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Interesting. MySociety on the need for the government to figure out how to build a large-scale consultation system that works: http://www.mysociety.org/2009/01

Interesting. MySociety on the need for the government to figure out how to build a large-scale consultation system that works: http://www.mysociety.org/2009/01/07/top-5-internet-priorities-for-the-next-government-any-next-government/ http://www.mysociety.org/2009/01/07/top-5-internet-prioritie... MySociety.org on why it wants £1m: http://www.mysociety.org/2009/02/19/why-i-want-a-million-quid http://www.mysociety.org/2009/02/19/why-i-want-a-million-qui...

ig1 17y ago
I doubt MySociety is eligible. Tom Steinberg the founder of MySociety is a technology policy advisor for the Conservative Party - this would seem to be an obvious conflict of interests and a clear breach of anti-corruption laws (siphoning public money into a charity run by one of your advisors).
- handelaar 17y ago
  Tom's also advised the Labour Party. Should that make MySociety ineligible for any government grant or contract for all time?
  - ig1 17y ago
    I'm not an expert, but I believe the Labour Party approached MySociety for advice on a specific project that was related to their expertise. Tom acts an appointed general purpose advisor to the Tory party in a private capacity, which is substantially different. Consider this case: If a defence company CEO advised a political party on defence spending, and recommended they invest in particular types of projects that happened to be his company's expertise, and his company ended up wining the contracts. Would you be happy with this situation ? I'm not say Tom/mySociety are bad guys, far from it they are awesome guys and they've done great work. But we can't hold those we like to a lesser standard than those we dislike.
    - handelaar 17y ago
      In fact Tom helped with relevant parts of the last Labour election manifesto. And now he's been asked to assist the Tories with policy (unpaid). So I'm not really seeing the difference.
- cabalamat 17y ago
  MySociety have done a lot of good tools (see http://www.mysociety.org/projects/ http://www.mysociety.org/projects/ ). They'd be the obvious people to do somethnig like this.

ig1 17y ago

I doubt MySociety is eligible. Tom Steinberg the founder of MySociety is a technology policy advisor for the Conservative Party - this would seem to be an obvious conflict of interests and a clear breach of anti-corruption laws (siphoning public money into a charity run by one of your advisors).

handelaar 17y ago
Tom's also advised the Labour Party. Should that make MySociety ineligible for any government grant or contract for all time?
- ig1 17y ago
  I'm not an expert, but I believe the Labour Party approached MySociety for advice on a specific project that was related to their expertise. Tom acts an appointed general purpose advisor to the Tory party in a private capacity, which is substantially different. Consider this case: If a defence company CEO advised a political party on defence spending, and recommended they invest in particular types of projects that happened to be his company's expertise, and his company ended up wining the contracts. Would you be happy with this situation ? I'm not say Tom/mySociety are bad guys, far from it they are awesome guys and they've done great work. But we can't hold those we like to a lesser standard than those we dislike.
  - handelaar 17y ago
    In fact Tom helped with relevant parts of the last Labour election manifesto. And now he's been asked to assist the Tories with policy (unpaid). So I'm not really seeing the difference.
cabalamat 17y ago
MySociety have done a lot of good tools (see http://www.mysociety.org/projects/ http://www.mysociety.org/projects/ ). They'd be the obvious people to do somethnig like this.