[open-government] Froide and Alaveteli

Fri Apr 5 20:09:47 UTC 2013

Hi James,

Most obvious difference is technical: Ruby on Rails and Python/Django. Here are some more points.

While Alaveteli is focussing on the common denominator and keeping it true to the very simple concept still visible in WhatDoTheyKnow, Froide has been built with the goal of pushing FOI forward in a difficult (multiple laws in multiple jurisdictions), digitally-hostile (replies by postal mail, non-publishable responses) and privacy-aware (anonymous requests, online redaction of responses) environment like Germany.

Alaveteli has the bigger community around the world and is available in more languages besides English. Froide has broader overall feature set and a nicer admin interface (last time I checked). Both platforms are internationalized, written in English and can be themed and customised.

In my opinion the choice depends on whether the person who is going to take care of the platform is a Rubyist or a Pythonista and whether you are fine with the plain FOI functionality or whether and how much you need to adapt it.

Cheers
Stefan

On 04.04.2013, at 19:18 , James McKinney <james at opennorth.ca> wrote:

> Thanks for the info. I had clicked the first link, which just went to the docs.
> 
> I'm not clear on how to comment on the blog, so cc'ing Stefan to find out how Froide compares to Alaveteli, and when it would make sense to use one and not the other?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> James
> 
> On 2013-04-04, at 1:06 PM, Rufus Pollock wrote:
> 
>> Hi James,
>> 
>> This segment in the newsletter was highlighting a community project.
>> If you haven't already do check out the original blog post which the
>> newsletter referenced as that gives additional context:
>> 
>> http://blog.okfn.org/2013/03/15/announcing-v3-0-of-froide-the-open-source-python-based-freedom-of-information-platform/
>> 
>> To add a bit more info here:
>> 
>> - Froide was created by Stefan Wehrmeyer working in his spare time as
>> community member of Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. As explained in
>> the post (written by Stefan) Froide originated in early 2011 and was
>> inspired by What Do They Know site in the UK (at this point, I
>> believe, Alavatelli did not exist).
>> 
>> - I think Froide has long existed in a form that was usable by others
>> but its primary use has been for FragDenStaat in Germany. From the
>> post I gather it has recently been used in Austria too.
>> 
>> - In terms of differences with Alavatelli I must confess myself not an
>> expert here. Possibly worth looking further into the relevant docs etc
>> - maybe also get in touch with the various folks involved :-)
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Rufus
>> 
>> On 4 April 2013 15:19, James McKinney <james at opennorth.ca> wrote:
>>> The latest OKF newsletter writes:
>>> 
>>>> Build your own FOI portal with Froide! The open-source, Python-based Freedom of Information platform which powers the German and Austrian instances of FragDenStaat, was released in version 3.0 this month.
>>> 
>>> I wasn't previously aware of Froide attempting to achieve re-use outside FragDenStaat. If that's the goal, it would be helpful to understand how Froide differs from Alaveteli. Alaveteli has been used by 10 other groups and is well-supported by mySociety, with regular bug fixes and improvements. Right now, it's not clear why one would choose Froide over Alaveteli.
>>> 
>>> Thanks for clarifications,
>>> 
>>> James
>>> 
>>> 
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> 