mySociety is a brilliant operator so we reproduce their first e-newsletter in full

From: Tom Steinberg <tom@mysociety.org>
Date: Fri, May 15, 2009 at 8:48 AM
Subject: [mySociety:news] mySociety Newsletter No 1: Sparing No Expenses
To: news@lists.mysociety.org

mySociety Newsletter No 1
14th May 2009

   - Welcome to our newsletter!
   - MPs’ expenses
   - Links we think you’ll like

What’s it all about?

Blimey! Nearly 4,000 people have signed up to get news from
mySociety<http://www.mysociety.org>via email, so we’re going to start
sending out a regular newsletter. Please
get in touch via tom@mysociety.org if you have something interesting you
want us to share with everyone.

Anecdata

MPs’ expenses

You may have seen a few months ago that mySociety led the campaign to stop
MPs concealing their expenses by changing the Freedom of Information
Act<http://www.mysociety.org/2009/01/17/6-days-to-stop-mps-concealing-their-expenses/>.
And we won, which was nice.

After all the fuss that has since come about, we’d just like to observe one
thing: if the information hadn’t got out, the expenses system wouldn’t now
be half-way through reform, and the tax payer wouldn’t be seeing money
refunded direct from MPs. Accountability makes government
better<http://www.mysociety.org/2009/05/15/mps-expenses-the-best-example-yet-of-why-foi-is-a-good-law/>
.

*Gurkhas*

Over 6000 messages about Gurkhas were sent via WriteToThem.com over the last
few weeks, contributing to the insurmountable
pressure<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8025658.stm> seen
in Westminster last week.

Got something you want to say to your MP? Get in touch with your MP, MEPs
and local councillors via WriteToThem.com – it’s easy to use and totally
free of charge.

*What do Private Eye, the Guardian and the FT have in common?*

They’ve all<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/945bc8d0-ee53-11dd-b791-0000779fd2ac,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F945bc8d0-ee53-11dd-b791-0000779fd2ac.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Findusdelta.co.uk%2Fstory%2Fnote_financial_times_readers%2F3353&nclick_check=1>
published<http://www.private-eye.co.uk/sections.php?section_link=in_the_back&issue=1235>
articles<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2008/dec/08/freedomofinformation-bbc>covering
Freedom of Information requests made by normal users via
WhatDoTheyKnow.com <http://whatdotheyknow.com/>, mySociety’s newest core
site. Your request could be next!

Some things we’re working on at the moment

   - Re-designing TheyWorkForYou.com – fresh new look coming soon
   - Relaunching HassleMe.co.uk – because your mother can’t nag you about
   everything
   - Adding lots of historic information to TheyWorkForYou.com (funded by
   the Ministry of Justice)
    – A Really Great Secret Project that uses that scenicness data we’ve
   been gathering <http://scenic.mysociety.org> and which we think you’re
   going to Quite Like

Little-known fact:  mySociety people spend more than half their time working
on commercial projects for clients like the BBC, Google and many others, to
raise money for the charity.  *If you*’*ve got a problem, and* no one else
can help… you know where to find us <http://www.mysociety.org/services/>.

Links We Think You’ll Like

   - *Spread the leafleting love*: Some
good<http://www.freesteel.co.uk/wpblog/>
   friends <http://memespring.co.uk> of mySociety started an election
   leaflet website called The Straight Choice <http://thestraightchoice.org>.
   If any leaflets land on your door, *please *upload a picture to their
   database. With a good database of election leaflets we’ll all be able to
   keep local politicians accountable for their promises better than ever
   before.
    – mySociety’s *Fun Thing to Try of the Month*: Have a go at Scenic Or
   Not <http://scenic.mysociety.org> and help us complete the first ever
   scenicness map of the whole of Great Britain. 74.67% is already complete!
   - *mySociety’s Puzzler of the Month: mySoc Director Tom Steinberg is off
   to give evidence to the inquiry into MPs’ expenses in a couple of weeks.
   What should he say? Answers on an email to tom@mysociety.org or a tweet
   to @mysociety <http://twitter.com/mysociety> please.*
   - *mySociety’s Immature Snickering at Government IT problem of the Month*:
   Kent Primary School has a better Google ranking for ‘British Bank
   Holidays’<http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=british+bank+holidays&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&sourceid=Mozilla-search&start=0>than
multi-million pound usability car-crash
   DirectGov <http://direct.gov.uk>. That’s bottom-up innovation.

And finally…

   - If you have any stories you’d like to share about getting things done
   using mySociety’s sites, please let us know <tom@mysociety.org>.

   - If you liked this newsletter, please tell your friends. They can sign
   up here <http://goog_1242379032597>
<http://goog_1242379032597><https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/news>and
we promise never to give or sell their email address to anyone.

   - If you like what mySociety does, please hire
us<http://www.mysociety.org/services/>or consider making a
   *regular donation <http://www.mysociety.org/donate/>*. We can only carry
   on making shiny and useful websites through donations and commercial work
   from lovely people like you.

Until next time,

– the mySociety team <http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommymartin/3191647033/>

Last tidbit: Got a G1 mobile phone? Check out the brand new ‘Fix My Street’
app on the Market.

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