mySociety is a UK-based registered charity,[2] previously named UK Citizens Online Democracy.[3] It began as a UK-focused organisation with the aim of making online democracy tools for UK citizens.[4] However, those tools were open source, so that the code could be (and soon was) redeployed in other countries.[5]
mySociety was founded by Tom Steinberg in September 2003,[6] and started activity after receiving a £250,000 grant in September 2004.[7] Steinberg says that it was inspired by a collaboration with his then-flatmate James Crabtree which spawned Crabtree's article "Civic hacking: a new agenda for e-democracy".[8][9]
mySociety went on to simplify and internationalise its code[10] and through the now dormant Poplus project, encouraged others to share open source code[11] that would minimise the amount of duplication in civic tech coding.
Like many non-profits, mySociety sustains itself with a mixture of grant funding[8] and commercial work, providing software and development services to local government and other organisations.[12]
In March 2015, Steinberg announced his decision to stand down as executive director of mySociety.[13] In July of that year, Mark Cridge became the organisation's new CEO.[14]
FixMyStreet platform is free and open source software which enables anyone to run a map based website and app that helps people inform their local authority of problems needing their attention, such as potholes, broken streetlamps, etc. The UK version is FixMyStreet.com. mySociety also provide FixMyStreet as a report making system for several local and transport authorities in the UK, including TfL.[16]
WhatDoTheyKnow is a site designed to help people in the United Kingdom make Freedom of Information requests. It publishes both the requests and the authorities’ responses online, with the aim of making information available to all, and of removing the need for multiple people to make the same requests.[17] By 2011, a significant proportion of requests, around 15%, to UK central government were being made through the site;[18] more recently, that's still the case, with a little over 15% of requests to audited bodies and around 20% of those to ministerial departments being sent through the service.[19]
WriteToThem is a website which allows UK citizens to contact their elected representatives. Users do not need to know their representatives’ names: instead, using the mySociety software MapIt,[20] the site matches their postcode to its various constituency boundaries, before displaying elected representatives at all levels of UK government from local councillors to MEPs. Users can send messages to them from the site;[21][22][15] responses are then sent directly to the user's email address.
MapIt:[25] software for matching a geographical point with its legislative boundaries. MapIt underlies several mySociety websites such as FixMyStreet and WriteToThem, where it allows for a user to input a postcode and be matched to the correct local authority or representative.
Poplus[27] was an international federation of organisations who benefitted through the sharing of civic code and online technologies. It was set up in April 2014 by mySociety in collaboration with Chilean e-democracy organisation Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente[28][29] and encouraged the development of free, open source civic 'blocks' of software, which it termed 'Components', intended to make it easier for people to build civic tech tools.[30] In 2014 Nominet awarded Poplus a place in the Nominet Trust 100.[31] Poplus ceased being maintained in 2016.[32]
Mapumental was free and open source software for displaying journeys in terms of how long they take,[33] rather than by distance, a technique also known as isochrone or geospatial mapping.[34] It was withdrawn in 2020.[35]
Pombola was free open source software for running a parliamentary monitoring website inspired by TheyWorkForYou. While it is still available, it is no longer being actively maintained.
Downing Street e-Petitions: mySociety developed the original solution for publishing petitions on the website of the Prime Minister's Office.[36][37][38] In 2011 the system was replaced with the government's own development.
EveryPolitician:[39] a project that ran from 2015 to 2019, with the aim of storing and sharing data on every politician in the world, in structured open data
Pledgebank:[40] Allowed users to make pledges of the format: "I will do x if y number of people agree to do the same".[41][42] Now dormant, with archives still browsable.
HassleMe:[43] a website that sends reminders sporadically, now run independently of mySociety[44]
HearFromYourMP:[45] a site encouraging MPs to email their constituents, closed May 2015[46]
FixMyTransport:[47] a site in the model of FixMyStreet for contacting any transport operator in Britain about problems with public transport. Correspondence was published online. The site ran from 2011 to 2015 and has now been frozen, though archives are still browsable.[48][49]
ScenicOrNot:[51] a gamification-powered site which invites users to rate photographs according to their ‘scenicness’. The results fed into Mapumental. In 2015 ScenicOrNot was passed over to the Warwick Business School where it is being used to track the correlation between health and the beauty of one's surroundings.[52][53]
GroupsNearYou:[54] a map-based application that enabled users to find local community groups in their local area.
^"Citizens make society". mySociety. 22 July 2020. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
^"Of governments and geeks". The Economist. 4 February 2010.
^"UK's mySociety Releases How-To Guides, Source Code for Open Government Activists". TechPresident. 26 March 2012.
^Robert Jaques (30 October 2003). "Calling Coders for the Greater Common Good". The Register. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
^"Ideas for web activism sought out". BBC News Online. 5 April 2006. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
^ ab"mySociety: Open democracy, open source". H-Online. 19 September 2008.
^James Crabtree (6 March 2003). "Civic hacking: a new agenda for e-democracy". Open Democracy. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
^. TechPresident. 25 July 2012. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
^"PoplusCon: Lowering the Tech Barriers for Civic Startups". TechPresident. 2 May 2014.
^Nigel Bowles; James T. Hamilton (28 October 2013). Transparency in Politics and the Media: Accountability and Open Government. I.B. Tauris. ISBN9781780766768.
^"10 Top Candidates To Become Government Chief Data Officer". Computer World. 21 August 2015.
^"mySociety filing history". Companies House. 13 July 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
^ abMargetts, Helen (4 May 2010). "The Internet in Political Science". In Hay, Colin (ed.). New Directions in Political Science — Responding to the Challenges of an Interdependent World. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 79. ISBN9780230228481. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
^"Transport for London to use MySociety's FixMyStreet". UKAuthority. 1 November 2019.
^Becky Hogg (3 April 2008). "Information revolution". New Statesman. from the original on 17 September 2008. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
^Alex Skene (1 July 2011). "WhatDoTheyKnow's Share of Central Government FOI Requests — Q2 2011". mySociety. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
^Alex Parsons (9 July 2019). "Public FOI: WhatDoTheyKnow and central government". mySociety. from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
^"MapIt: map postcodes and geographical points to administrative areas". mySociety.
^"Site axes MP over 'fake' e-mails". BBC News Online. 21 February 2006.
^Tempest, Matthew (20 February 2006). "MPs show no haste to post". The Guardian.
Freedom of Information: Going beyond the scoop, Journalism.co.uk
April 10, 2024
mysociety, based, registered, charity, previously, named, citizens, online, democracy, began, focused, organisation, with, making, online, democracy, tools, citizens, however, those, tools, were, open, source, that, code, could, soon, redeployed, other, countr. mySociety is a UK based registered charity 2 previously named UK Citizens Online Democracy 3 It began as a UK focused organisation with the aim of making online democracy tools for UK citizens 4 However those tools were open source so that the code could be and soon was redeployed in other countries 5 mySocietymySociety logoFounded2003 2003 FounderTom SteinbergFocusGovernment transparencyCivic technologiesFreedom of InformationCitizen empowermentOpen sourceLocationUnited KingdomProductsTheyWorkForYouWriteToThemWhatDoTheyKnowFixMyStreetAlaveteliEveryPoliticianEmployees21 2020 1 Websitemysociety wbr org Contents 1 History 2 Projects 2 1 Discontinued or passed to new owners 3 See also 4 References 5 External linksHistory editmySociety was founded by Tom Steinberg in September 2003 6 and started activity after receiving a 250 000 grant in September 2004 7 Steinberg says that it was inspired by a collaboration with his then flatmate James Crabtree which spawned Crabtree s article Civic hacking a new agenda for e democracy 8 9 mySociety went on to simplify and internationalise its code 10 and through the now dormant Poplus project encouraged others to share open source code 11 that would minimise the amount of duplication in civic tech coding Like many non profits mySociety sustains itself with a mixture of grant funding 8 and commercial work providing software and development services to local government and other organisations 12 In March 2015 Steinberg announced his decision to stand down as executive director of mySociety 13 In July of that year Mark Cridge became the organisation s new CEO 14 Projects editTheyWorkForYou is a parliamentary monitoring website which aims to make it easier for UK citizens to understand what is going on in Westminster as well as Scottish Parliament the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly It also helps create accountability for UK politicians by publishing a complete archive of every word spoken in Parliament along with a voting record and other details for each MP past and present 15 FixMyStreet platform is free and open source software which enables anyone to run a map based website and app that helps people inform their local authority of problems needing their attention such as potholes broken streetlamps etc The UK version is FixMyStreet com mySociety also provide FixMyStreet as a report making system for several local and transport authorities in the UK including TfL 16 WhatDoTheyKnow is a site designed to help people in the United Kingdom make Freedom of Information requests It publishes both the requests and the authorities responses online with the aim of making information available to all and of removing the need for multiple people to make the same requests 17 By 2011 a significant proportion of requests around 15 to UK central government were being made through the site 18 more recently that s still the case with a little over 15 of requests to audited bodies and around 20 of those to ministerial departments being sent through the service 19 Alaveteli is free and open source software to help citizens write Freedom of Information requests and automatically publish any responses The UK version is WhatDoTheyKnow WriteToThem is a website which allows UK citizens to contact their elected representatives Users do not need to know their representatives names instead using the mySociety software MapIt 20 the site matches their postcode to its various constituency boundaries before displaying elected representatives at all levels of UK government from local councillors to MEPs Users can send messages to them from the site 21 22 15 responses are then sent directly to the user s email address SayIt 23 software for publishing transcripts of debates e g from parliaments court proceedings and meetings 24 MapIt 25 software for matching a geographical point with its legislative boundaries MapIt underlies several mySociety websites such as FixMyStreet and WriteToThem where it allows for a user to input a postcode and be matched to the correct local authority or representative Gaze 26 a gazetteer web serviceDiscontinued or passed to new owners edit Poplus 27 was an international federation of organisations who benefitted through the sharing of civic code and online technologies It was set up in April 2014 by mySociety in collaboration with Chilean e democracy organisation Fundacion Ciudadano Inteligente 28 29 and encouraged the development of free open source civic blocks of software which it termed Components intended to make it easier for people to build civic tech tools 30 In 2014 Nominet awarded Poplus a place in the Nominet Trust 100 31 Poplus ceased being maintained in 2016 32 Mapumental was free and open source software for displaying journeys in terms of how long they take 33 rather than by distance a technique also known as isochrone or geospatial mapping 34 It was withdrawn in 2020 35 Pombola was free open source software for running a parliamentary monitoring website inspired by TheyWorkForYou While it is still available it is no longer being actively maintained Downing Street e Petitions mySociety developed the original solution for publishing petitions on the website of the Prime Minister s Office 36 37 38 In 2011 the system was replaced with the government s own development EveryPolitician 39 a project that ran from 2015 to 2019 with the aim of storing and sharing data on every politician in the world in structured open data Pledgebank 40 Allowed users to make pledges of the format I will do x if y number of people agree to do the same 41 42 Now dormant with archives still browsable HassleMe 43 a website that sends reminders sporadically now run independently of mySociety 44 HearFromYourMP 45 a site encouraging MPs to email their constituents closed May 2015 46 FixMyTransport 47 a site in the model of FixMyStreet for contacting any transport operator in Britain about problems with public transport Correspondence was published online The site ran from 2011 to 2015 and has now been frozen though archives are still browsable 48 49 PopIt 50 Storage of open data on politicians ScenicOrNot 51 a gamification powered site which invites users to rate photographs according to their scenicness The results fed into Mapumental In 2015 ScenicOrNot was passed over to the Warwick Business School where it is being used to track the correlation between health and the beauty of one s surroundings 52 53 GroupsNearYou 54 a map based application that enabled users to find local community groups in their local area NotApathetic 55 a site where people who planned not to vote in the 2005 United Kingdom general election could explain why Placeopedia an online gazetteer consisting of a mashup of Google Maps and the English Wikipedia 56 Democracy Club 57 an election information project now a separate company 58 See also editCivic hacking Chris Lightfoot Digital citizen Elections in the United Kingdom Francis Irving Open government Politics of the United Kingdom Public WhipReferences edit Meet the Team mySociety 15 March 2020 Archived from the original on 15 March 2020 Retrieved 15 March 2020 Overview of UK Citizens Online Democracy Charity Commission for England and Wales 31 March 2019 Retrieved 15 March 2020 Citizens make society mySociety 22 July 2020 Retrieved 22 July 2020 Of governments and geeks The Economist 4 February 2010 UK s mySociety Releases How To Guides Source Code for Open Government Activists TechPresident 26 March 2012 Robert Jaques 30 October 2003 Calling Coders for the Greater Common Good The Register Retrieved 2 December 2014 Ideas for web activism sought out BBC News Online 5 April 2006 Retrieved 15 October 2015 a b mySociety Open democracy open source H Online 19 September 2008 James Crabtree 6 March 2003 Civic hacking a new agenda for e democracy Open Democracy Retrieved 2 December 2014 Is Civic Hacking Becoming Our Pieces Loosely Joined TechPresident 25 July 2012 Archived from the original on 11 October 2017 Retrieved 14 October 2015 PoplusCon Lowering the Tech Barriers for Civic Startups TechPresident 2 May 2014 Nigel Bowles James T Hamilton 28 October 2013 Transparency in Politics and the Media Accountability and Open Government I B Tauris ISBN 9781780766768 10 Top Candidates To Become Government Chief Data Officer Computer World 21 August 2015 mySociety filing history Companies House 13 July 2015 Retrieved 13 October 2015 a b Margetts Helen 4 May 2010 The Internet in Political Science In Hay Colin ed New Directions in Political Science Responding to the Challenges of an Interdependent World Palgrave Macmillan p 79 ISBN 9780230228481 Retrieved 6 August 2016 Transport for London to use MySociety s FixMyStreet UKAuthority 1 November 2019 Becky Hogg 3 April 2008 Information revolution New Statesman Archived from the original on 17 September 2008 Retrieved 19 April 2020 Alex Skene 1 July 2011 WhatDoTheyKnow s Share of Central Government FOI Requests Q2 2011 mySociety Retrieved 19 April 2020 Alex Parsons 9 July 2019 Public FOI WhatDoTheyKnow and central government mySociety Archived from the original on 9 July 2019 Retrieved 19 April 2020 MapIt map postcodes and geographical points to administrative areas mySociety Site axes MP over fake e mails BBC News Online 21 February 2006 Tempest Matthew 20 February 2006 MPs show no haste to post The Guardian SayIt Solon Olivia 17 January 2014 mySociety launches SayIt civic software for publishing smart transcripts Wired Archived from the original on 22 January 2014 Retrieved 7 April 2020 MapIt mySociety Gaze the mySociety Gazetteer web service mySociety Poplus Poplus Archived from the original on 31 December 2014 Retrieved 7 April 2020 Fundacion Ciudadano Inteligente Fundacion Ciudadano Inteligente O Neill Eilis 2 May 2014 PoplusCon Lowering the Tech Barriers for Civic Startups TechPresident Retrieved 7 April 2020 Three key takeaways from the 2014 Open Knowledge Festival Poplus Social Tech Guide Commits to poplus home poplus Poplus 4 February 2016 Retrieved 7 April 2020 via GitHub Hickey Ed 12 November 2015 These tools let you map journey times in the world s major cities CityMetric Retrieved 6 August 2016 Mapumental Travel time maps mySociety Retrieved 6 August 2016 Mapumental Archived from the original on 28 April 2020 Retrieved 19 October 2021 Public petitions and early day motions first report of session 2006 07 report together with formal minutes oral and written evidence Parliament of the United Kingdom 22 May 2007 ISBN 9780215034168 via Google Books mySociety Participedia The petition the prat and a political ideal BBC News Online 13 February 2007 EveryPolitician mySociety Pledgebank com mySociety Archived from the original on 1 December 2014 Ideas for web activism sought out BBC News Online 5 April 2006 Retrieved 10 August 2007 The story of Pledgebank mySociety 24 February 2015 HassleMe mySociety Archived from the original on 6 April 2007 A future for HassleMe mySociety 16 March 2015 HearFromYourMP com Archived from the original on 11 April 2007 HearFromYourMP a little piece of mySociety history mySociety 5 February 2015 FixMyTransport Arthur Charles 30 August 2011 FixMyTransport uses crowdsourcing to solve travel problems TheGuardian com Nixon Myfanwy 29 January 2015 Running a site like FixMyTransport mySociety mySociety Retrieved 29 July 2020 Welcome to PopIt ScenicOrNot A new home and a new purpose for ScenicOrNot mySociety 12 August 2015 ScenicOrNot Groupsnearyou com Archived from the original on 3 November 2007 Retrieved 11 December 2007 Not Apathetic not voting in the 2005 general election Placeopedia Wikipedia Meets Google Maps Lifehacker 20 September 2005 Retrieved 7 August 2016 Democracy Club My Society Democracy ClubExternal links editOfficial website mySociety registered charity no 1076346 Charity Commission for England and Wales Freedom of Information Going beyond the scoop Journalism co uk Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title MySociety amp oldid 1210290634 Discontinued or passed to new owners, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
