UK: TheyWorkForYou

TheyWorkForYou

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

1. Implementation procedure

Name of the institution running website/application:MySociety
Type of the institution running website/application:

an implementation carried out by a non-governmental institution or a private entity

Source of financing:

private resources – foundations, associations

Year of launching the website/application: 2006
Service's/application's rating:

2. Implementation's characteristics

TheyWorkForYou is a Web service designed for monitoring the activity of members of the Parliament of Great Britain, the Parliament of Scotland and the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is also planned to include information on the members of the National Assembly for Wales, yet no works towards that are being carried out at the moment.

The TheyWorkForYou service uses data from various sources. The first are reports on the agendas of the Parliaments of Great Britain and Scotland. The second –statistic data on the carried out votes collected by The Public Whip (http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/) portal.

Every MP has his/her profile in the service featuring contact information and an overview of his/her political activity (participating in debates and votes, filing questions, activity statistics). Showing tendencies of decisions based on one’s votes is a particularly interesting solution. To this end, the service’s authors have chosen a couple of themes and, based on these areas, prepared detailed reports on the held votes. The service also allows for the so-called horizontal analysis of MPs’ activity based on the debates held in the Parliament, the questions asked and the answers provided, as well as the work of expert committees on bills.

There are three possible ways of finding a give MP: with the use of the text browser, thanks to the alphabetical list of the MPs and by election districts, after entering one’s postal code.

The portal also allows for the interaction with users. The activity of the logged-in users entails contact with the chosen MPs and adding links and sources to the available information. Any type of activity undertaken within the service must be in keeping with the established rules. Finally, users can subscribe to notifications on the actions undertaken by chosen MPs and the activities performed by them on the Parliament’s forum.

The project is integrated to Facebook and Twitter.

3. Detailed description categories

Type of the service's/application user:
  • G2C: citizens
The application service's usage area:
  • participation and opinions ("we inform and talk")
A communication - an indication of all the media and dissemination
  • Independent website dedicated to the application / solution eGov
Access to the full functionality of the service
  1. Access to the service requires you to register your account on the site - registration requires a specific data
    • Name
    • Surname
    • email adress
    • password
Tracking of user's activity:
  • verification via a link sent to your email
The service's/application's usage areas
  1. Open Data
Forms of interaction with users:
  1. Search engine
  2. Comments
Service's/Application's integration to social networking sites
  • Yes
Availability of service/application use instruction
Is the connection encrypted?
  • No

4. Service's/Application's integration with social networking sites

As for: 3.02.2015
Facebook number of fans: 1068
Twitter number of followers: 1346, number of tweets: 585

5. Screen gallery

Homepage <<Strona główna serwisu>>

Browser of members of legislative bodies <<Wyszukiwarka członków organów ustawodawczych >>

Browser of members of legislative bodies <<Wyszukiwarka członków organów ustawodawczych >>

Overview of debates held on the forum of legislative institutions <<Wykaz debat prowadzonych na forum instytucji ustawodawczych >>

Overview of the questions asked and answers given on the forum of legislative institutions <<Wykaz pytań i odpowiedzi udzielanych na forum instytucji ustawodawczych >>

List of the bills forming part of the agendas of the committee and legislative institutions <<Wykaz projektów ustaw poddanych pod prace komisji i obrady instytucji ustawodawczych.>>

Agenda <<Kalendarz prac>>

The page-profile of an MP featuring contact information and the possibility of receiving email updates on the MP’s activity << Strona – profil osobowy członka parlamentu wraz z danymi kontaktowymi oraz możliwością zapisu subskrypcji na temat aktywności parlamentarzysty >>

An account of the MP’s activity – votes, recent activities, the MP’s profile, activity statistics <<Zestawienie aktywności parlamentarzysty – głosowania, ostatnie aktywności, profil parlamentarzysty, statystyki aktywności.>>

Statistics on a given MP’s votes according to various types of issues – outlining the main tendencies in terms of the MP’s decisions on specific issues <<Statystyki głosowań parlamentarzysty w ujęciu problemowym – określenie tendencji decyzyjnych parlamentarzysty w poszczególnych kwestiach merytorycznych >>

Information on the MP’s participation in the debate <<Informacja na temat udziału parlamentarzysty w debacie.>>

The MP’s comments as part of the whole debate <<Wypowiedź parlamentarzysty w całościowym ujęciu debaty.>>

Searching the base of MPs – search results after entering a postal code <<Przeszukiwanie bazy parlamentarzystów – wynik wyszukiwania po wpisaniu kodu pocztowego >>

The page of a service’s user <<Strona użytkownika serwisu >>