Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2008/11/26/mysociety_auction/
MySociety puts e-democracy up for sale
Political accountability on the block
Posted in Bootnotes, 26th November 2008 13:20 GMT
Digital democracy charidee mySociety* is flogging two places on its annual retreat to anyone who wants to know more about open source, government technology and access to data.
MySociety is responsible for the turbo-useful TheyWorkForYou, which allows us all to keep tabs on our MPs and saves El Reg a tedious daily drudge through parliamentary transcripts by offering lovely bespoke RSS feeds. This year it launched sister site WhatDoTheyKnow, which acts as a repository for Freedom of Information requests, annoying secretive bureaucrats everywhere.
Staff and volunteers meet once a year to discuss future ventures.
You'll need fairly deep pockets to get the inside track on 2009; the starting bid on eBay is a grand, but the tickets include travel from anywhere in the UK and two nights accommodation somewhere up north, yet to be decided. The retreat runs from January 9 to 11.
MySociety honcho Tom Steinberg said: "I think that there are plenty of senior people who would benefit a lot from two days soaking up the usability obsessed, citizen-obsessed, open sourcey, open data atmosphere that prevails when mySoc gets together."
Interested? Go here.
Note to commentards: yes, this is a shameless plug. Do something charitable and useful, and you might get one. ®
*Tim 2.0'Reilly calls mySociety's staff and volunteers "geniuses", apparently, but don't hold that against them.