How easy is it to change the world via the internet? 10 years ago a group of developers decided to find out.
This small, merry band of activists got together and formed what would go on to become mySociety, a politically neutral group set up to explore the democratic potential of the internet.
mySociety is the ‘e-democracy’ arm of the UK Citizen’s Online Democracy with the goal of making websites and online services for communities to have their say and make changes in society; even to the political process itself.
The team currently have around 15 projects on the go, both charitable and commercial, and operate as a “viral organisation”. Viral how?
Well, they recognised that open source would be the best way to increase the impact of their work so, by building their projects in the public sphere, like-minded campaigners around the world could use them to do similar things in their own countries.
While the charity has grown rapidly over the years, with funding from the likes of Google.org, the Omidyar Network, the Knight Foundation and the Indigo Trust, it’s the commercial subsidiary which really helps to provide a sustainable source of funding to back this up, something which Tom Steinberg, founder and director of mySociety, was initially reticent about.
“It has been a learning experience enhanced by having some of the most driven, self-critical and talented developers in the country working on simple ideas that can genuinely help people”
He says: “I would have never have guessed that for-profit companies were so integral for a company that’s trying to do good. If I was setting up now, I’d approach the kinds of organisations that I didn’t when we started because I thought they were evil, to help fund our projects.”
Sites like WhatDoTheyKnow for Councils help bring in the cash to facilitate projects like WhatDoTheyKnow.com, which has become the place to file and search for Freedom of Information Requests (FOI) in the UK. And FixMyStreet.com, which enables people to inform their council about issues such as graffiti, fly tipping or faulty street lighting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W6D8ZehqhU
Both these not-for-profit projects have been customised for local governments and beyond. For instance, they’ve recently started work on their first government-sponsored FOI site in Panama. But, for Ben, their biggest success has been closer to home:
“I think our biggest success was being commissioned by UK parliament last winter to conduct a strategic review of their services, covering everything from their management and governance structures to an analysis of specific sites and services.
“As an organisation who have been thought of as a group of geeks causing trouble for politicians in the past, I saw this as a ‘coming of age’ and a real vote of confidence in our ability and experience from those who we entrust to guard our democracy.”
“As an organisation who have been thought of as a group of geeks causing trouble for politicians in the past, this was a ‘coming of age’”
Their growth over the last 10 years is mightily impressive but mySociety is not stopping there, as Ben continues: “Right now we’re focusing on a three pronged strategy which breaks down as: Internationalisation; i.e. creating platforms that underpin our most successful sites and helping organisations overseas to create instances in their own territories.
“Then sustainability, which means creating productised versions of our own sites alongside bespoke web development. And finally, building components which can be combined to create sites and services of your own.”
Something Ben has found as the organisation has continued to expand is that individuals working together can make a difference: “It has been a learning experience enhanced by having some of the most driven, self-critical and talented developers in the country working on simple ideas that can genuinely help people.”
And it’s solely down to these volunteers and community-minded people that they are able to make a difference. If this sounds like something you that’s up your street, you can get involved too! There are three ways you could do this:
- Become a volunteer and help them administrate some of the biggest civic sites in the UK
- Contribute to their open source codebases on github
- Run one of their projects in your own country, city, county, town or village
Have you been waiting to change your world for the better? Here’s your chance!
Thanks to Ben and Tom for taking the time to speak to us. You can give them a Twitter follow here and they’ll also be taking part in the Bath Digital Festival if you want to meet them in the flesh. And, as ever, for all South West tech news, follow us too.
