mySociety is a charity and we make tech that helps you change the world for the better.
Tune in to learn the latest on our work in Democracy, Transparency, Community and Climate.
FOI Fest lightning talk: Carole Ewart, Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland
In the final session of the day, Carole Ewart, Director at the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland (CFOIS) gave a five-minute rundown of the state of FOI as they are experiencing it.
Please fill in our short survey to help us understand more about why and how you listen!
Transcript
0:00 [Gavin Freeguard]: Welcome to FOI Fest 2026!
0:04 [Carole Ewart]: It’s good to talk to you all today. I’m conscious that people will want to get to the pub, so I have five minutes to be short and snappy.
0:12 My lightning talk is in three parts. First of all, the work that the Campaign For Freedom of Information does with requesters, obviously, because we’ve got small resources, that’s not a huge proportion. As a campaigning organisation, we use FOI, of course, but also as a strategic operator in public policy. (more…)
15 Jun 2026
FOI Fest skills session #2: Q&A
Do FOI requests made on WhatDoTheyKnow get better results than those made directly?
Can you make an FOI request via social media?
These and other great questions from the audience were answered by Maurice Frankel of the Campaign for FOI; journalist and FOI expert Martin Rosenbaum; and mySociety’s Gareth Rees & Julia Cushion at FOI Fest.
Please fill in our short survey to help us understand more about why and how you listen!
Transcript
0:00 [Gavin Freeguard]: Welcome to FOI Fest 2026! Let’s start with one online, which is to you, Martin, which is, do you make requests publicly on WhatDoTheyKnow, or mostly private?
0:15 [Martin Rosenbaum]: So I always make my requests privately rather than use WhatDoTheyKnow, because I like to have my own complete personal control over the process.
0:26 I have to say, I do think WhatDoTheyKnow is a wonderful thing. It’s a great resource. I look at it all the time, and it’s very, very useful from the point of view of seeing what requests have been answered already. (more…)
8 Jun 2026
FOI Fest skills session: WhatDoTheyKnow and Alaveteli
mySociety’s own Julia Cushion and Gareth Rees talk us through the basic principles of our FOI website WhatDoTheyKnow, and the open codebase that allows others to run similar websites around the world, Alaveteli – all in ten minutes.
If you would prefer to watch this session as a video, you can do so here.
Sign up for our newsletter or drop us a line.
Please fill in our short survey to help us understand more about why and how you listen!
Transcript
0:00
[Gavin Freeguard:] Welcome to FOI Fest 2026!
0:04
[Julia Cushion:] We are from mySociety, makers of WhatDoTheyKnow, but actually wanted to start us today thinking about the code that is behind WhatDoTheyKnow, which we call Alaveteli, and reminding everybody that that is an open source codebase, which means that anybody around the world can run their own Freedom of Information website, and lots of people do. (more…)
Who has been a guest on mySociety
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Dr Ben Worthy
Alex
Julia
Contact mySociety
Guest appearances
Books guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of mySociety?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
