mySociety, technology to build collaborative societies

mySociety is a non-profit organization based in the UK and working with partners internationally, whose general goal is creating tools and mechanisms to ensure and maximize democratic accountability to give people the power to control and participate in the political agenda.

Thus, the entity develops platforms where content is provided by users, re-using that information to create a database that is useful to other members of society: citizens, public servants, policy makers, etc. All products created by mySociety are structured around three areas: democracy, freedom of information and better cities.

mySociety began in 2004 with a simple application, WriteToThem, which gives the user the opportunity to meet their political representatives and contact them after entering the zip code. However, one of the most successful products internationally, which has been replicated in different places thanks to its free software, is the FixMyStreet platform. Through this project the UK population can report on local problems affecting their city, especially related to the streets and public spaces. This service has also been adapted to mobile devices and it sends to public servants the incidents detected so they can find a solution.

Beyond the development of online tools and platforms, the institution regularly organizes events around the world to show the impact of civic technologies in society. This is the case of the TICTeC Conference, held last April in Barcelona. For two days, 140 attendees from academia, public and business sector, NGOs and educational institutions met to discuss ideas, present research and build a network of people interested in civic technology, through which citizens collaborate with governments and participate in the processes.

The civic technology movement is still relatively young, when it began mySociety priority was to build the digital tools that would bring about change and to make them effective and easy to use. A decade later, the company has already acquired enough experience and knowledge in the field and it focuses its efforts on a research program to analyze the real impact of the tools and applications in the real world. Thus, it collaborates with academic institutions, researchers and international partners to regularly publish open reports, available to any user on a wide range of topics, all related to civic technology and its impact.

In a participative government citizens can access to information about their city and work on improving their environment. Thanks to initiatives like mySociety increasingly administrations are more participatory and invite the public to collaborate in making certain decisions, not only through voting but through dialogue and consultation. A firm step towards an open and collaborative government where all stakeholder work towards the common good.