Alaveteli is

free and open source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

mySociety mySociety is a UK-based registered charity, previously named UK Citizens Online Democracy. It began as a UK-focused organisation with the aim of making online democracy tools for UK citizens. However, those tools were open source, so that th ...

to help citizens write freedom of Information requests and automatically publish any responses. Alaveteli is described as "a project to create a free, standard, internationalised platform for making Freedom of Information (FOI) requests". Alaveteli is funded by the

Open Society Institute Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...

and the Hivos Foundation. It started life as the software running

WhatDoTheyKnow WhatDoTheyKnow is a site by mySociety designed to help people in the United Kingdom make Freedom of information in the United Kingdom, Freedom of Information requests. It publishes both the requests and the authorities’ responses online, with ...

, a UK site that publishes responses to FOI requests. The original WhatDoTheyKnow code was written primarily by Francis Irving while working for mySociety. Alaveteli is named after Alaveteli in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

where Anders Chydenius who was an early campaigner 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, and regular conferences Alternative free and open source software that are used to operate FOI-request portals include Froide, whic
FragDenStaat.de
in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

an
FragDenStaat.at
in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

are based on, and MuckRock, 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/

References

{{reflist Freedom of information MySociety Free software programmed in Ruby Software using the GNU Affero General Public License