MySociety#poplus components

mySociety was founded by Tom Steinberg in September 2003,{{cite web |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/30/calling_coders_for_the_greater/ |work=The Register |author=Robert Jaques |title=Calling Coders for the Greater Common Good |date=30 October 2003 |access-date=2 December 2014 }} and started activity after receiving a £250,000 grant in September 2004.{{cite news |title=Ideas for web activism sought out |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4877598.stm |date=5 April 2006 |work=BBC News Online |access-date=15 October 2015 }} 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".{{cite web |url=http://www.opendemocracy.net/media-edemocracy/article_1025.jsp |title=Civic hacking: a new agenda for e-democracy |work=Open Democracy |author=James Crabtree |author-link=James Crabtree |date=6 March 2003 |access-date=2 December 2014 }}

mySociety went on to simplify and internationalise its code{{cite news |title=Is Civic Hacking Becoming 'Our Pieces, Loosely Joined'? |url=http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/22617/civic-hacking-becoming-our-pieces-loosely-joined |work=TechPresident |date=25 July 2012 |access-date=14 October 2015 |archive-date=11 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011155437/http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/22617/civic-hacking-becoming-our-pieces-loosely-joined |url-status=dead }} and through the now dormant Poplus project, encouraged others to share open source code{{cite news |url=http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/24982/popluscon-lowering-tech-barriers-civic-startups |title=PoplusCon: Lowering the Tech Barriers for Civic Startups |work=TechPresident |date=2 May 2014 }} that would minimise the amount of duplication in civic tech coding.

Like many non-profits, mySociety sustains itself with a mixture of grant funding{{cite news |url=http://www.h-online.com/open/features/mySociety-Open-democracy-open-source-746402.html |publisher=H-Online |title=mySociety: Open democracy, open source |date=19 September 2008 }} and commercial work, providing software and development services to local government and other organisations.{{cite book |author1=Nigel Bowles |author2=James T. Hamilton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D0koAwAAQBAJ |title=Transparency in Politics and the Media: Accountability and Open Government |publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=9781780766768 |date=28 October 2013 }}

In March 2015, Steinberg announced his decision to stand down as executive director of mySociety.{{cite news |url=http://www.computerworlduk.com/galleries/data/10-top-candidates-become-government-chief-data-officer-3623586/#6 |title=10 Top Candidates To Become Government Chief Data Officer |work=Computer World |date=21 August 2015 }} In July of that year, Mark Cridge became the organisation's new CEO.{{cite web |title=mySociety filing history |url=https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05798215/filing-history |publisher=Companies House |date=July 13, 2015 |access-date=13 October 2015 }}

• TheyWorkForYou 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.{{cite book |title=New Directions in Political Science — Responding to the Challenges of an Interdependent World |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuYcBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA79 |first=Helen |last=Margetts |chapter=The Internet in Political Science |editor-first=Colin |editor-last=Hay |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=9780230228481 |date=4 May 2010 |access-date=6 August 2016 |page=79 }}
• 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.{{cite news | url=https://www.ukauthority.com/articles/transport-for-london-to-use-mysociety-s-fixmystreet/|title=Transport for London to use MySociety's FixMyStreet|work=UKAuthority|date=1 November 2019}}
• 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.{{cite news |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/scitech/2008/04/parliament-bills-century |title=Information revolution |work=New Statesman |author=Becky Hogg |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917170905/https://www.newstatesman.com/scitech/2008/04/parliament-bills-century |date=3 April 2008 |archive-date=17 September 2008 |access-date=19 April 2020 }} By 2011, a significant proportion of requests, around 15%, to UK central government were being made through the site;{{cite web |url=https://www.mysociety.org/2011/07/01/whatdotheyknows-share-of-central-government-foi-requests-q2-2011/ |title=WhatDoTheyKnow's Share of Central Government FOI Requests — Q2 2011 |author=Alex Skene |publisher=mySociety |date=1 July 2011 |access-date=19 April 2020 }} 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.{{cite web |url=https://www.mysociety.org/2019/07/09/public-foi-whatdotheyknow-and-central-government/ |title=Public FOI: WhatDoTheyKnow and central government |author=Alex Parsons |publisher=mySociety |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190709104320/https://www.mysociety.org/2019/07/09/public-foi-whatdotheyknow-and-central-government/ |date=9 July 2019 |archive-date=9 July 2019 |access-date=19 April 2020 }}

• 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,{{cite web|url=http://mapit.mysociety.org/ |title=MapIt: map postcodes and geographical points to administrative areas |publisher=mySociety }} 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;{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4735330.stm |title=Site axes MP over 'fake' e-mails |date=21 February 2006 |work=BBC News Online }}{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/feb/20/politicalnews.uk |title=MPs show no haste to post |first=Matthew |last=Tempest |date=20 February 2006 |work=The Guardian }} responses are then sent directly to the user's email address.
• SayIt:{{cite web|url=http://sayit.mysociety.org/|title=SayIt}} software for publishing transcripts of debates (e.g. from parliaments, court proceedings and meetings).{{Cite news |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-01/17/sayit-mysociety |title=mySociety launches SayIt, civic software for publishing 'smart' transcripts |first=Olivia |last=Solon |magazine=Wired |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140122073813/https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-01/17/sayit-mysociety |date=17 January 2014 |archive-date=22 January 2014 |access-date=7 April 2020 }}
• MapIt:{{cite web |url=https://mapit.mysociety.org/ |title=MapIt |publisher=mySociety }} 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:{{cite web |url=http://gaze.mysociety.org/ |title=Gaze – the mySociety Gazetteer web service |publisher=mySociety }} a gazetteer web service

• Poplus{{cite web |url=http://poplus.org/ |title=Poplus |publisher=Poplus |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231160839/http://www.poplus.org/ |archive-date=31 December 2014 |access-date=7 April 2020 }} 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{{cite web |url=http://ciudadanointeligente.org/ |title=Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente |publisher=Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente }}{{cite web |url=http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/24982/popluscon-lowering-tech-barriers-civic-startups |title=PoplusCon: Lowering the Tech Barriers for Civic Startups |first=Eilís |last=O'Neill |work=TechPresident |date=2 May 2014 |access-date=7 April 2020 }} 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.{{cite web |url=http://opensource.com/life/14/9/three-things-learned-open-knowledge-festival |title=Three key takeaways from the 2014 Open Knowledge Festival }} In 2014 Nominet awarded Poplus a place in the Nominet Trust 100.{{cite web |url=http://socialtech.org.uk/projects/poplus/ |title=Poplus |publisher=Social Tech Guide }} Poplus ceased being maintained in 2016.{{cite web |url=https://github.com/poplus/home-poplus/commits/gh-pages |title=Commits to poplus/home-poplus |publisher=Poplus |via=GitHub |date=4 February 2016 |access-date=7 April 2020 }}

• Mapumental was free and open source software for displaying journeys in terms of how long they take,{{cite web |title=These tools let you map journey times in the world's major cities |url=http://www.citymetric.com/transport/these-tools-let-you-map-journey-times-worlds-major-cities-1579 |first=Ed |last=Hickey |work=CityMetric |date=12 November 2015 |access-date=6 August 2016 }} rather than by distance, a technique also known as isochrone or geospatial mapping.{{cite web |title=Mapumental: Travel time maps |url=https://mapumental.com/services/travel-time |publisher=mySociety |access-date=6 August 2016 }} It was withdrawn in 2020.{{cite web |title=Mapumental |access-date=19 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200428133022/https://mapumental.com/ |archive-date=28 April 2020|url=https://mapumental.com/}}
• 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.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRwPv4vN8usC |title=Public petitions and early day motions: first report of session 2006-07, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence |date=22 May 2007 |publisher=Parliament of the United Kingdom |isbn=9780215034168 |via=Google Books}}{{cite web |url=http://participedia.net/en/organizations/mysociety#No._10_Petitions_Website |title=mySociety |publisher=Participedia }}{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6354735.stm |title=The petition, the 'prat' and a political ideal |work=BBC News Online |date=13 February 2007 }} In 2011 the system was replaced with the government's own development.
• EveryPolitician:{{cite web |url=http://everypolitician.org/ |title=EveryPolitician |publisher=mySociety }} 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:{{Cite web |url=http://www.pledgebank.com/ |title=Pledgebank.com |publisher=mySociety |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141201002643/http://www.pledgebank.com/ |archive-date=1 December 2014 }} Allowed users to make pledges of the format: "I will do x if y number of people agree to do the same".{{cite web |title=Ideas for web activism sought out |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4877598.stm |access-date=10 August 2007 |work=BBC News Online |date=5 April 2006 }}{{cite web |url=https://www.mysociety.org/2015/02/24/the-story-of-pledgebank/ |title=The story of Pledgebank |publisher=mySociety |date=24 February 2015 }} Now dormant, with archives still browsable.
• HassleMe:{{cite web |url=http://www.hassleme.co.uk |title=HassleMe |publisher=mySociety |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070406222158/http://www.hassleme.co.uk/ |archive-date=6 April 2007 }} a website that sends reminders sporadically, now run independently of mySociety{{cite web |url=https://www.mysociety.org/2015/03/16/a-future-for-hassleme/ |title=A future for HassleMe |publisher=mySociety |date=16 March 2015 }}
• HearFromYourMP:{{cite web |url=http://www.hearfromyourmp.com |title=HearFromYourMP.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070411085710/http://www.hearfromyourmp.com/ |archive-date=11 April 2007 }} a site encouraging MPs to email their constituents, closed May 2015{{cite web |url=https://www.mysociety.org/2015/02/05/hearfromyourmp-a-little-piece-of-mysociety-history/ |title=HearFromYourMP: a little piece of mySociety history |publisher=mySociety |date=5 February 2015 }}
• FixMyTransport:{{cite web|url=http://www.fixmytransport.com|title=FixMyTransport}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/aug/30/fixmytransport-travel-problems|title=FixMyTransport uses crowdsourcing to solve travel problems|first=Charles|last=Arthur|website=TheGuardian.com|date=30 August 2011}}{{cite web|url=https://www.mysociety.org/2015/01/29/fixmytransport-needs-a-new-owner/|title=Running a site like FixMyTransport / mySociety |first1=Myfanwy |last1=Nixon |date=2015-01-29 |access-date=2020-07-29 |publisher=mySociety }}
• PopIt:{{cite web|url=https://popit.mysociety.org/|title=Welcome to PopIt}} Storage of open data on politicians
• ScenicOrNot:{{cite web|url=http://scenicornot.datasciencelab.co.uk/|title=ScenicOrNot}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.mysociety.org/2015/08/12/a-new-home-and-a-new-purpose-for-scenicornot/|title=A new home—and a new purpose—for ScenicOrNot / mySociety|date=12 August 2015 }}{{cite web|url=http://scenicornot.datasciencelab.co.uk/faq|title=ScenicOrNot}}
• GroupsNearYou:{{Cite web |url=http://www.groupsnearyou.com/ |title=Groupsnearyou.com |access-date=11 December 2007 |archive-date=3 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071103111834/http://www.groupsnearyou.com/ |url-status=dead }} a map-based application that enabled users to find local community groups in their local area.
• NotApathetic:{{cite web|url=http://notapathetic.com/|title=Not Apathetic - not voting in the 2005 general election?}} 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.{{cite web|title=Placeopedia: Wikipedia Meets Google Maps|date=20 September 2005 |url=http://lifehacker.com/126383/placeopedia-wikipedia-meets-google-maps|publisher=Lifehacker|access-date=7 August 2016}}
• Democracy Club:{{cite web |url=https://democracyclub.org.uk/ |title = Democracy Club}} an election information project, now a separate company.[https://www.mysociety.org/tag/democracy-club/ My Society: Democracy Club]

• Civic hacking
• Chris Lightfoot
• Digital citizen
• Elections in the United Kingdom
• Francis Irving
• Open government
• Politics of the United Kingdom
• Public Whip

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{Official website|http://www.mysociety.org/}}
• {{EW charity|1076346|mySociety}}
• [http://www.journalism.co.uk/news-features/freedom-of-information-act-journalists-open-data/s5/a549201/ Freedom of Information: Going beyond the scoop], Journalism.co.uk

Category:Companies based in the London Borough of Ealing

Category:Online companies of the United Kingdom

Category:Charities based in London

Category:Non-profit technology

Category:Politics and technology

Category:Crowdsourcing

Category:E-democracy

Category:Freedom of information activists

Category:Social networking services

Category:Open government