We launched WhatDoTheyKnow with two goals: to make Freedom of Information more accessible to all; and to provide a free public archive of all the information that is released as a result. Today, 17 years later, those goals still guide us, and there’s more we can do towards them every day.
Most recently, we’ve developed a couple of features: a series of guides that aim to help newbies take the first steps into Freedom of Information; and a new way of browsing to make it easier to find what you need within the huge and ever-growing archive of information on the site.
FOI 101
We here at mySociety might talk about FOI all the time, but we know that to much of the population, the concept is vague, maybe daunting, and often riddled with misconceptions. To try and address this, we recently launched our Learn pages, which provide simple guidance to anyone taking their first steps into using the Act.
Beginners — or anyone who needs a refresher — can follow these very simple instruction pages, and in no time will be using FOI to request information that can strengthen the power of campaigns, inform the public conversation or simply satisfy their own curiosity.
Browse by category
Our second addition is a new way to browse the closing-in-on 1.25 million public requests on WhatDoTheyKnow.
Even with clear guidance, it can be hard to pin down wording for that first request, so If you’d like some examples of how others have done it (or inspiration on the types of things you can ask), you can head to the ‘browse by category‘ page, where we’ve started to group examples of requests by topic.
At the moment, these are heavy on topics relating to the environment, as this interface was conceived by our Climate team to feed into the Scorecards project — however, there are other categories too, and more to come.
So, whether you’re interested in information around cinema, radio and television; historic eras; railways; past exam papers; flood defences or a wealth of other topics, there is plenty of inspiration to be had there.
WhatDoTheyKnow was launched in 2008.
We’re still working hard to increase transparency, in the UK and around the world
In this era of misinformation, the value of factual data, straight from the source, increases every day. Donate here and help ensure that we continue to provide the services that make Freedom of Information available to everyone, here in the UK and in the 30 sites around the world built on our free, open source software.
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Image: Gabriella Clare Marino
