After a brief presentation of Access To Information laws ("ATI", which allow citizens to request info or documents from the State), this talk will introduce Alaveteli.org a ruby-on-rails web app designed to make it easier for people to exercise their rights.

We will make a parallel between debugging FLOSS, and understanding how our democracies function with ATI. We will present a few examples of requests and campaigns to show how these transparency laws can empower individuals and make democracies more resilient.