of the United Kingdom, because England does not have a devolved...
of problems needing their attention, such as broken streetlamps etc. - Gaze — a gazetteerGazetteerA gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names , used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup of a country, region, or continent as well as the social...
web serviceWeb serviceA Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format... - GroupsNearYou — a map-based application to find local community groups in your area
- Hassleme — Because your mother can't remind you of everything, a website that sends reminders sporadically.
- HearFromYourMP — a site encouraging MPs to email their constituents.
- MapIt - maps postcodes and points to current or past administrative area information and polygons for all the United Kingdom.
- Mapumental — with support from Channel4ip this project shows accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
from any location in Great Britain using public transport. - Notapathetic.com — a site about people who planned not to vote in the United Kingdom general election, 2005United Kingdom general election, 2005The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
. - PlaceopediaPlaceopediaPlaceopedia was an online gazetteer which integrates Google Maps images and Wikipedia encyclopedia articles using user-generated content...
— an online gazetteerGazetteerA gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names , used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup of a country, region, or continent as well as the social...
that is a mashupMashup (web application hybrid)In Web development, a mashup is a Web page or application that uses and combines data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services...
of Google MapsGoogle MapsGoogle Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
and the English WikipediaEnglish WikipediaThe English Wikipedia is the English-language edition of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Founded on 15 January 2001 and reaching three million articles by August 2009, it was the first edition of Wikipedia and remains the largest, with almost three times as many articles as the next...
. - PledgeBankPledgeBankPledgeBank is a website which runs pledges on all topics, of the form: "I will do x if y number of people agree to do the same." Such public commitments are a non-coercive way to solve problems of collective action, especially when the goal is a public good. PledgeBank was founded by mySociety and...
— runs pledges on all topics, of the form: "I will do x if y people agree to do the same." - TheyWorkForYouTheyWorkForYouTheyWorkForYou is a website run by mySociety, a project of registered charity UK Citizens Online Democracy, and is a tool for political campaigners and those interested in the Parliamentary activities of UK MPs, Lords, and Northern Ireland MLAs....
— tracks speeches and activities of MembersMember of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
of ParliamentParliament of the United KingdomThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
, including presenting an accessibleComputer accessibilityIn human-computer interaction, computer accessibility refers to the accessibility of a computer system to all people, regardless of disability or severity of impairment...
version of HansardHansardHansard is the name of the printed transcripts of parliamentary debates in the Westminster system of government. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard, an early printer and publisher of these transcripts.-Origins:... - Travel-time maps — maps showing how long it takes to travel on public transport to a given destination, expanded in 2007.
- WhatDoTheyKnowWhatDoTheyKnowWhatDoTheyKnow.com is a website run by the registered UK Citizens Online Democracy which allows anyone to make a UK Freedom of Information request in public. The site acts as a permanent public archive of FOI requests made through it.Around 15% of requests to UK Central Government are made...
— a site designed to help people find out (through Freedom of InformationFreedom of informationFreedom of information refers to the protection of the right to freedom of expression with regards to the Internet and information technology . Freedom of information may also concern censorship in an information technology context, i.e...
requests) what the British government and public services are doing. The site receives over 30,000 unique visitors a week. - WriteToThem.com — provides contact details for elected representatives at all levels of UK government, and users can send messages to them directly from the site (formerly FaxYourMP).
In response to the EU Directive on Reuse of Public Sector Information 2005, the UK government created an Office of Public Sector Information to promote public sector information reuse. OPSI now runs a government data unlocking service to help people find and reuse government data with licensing or format restrictions.
In March 2006 The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
started a "Free our Data" campaign, which got INSPIRE a proposal for free open geodata, passed into EU law.
In April 2007, Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom....
Minister Hilary Armstrong
Hilary Armstrong
Hilary Jane Armstrong, Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for North West Durham from 1987 to 2010.-Early life:...
commissioned Ed Mayo
Ed Mayo
Ed Mayo is Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, the UK trade association for co-operatives. He is the former Chief Executive of the British National Consumer Council and CEO of the NCC's successor, Consumer Focus.-Education:...
and mySociety director Tom Steinberg to draft a "Power of Information Review" on how the government could serve the public's information needs better. The resulting report led Cabinet Minister Tom Watson
Tom Watson (politician)
Thomas Anthony Watson is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East since 2001. Watson was a Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from 2008 to 2009...
, MP to create a Power of Information Task Force. They launched the ShowUsABetterWay competition to award £20,000 to the best application reusing public government data.
See also
- Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European CommunityInfrastructure for Spatial Information in the European CommunityINSPIRE is "an EU initiative to establish an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe that will help to make spatial or geographical information more accessible and interoperable for a wide range of purposes supporting sustainable development"....
- Chris LightfootChris LightfootChris Lightfoot was a leading and prolific online civic campaigner, a polymath and a scientist, and the first developer with Tom Steinberg at e-democracy charity mySociety.-Family and early life:...
- Public WhipPublic WhipThe Public Whip is a parliamentary informatics project that analyses and publishes the voting history of MPs in the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
External links
- mySociety website
- UK Citizens' Online Democracy, the charity that owns mySociety