[okfn-discuss] RFI: OKF accounts with the UK government

Thu Jul 21 13:32:32 UTC 2011

On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 3:51 PM, Peter Murray-Rust <pm286 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> This suggests that WDTK adds some bodies without their consent or knowledge.

That part is true of every body on the site.

> Does that not mean there is potential tension when they get requests (I
> noted one where the requester had severely taken the body to task for not
> replying in the required time (which was not appropriate).

Yes. We do make a note on the page for the body that they're not
subject to the law, and so you can't do things like that, but
sometimes people will make mistakes like this anyway.

> I have noted a number of bodies with Royal Charters, instantiation as a
> result of Government acts, etc.   There are seen by many as "publicly funded
> bodies" in spirit if not in law.

If there are any you think should be added to the site, please email
team at whatdotheyknow.com about them.

> WDTK is specifically British (UK? English?) . OKF might fall outside this.

WDTK is currently only for the UK (plus a few cross-border
institutions in Ireland), although there are a variety of parallel
sites currently in development internationally using our codebase
(alaveteli.org) including one for the EU institutions. However, AIUI
OKF is a UK-based organisation, no?

> I think it's a nice idea, not sure how it works in practice.

I'm not sure either. Just throwing it out there in case someone wants
to explore it further.

Tony