Hello all, Just letting you see the mySociety news letter, in case you're not subscribed to [email protected].
Note the pub evening, on short notice, tomorrow. best, Tom ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tom Steinberg <[email protected]> Date: 2009/8/31 Subject: mySociety Newsletter 3 - RIP Angie To: [email protected] mySociety Newsletter No 3 31st August 2009 - A sad month - RIP Angie - Historic Hansard - Become a TheyWorkForYou Patron - Come to the pub with us In Memoriam Angie Martin- 1974-2009 Very few people who have ever lived are good enough programmers to become part of the mySociety core team. Angie Ahl<http://www.mysociety.org/2009/03/24/ada-lovelace-day-angie-ahl/>, later Angie Martin, was one of them. Fighting cancer from months after we hired her at the end of 2007, she died in late July<http://www.mysociety.org/2009/07/20/rip-angie-ahl-1974-2009/>, with her husband and mySociety volunteer Tommy at her side. Angie was one of us, believed in the power of the Internet to help and empower people, and is the second person<http://www.mysociety.org/2007/03/05/rip-chris-lightfoot-1978-to-2007/>we have lost grotesquely young. It has been a very tough time for all who knew or worked with her. Read Hansard Back to 1935 Thanks to funding from the Ministry of Justice, and to some very hard work by core developer Matthew Somerville <http://www.dracos.co.uk> TheyWorkForYou <http://TheyWorkForYou.com> now contains House of Commons debate coverage back from the 2001 general election to 1935. This means no matter who your MP is, or how long they've been an MP you can now read everything they've ever said on the floor of the House. So what do we say to people who say the public aren't interested in what goes on in Parliament? *We shall fight them on the beaches<http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1940-06-04a.787.0> *. Call for Proposals 2009 Have you wanted mySociety <http://mysociety.org> to build a site that we don't currently run? Or have you thought "They'd do much better if this site did something different". If so, you're in luck: mySociety believes that to get the best ideas for impactful civic websites we need to ask as many people as possible what we should do. We've built a really simple website<http://www.mysociety.org/2009/08/06/mysociety-call-for-proposals-2009/>that you can type your idea in to in just a few minutes, and which lets you read what other people have submitted <http://tinyurl.com/od63ab>. We'll pick a winner later in the year. So, read the guidelines<http://www.mysociety.org/2009/08/06/mysociety-call-for-proposals-2009/>, and then have a go - there are already well over 100 submissions. Become a TheyWorkForYou Patron *We're Half Way There!* 125 people have now pledged to become TheyWorkForYou patrons <http://www.pledgebank.com/twfypatrons>, but we need 250 for our pledge drive to be a success. We're currently hiring for someone to make the vote analysis section much better, and we're working on adding Future Business and Bills. To do this we need all the support we can get to keep TheyWorkForYou running and improving. It's just £5 a month to help around a quarter million people a month to keep tabs on their MPs. With your help we can keep improving and growing the site to make it something that everyone in the country knows is there to help *them*. Anecdata The Great Rubber Band Scandal WhatDoTheyKnow user Steve Woods has found out how many rubber bands<http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/elastic_bands#incoming-12484>the post office is using. Blimey - that is a *lot* of rubber bands. *The Highways Agency spends over £3m<http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/cost_of_placing_statutory_notice>placing statutory notices in papers * We reckon they could be put online where more people could find them much more easily for a lot less than that. *Don't Park Your Car in Livery Street Car Park, Birmingham* Because 3,995<http://rasga.co.uk/2009/07/28/the-value-of-data-a-tale-of-birmingham-parking-tickets/>parking tickets were awarded there last year. Links We Think You'll Like - ** - *Lovely new TheyWorkForYou <http://theyworkforyou.com> design from Richard Pope <http://www.thestraightchoice.org/>, and new logo from volunteer Joe Lanman* - Explore some US government data in a novel way: http://www.thisweknow.org/ - ** - *Read some proposals for new sites made by people like you: * http://tinyurl.com/od63ab - *Pledgebank is taking part in* Mozilla Service Week<http://mozillaservice.org/home/index/en_US> - *Newsflash: mySociety London Pub evening, tomorrow 1st September from 6pm - here <http://www.fancyapint.com/pubs/pub1564.html> (go right through to the back).* And finally... - If you have any stories you'd like to share about getting things done using mySociety's sites, or anything interesting you find in the new historic Hansard data, please let us know <[email protected]>. - If you liked this newsletter, please tell your friends. They can sign up here <https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/news>and we promise never to give or sell their email address to anyone. Until next time, -- the mySociety team <http://www.flickr.com/photos/manarh/3308168248/>
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