Thanks Francis for clearing that up. 

 
Support solar power in the developing world.
http://www.everyclick.com/solaraid
http://www.solar-aid.org/






________________________________
From: Francis Irving <[email protected]>
To: "mySociety public, general purpose discussion list" 
<[email protected]>
Sent: Mon, 5 April, 2010 12:34:59
Subject: Re: [mySociety:public] FOI website

It isn't a goal of WhatDoTheyKnow to become a comprehensive archive of
all FOI requests and responses.

Partly, I consider that an unhelpful goal, because I don't think all
public sector information should be structured in that way. It should
be proactively published in a more useful manner by authorities.

Others (Julian Todd) have asked for WhatDoTheyKnow to be a search
engine for other FOI requests. I can see that would be a valuable
website in and of itself - something which knew where public
authorities published FOI responses and helped search it.

However, all of these would be a distraction from the simplicity and
authority of the existing site. By "authority" here I mean that we can
guarantee the responses are from the bodies we say they are from, and
that we are publishing a complete correspondence archive, not just
publishing responses.

I think the search engine aspect could be a good thing. But it would
be really hard to beat a "site:.gov.uk" search on Google.

Meanwhile, feel free to make requests such as you describe below on
WhatDoTheyKnow, or duplicate requests that the Tax Payers' Alliance
have already made.

Francis

On Sun, Apr 04, 2010 at 10:10:30PM +0100, Nick Leaton wrote:
> Perhaps one option is this.
> 
> 1. whatdothey know submits a generic request to all known FOI agencies
> asking what FOI requests they have received.
> 2. once that is answered, submit separate requests for each of the answers
> as an FOI request.
> 
> Nick
> 
> On Sun, Apr 4, 2010 at 10:00 PM, Matthew Somerville
> <[email protected]>wrote:
> 
> > Abdul Hai wrote:
> >
> >> I meant would it be possible to get information which other people have
> >> obtained under FOI's to be listed on the site?
> >>
> >
> > No; that question is answered for you on the page Alex linked to:
> >  http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/about#offsite
> >
> > ATB,
> > Matthew
> >
> >  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> *From:* Alex Skene <[email protected]>
> >>
> >> *To:* "mySociety public, general purpose discussion list" <
> >> [email protected]>
> >> *Sent:* Sun, 4 April, 2010 19:51:47
> >> *Subject:* Re: [mySociety:public] FOI website
> >>
> >> Hi Abdul
> >>
> >> The site is designed to help anyone request info from public
> >> authorities that is not already in the public domain.
> >>
> >> There's more detailed info on how it works here -
> >> <http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/about>
> >>
> >> If you have any further questions, probably best to ask us off-list -
> >> team [at] whatdotheyknow.com
> >>
> >> Kind regards
> >> Alex - WhatDoTheyKnow.com volunteer
> >> [writing from my personal email address]
> >>
> >>
> >> On 3 April 2010 21:35, Abdul Hai <[email protected] <mailto:
> >> [email protected]>> wrote:
> >>  > Thanks Paul I had no idea this existed.
> >>  >
> >>  > Are they going to be getting information from third parties which they
> >> have?
> >>  >
> >>  > Support solar power in the developing world.
> >>  > http://www.everyclick.com/solaraid
> >>  > http://www.solar-aid.org/
> >>  >
> >>  >
> >>  >
> >>  > ________________________________
> >>  > From: Paul Waring <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
> >>
> >>  > To: "mySociety public, general purpose discussion list"
> >>  > <[email protected] <mailto:
> >> [email protected]>>
> >>
> >>  > Sent: Sat, 3 April, 2010 21:16:49
> >>  > Subject: Re: [mySociety:public] FOI website
> >>  >
> >>  > Abdul Hai wrote:
> >>  >> I think that sometime ago there was talk of mysociety creating a
> >> website
> >>  >> with copies of all the FOI requests on it. What happened to it?
> >>  >
> >>  > Do you mean WhatDoTheKnow?
> >>  >
> >>  > http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/
> >>  >
> >>  > It archives all FOI requests made through it, though it doesn't include
> >>  > requests made through other routes.
> >>  >
> >>  > Paul
> >>  >
> >>  > -- Paul Waring
> >>  > http://www.pwaring.com
> >>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Mailing list [email protected]
> > Archive, settings, or unsubscribe:
> > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Nick

> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list [email protected]
> Archive, settings, or unsubscribe:
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-- 
Help beat party propaganda at the next election - www.democracyclub.org.uk

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