Category Archives: Projects

Why we think that Freedom of Information should be easy

By Matthew Landauer | Published: November 28, 2012

In the lead up to the launch of Right To Know, we organised an all weekend Hack[s]fest event for which we asked journalists, activists and software developers interested in Freedom of Information to come along and work together for the final push. As if writing software and making freedom of information requests wasn’t enough, volunteer […]

Also posted in RightToKnow.org.au | 1 Response

You have the Right To Know

By Matthew Landauer | Published: November 28, 2012

Whether you are an octogenarian human rights activist, a working mother, a twenty something surfer or still at school, the government undoubtedly has information that is useful to you and many people like you who share your interests. But am I allowed to access it? Yes! 30 years ago Australia enacted a law which changed […]

Also posted in Announcement, RightToKnow.org.au | Leave a comment

You’re invited to our Freedom of Information Hack[s]fest

By Henare Degan | Published: November 5, 2012

As you may have heard, the OpenAustralia Foundation is really close to launching a new site that makes Australian Freedom of Information requests really straightforward for ordinary people. The site also opens up the whole process of making Freedom of Information requests by making the whole paper (or rather email) trail of request and responses […]

Also posted in Announcement, Development, RightToKnow.org.au | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Seeds of Parliamentary support to bring NSW Hansard on to OpenAustralia.org

By Matthew Landauer | Published: October 17, 2012

Since we started OpenAustralia we’ve wanted to republish not only the Federal but also State and Territory Parliaments on Openaustralia.org. Bizarrely (to us) its been much harder to get the States on board with this than our own Federal Government; while there remain challenges ahead we’re quietly confident. It’s the twenty first century after all, […]

Also posted in OpenAustralia Foundation, OpenAustralia.org | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Responses

What’s new with PlanningAlerts, part 2

By Matthew Landauer | Published: September 10, 2012

In part one, we covered some of the new features that we’ve added in the last couple of months. Next, we’ll cover the myriad of improvements, some small, some large, that we’ve made to existing features. Most of these, as a normal person using the site, individually you might never notice the difference. Small aesthetic […]

Also posted in Development, PlanningAlerts.org.au | Leave a comment

What’s new with PlanningAlerts, part 1

By Matthew Landauer | Published: September 5, 2012

The last couple of months have seen a mammoth development effort on PlanningAlerts. Throughout that time we’ve posted regular updates on the PlanningAlerts Twitter feed. Follow us there if you’re interested in the absolute latest and greatest. The purpose of this post is to bring together and summarise those changes, to make it easier to […]

Also posted in Development, PlanningAlerts.org.au | 2 Responses

And we’re back

By Kat Szuminska | Published: August 27, 2012

It’s been a quiet kind of year for the OpenAustralia Foundation. While we’ve seen maintenance work continue quietly in the background, upgraded OpenAustralia.org to catch up with changes at the official Federal parliamentary website aph.gov.au, ran Election Leaflets for the 2012 Queensland State Election, made Github our primary code host so we can accept more […]

Also posted in Announcement, ElectionLeaflets.org.au, OpenAustralia Foundation, OpenAustralia.org, PlanningAlerts.org.au | Leave a comment

Little OpenAustralia Hackfest, Big Results

By Henare Degan | Published: September 15, 2011

Cross-posted on the Official Google Australia Blog. A couple of weeks ago we at the OpenAustralia Foundation – Australia’s open data, open government and civic hacking charity – asked if anyone wanted to join three of our volunteers at Google Sydney for a hackfest. The request was deliberately casual as we just wanted have a […]

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PlanningAlerts for my mum (and the Northern Territory)

By Henare Degan | Published: September 9, 2011

My mum called me from Sydney Airport yesterday. She was stopping over from New Zealand on her way to Batchelor in the Northern Territory where her and her husband are moving. After I got off the phone to her I remembered that PlanningAlerts didn’t cover anywhere in the NT and I also remembered – what […]

Also posted in Announcement, PlanningAlerts.org.au | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Responses

OpenAustralia Hackfest – “What are you up to next weekend?” edition

By Henare Degan | Published: August 30, 2011

Come and join Henare, Tim and Matthew in their basement, er.. we mean Google Sydney, for an awesome weekend of hacking. It’s all a bit last minute. What’s the worst that happens? Nobody turns up and the three of us spend the weekend hacking. That’s okay too. However, it would be much more fun if […]

Also posted in Announcement, Development, ElectionLeaflets.org.au, OpenAustralia Foundation, OpenAustralia.org, PlanningAlerts.org.au | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Response