Alaveteli Explained

Alaveteli
Programming Language:	Ruby on Rails
License:	AGPLv3^[1]

Alaveteli is free and open source software by mySociety to help citizens write freedom of Information requests and automatically publish any responses.^[2]

Alaveteli is described as "a project to create a free, standard, internationalised platform for making Freedom of Information (FOI) requests".^{[3] [4]} Alaveteli is funded by the Open Society Institute and the Hivos Foundation.^[5]

It started life as the software running WhatDoTheyKnow, a UK site that publishes responses to FOI requests. The original WhatDoTheyKnow code was written primarily by Francis Irving while working for mySociety.^[6] Alaveteli is named after Alaveteli in Finland where Anders Chydenius who was an early campaigner^[7] for Freedom of Information worked as a curate. Alaveteli is the name for the software rather than a public facing website or brand.

People who run sites on the Alaveteli platform are also invited to become part of a community, with support and tips shared via a message board,^[8] and regular conferences^[9]

Alternative free and open source software that are used to operate FOI-request portals include Froide, which^[10] FragDenStaat.de in Germany and FragDenStaat.at in Austria are based on, and MuckRock,^[11] which is used for MuckRock and FOIA Machine in the United States.

Sites running Alaveteli

• Australia – https://www.righttoknow.org.au
• Belgium – https://transparencia.be/
• Bosnia – https://web.archive.org/web/20170925022926/http://pravodaznam.ba/
• Brazil – http://www.queremossaber.org.br
• Congo (DRC) – http://www.tunabakonzi.org/
• Croatia – https://imamopravoznati.org/
• Czech Republic – https://www.infoprovsechny.cz/
• European Union – https://www.asktheeu.org/
• France – https://madada.fr/
• Hong Kong – https://accessinfo.hk/
• Hungary – https://www.kimittud.hu/
• Israel – https://web.archive.org/web/20140408222116/http://www.askdata.org.il/
• Italy – Chiedi
• Kosovo – https://archive.today/20130415060831/http://www.informatazyrtare.org/
• Liberia – http://infolib.org.lr/
• Macedonia – http://www.slobodenpristap.mk/
• Malaysia – https://web.archive.org/web/20160817111902/http://foi.sinarproject.org/
• Moldova - https://vreauinfo.md
• Nepal – https://asknepal.info/
• New Zealand – http://fyi.org.nz
• Nicaragua – https://derechoapreguntar.org/
• Norway – https://www.mimesbronn.no/
• Paraguay – https://web.archive.org/web/20161016103538/https://www.queremosaber.org.py/
• Romania – https://web.archive.org/web/20161014060621/https://nuvasuparati.info/
• Rwanda – https://sobanukirwa.rw/
• Serbia – https://archive.today/20140615094118/http://www.daznamosvi.rs/
• Spain – http://tuderechoasaber.es
• Sweden – http://fragastaten.se/
• Ukraine – https://dostup.pravda.com.ua/
• United Kingdom – https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/
• Uganda – http://askyourgov.ug/
• Uruguay – http://www.quesabes.org/

Notes and References

1. Web site: Alaveteli – GitHub. .
2. Web site: About « Alaveteli – international Right to Know software . Alaveteli.org . 2012-05-27.
3. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/credits Credits
4. Web site: Alaveteli.
5. Web site: Funding / mySociety.
6. Web site: About . WhatDoTheyKnow . 2012-05-27.
7. https://web.archive.org/web/20120305004359/http://www.access-info.org/documents/Access_Docs/Thinking/Get_Connected/worlds_first_foia.pdf The World's First Freedom of Information Act
8. Web site: Google Groups.
9. Web site: AlaveteliCon 2015 / mySociety.
10. Web site: stefanw/froide. GitHub. 2016-10-28.
11. Web site: MuckRock/muckrock. GitHub. en. 2017-03-23.