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+---
+layout: page
+title: Glossary
+---
+
+Glossary
+====================
+
+<p class="lead">
+	Glossary of terms for Alaveteli, mySociety's freedom of information
+ 	platform.
+</p>
+
+Definitions
+-----------
+
+<ul class="definitions">
+  <li><a href="#alaveteli">Alaveteli</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#agnostic">asker agnostic</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#authority">authority</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#foi">freedom of information</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#git">git</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#holding_pen">holding pen</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#mta">MTA</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#publish">publish</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#request">request</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#response">response</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#state">state</a></li>
+  <li><a href="#theme">theme</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+
+<dl class="glossary">
+
+  <dt>
+    <a name="alaveteli">Alaveteli</a>
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+    <strong>Alaveteli</strong> is the name of the open source software platform created
+    by <a href="http://www.mysociety.org">mySociety</a> for submitting,
+    managing and archiving Freedom of Information requests.
+    <p>
+      It grew from the successful FOI UK project 
+      <a href="http://www.whatdotheyknow.com">WhatDoTheyKnow</a>.
+      We use the name <em>Alaveteli</em> to distinguish the software
+      that runs the platform from any specific website that it is powering.
+    </p>
+    <div class="more-info">
+      <p>More information:</p>
+      <ul>
+        <li>
+          The Alaveteli website is at <a href="http://www.alaveteli.org">www.alaveteli.org</a>
+        </li>
+        <li>
+          The name "Alaveteli" comes from 
+          <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaveteli,_Finland">Alaveteli in Finland</a>
+          where 
+          <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Chydenius">an early FOI campaigner</a>
+          once worked.
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+    </div>
+  </dd>
+
+  <dt>
+    <a name="agnostic">asker agnostic</a>
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+	  <a href="#foi" class="glossary">Freedom of Information</a> (FoI) law typically considers
+    the <a href="#response" class="glossary">responses</a> given by the 
+    <a href="#authority" class="glossary">authorities</a> to be <strong>asker agnostic</strong>. This means
+    that the reply should not be any different depending on <em>who</em> asked for the 
+    information. One consequence of this is that the response
+    can be <a href="#publish" class="glossary">published</a>, because in theory <em>everyone</em>
+    could ask for it and expect, by law, to receive the same information. 
+    <p>
+      Despite this, it's still very common all around the world for authorities to reply
+      to FoI requests privately, instead of publishing their responses themselves. One of the
+      functions of Alaveteli is, therefore, to act as a public repository of published answers.
+      This also serves to reduce duplicate requests, by publishing the answer instead of
+      requiring it to be asked again.
+    </p>
+  <dt>
+    <a name="authority">authority</a>
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+	  An <strong>authority</strong> is the term we use for any of the bodies, organisations,
+    departments, or companies to which users can send <a href="#request" class="glossary">requests</a>.
+    <div class="more-info">
+      <p>More information:</p>
+      <ul>
+        <li>
+          An administrator can add, edit, or remove authorities in the admin
+        </li>
+        <li>
+          Authorities are usually, but not always, public bodies that are obliged by the local
+          <a href="#foi" class="glossary">Freedom of Information</a> (FoI) law to respond. Sometimes an
+          Alaveteli site is set up in a jurisdiction that does not yet have FoI law. In the UK,
+          we add some authorites to our <a href="https://www.whatdotheyknow.com">WhaDoTheyKnow</a>
+          site that are not subject to FoI law, but which have either voluntarily submitted themselves
+          to it, or which we believe should be accountable in this way.
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+    </div>
+  </dd>
+
+  <dt>
+    <a name="foi">Freedom of Information</a> (also FOI)
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+    <strong>Freedom of information</strong> laws allow access by the general public
+    to data held by national governments. They establish a "right-to-know"
+    legal process by which requests may be made for government-held
+    information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard
+    exceptions.
+    <br>
+    <em>[from wikipedia]</em>
+    <div class="more-info">
+      <p>More information:</p>
+      <ul>
+        <li>
+          Wikipedia summary of <a href="http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_information_laws_by_country">FOI laws by country</a>.
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+    </div>
+  </dd>
+
+  <dt>
+    <a name="git">git</a> (also github,  git repository, and git repo)
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+    We use a popular source code control system called <strong>git</strong>. This
+    helps us track changes to the code, and also makes it easy for other people
+    to duplicate and even contribute to our software.
+    <p>
+      The website <a href="http://github.com/mysociety">github.com</a> is a central, public
+      place where we make our software available. Because it's Open Source, you can
+      inspect the code there (Alaveteli is mostly written in the programming language
+      Ruby), report bugs, suggest features and many other useful things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entire set of files that form the Alaveteli platform is called the
+      <strong>git repository</strong> or <strong>repo</strong>. When you
+      install Alaveteli, you are effectively cloning our repository on your
+      own machine.
+    </p>
+    <div class="more-info">
+      <p>More information:</p>
+      <ul>
+        <li>
+          See the <a href="{{ site.baseurl }}installing">installation instructions</a> which will
+          clone the Alaveteli repo.
+        </li>
+        <li>
+          Everything about git from the <a
+          href="//http://git-scm.com">official website</a>.
+        </li>
+        <li>
+          See <a href="http://github.com/mysociety">the mySociety projects on
+          github</a>.
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+    </div>
+  </dd>
+
+  <dt>
+    <a name="holding pen">holding pen</a>
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+    The <strong>holding pen</strong> is the conceptual place where responses that 
+    could not be delivered are held. They need attention from a administrator.
+    <div class="more-info">
+      <p>More information:</p>
+      <ul>
+        <li>
+			    see the <a href="{{ site.baseurl }}running/admin_manual">admin manual</a> for
+          information on dealing with emails in the holding pen
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+    </div>
+  </dd>
+
+  <dt>
+    <a name="mta">MTA</a> (Mail Transfer Agent)
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+    A <strong>Mail Tranfer Agent</strong> is the the program which actually sends
+    and receives email. Alaveteli sends email on behalf of its users, and processes
+    the <a href="#response" class="glossary">responses</a> and replies it receives.
+    All this email goes through the MTA, which is a seperate service on your system.
+    <div class="more-info">
+      <p>More information:</p>
+      <ul>
+        <li>
+			    see these instructions for <a href="{{ site.baseurl }}installing/exim4">configuring exim4</a>,
+          a common MTA
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+    </div>
+    
+  </dd>
+
+  <dt>
+    <a name="publish">publish</a>
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+    Alaveteli works by <strong>publishing</strong> the 
+    <a href="#response" class="glossary">responses</a> it recieves to the 
+    <a href="#foi" class="glossary">Freedom of Information</a>
+    <a href="#request" class="glossary">requests</a> that its users send.
+    It does this by processing the emails it receives and presenting them
+    as pages &mdash; one per request &mdash; on the website. This makes it
+    easy for people to find, read, link to, and share the request and the
+    information provided in response.
+  </dd>
+
+  <dt>
+    <a name="response">response</a>
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+	  A <strong>response</strong> is the email sent by an 
+     <a href="#authority" class="glossary">authority</a> in reply to 
+     a user's  <a href="#request" class="glossary">requests</a>.
+  </dd>
+
+  <dt>
+    <a name="request">request</a>
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+    In Alaveteli, a <strong>request</strong> is the 
+    <a href="#foi" class="glossary">Freedom of Information</a> request
+    that a user enters, and which the site then emails to the relevant 
+    <a href="#authority" class="glossary">authority</a>.
+    Alaveteli automatically <a href="#publish" class="glossary">publishes</a>
+    the <a href="#response" class="glossary">responses</a>
+    to all the requests it sends.
+  </dd>
+
+  <dt>
+    <a name="state">state</a>
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+    Each <a href="#request" class="glossary">request</a> passes through different
+    <strong>states</strong> as it progresses through the system.
+    States help Alaveteli administrators, as well as the public, 
+    understand the current situation with any request and what 
+    action, if any, is required.
+    <p>
+      The states available can be customised within
+      your site's <a href="#theme" class="glossary">theme</a>.
+    </p>
+    <div class="more-info">
+      <p>More information:</p>
+      <ul>
+        <li>
+			    <a href="{{ site.baseurl }}running/states">example states for WhatDoTheyKnow</a>
+          (Alaveteli site running in the UK)
+        </li>
+        <li>
+			    for comparison, <a href="{{ site.baseurl }}running/states_informatazyrtare">example states for InformataZyrtare</a>
+          (Alaveteli site running in Kosovo)
+        </li>
+        <li>
+          to customise or add your own states, see <a href="{{ site.baseurl }}customising/themes">Customising the request states</a>
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+    </div>
+    
+  </dd>
+
+  <dt>
+    <a name="theme">theme</a>
+  </dt>
+  <dd>
+	  A <strong>theme</strong> is the collection of changes to the templates
+	  and the code that causes the site to look or behave differently from the 
+	  default. Typically you'll need a theme to make Alaveteli show your own
+	  brand.
+    <div class="more-info">
+      <p>More information:</p>
+      <ul>
+        <li>
+			<a href="{{ site.baseurl }}customising/themes">about themes</a>
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+    </div>
+  </dd>
+
+</dl>
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