FOI in Action: Tracking articles that reference requests made on Alaveteli platforms

[Gareth Rees]

Hey all,

Alaveteli 0.45.0.0 includes a nice feature that brings together all the Citations tracked against requests made on an Alaveteli.

I’ve recorded a quick little demo video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLTOinLMsb8

What are citations? Citations are a feature that allows site admins, pro users, and requesters to track links to articles where their ATI requests made on Alaveteli are referenced. For example, a news story that links back to data released on an Alaveteli.

Why track citations? Seeing how ATI can be used can be really inspiring for users. It may feel like all they’re doing is asking for a little information, but that information can sometimes lead to big changes. It’s also really useful for us as site operators to demonstrate impact for funding applications – having a long history of examples is always useful to show how our work connects to the wider world.

We’ve tracked quite a lot on WhatDoTheyKnow over the years, and it’s great to see other sites starting to collect them too (AskTheEU, Handlingar, Woo-Knop, Athro5A), and I know other sites have started using this feature and will get this page once upgraded to 0.45.0.0.

If you’ve been tracking these in a different way over the years– a spreadsheet for example – it would be really great to add these links and any future ones you find directly to your Alaveteli platform. It really helps us demonstrate the wider impact the ATI community has when we’re seeking funding.

Hope this is an interesting development!

Best,

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Gareth Rees