mySociety’s WhatDoTheyKnow.com site is one of the big success stories of the UK FOI Act. The site allows the public (and others) to publish their FOI requests and responses and now accounts for 10 % of all requests made (see mySociety’s evidence to Parliament for the Justice Select Committee’s post-legislative scrutiny of FOI).
This new study by Savita Bailur and Tom Longley looks at the 27 similar sites around the world that use mySociety’s model and what effect they have had-see the literature review, assessment and conclusions.
See for example
- Ask Africa (South Africa’s FOI equivalent the PAIA)
- Ask the EU (EU access to information)
- http://www.tuderechoasaber.es/ (Spain’s new FOI site)
- Ask the Gov (Uganda’s Access to Information site)
There are also other useful FOI sites like the EU ‘wobbing’ site here (you’ll have to click on the link to find out what wobbing is…)
