Present FOI & Transparency TICTeC videos on the front page

[garethrees]

A specific of #791.

95% of our users won't necessarily watch the talks, but it shows that we're about more than just running a service.

Basically copy & paste of https://economicprinciples.org/. Should be quite a quick win.

The video summaries can get quite long (or don't exist). We don't want to have to write lots of new content for updates, so I think just rendering the title and image is fine.

We should have a "Donate £10 to support our research or browse more" link at the end.

It shows that we're about more than just running a service. Not worth a huge engineering effort to automate as they're relatively low frequency.

I don't think there's a relevant feed so we'd have to manually update them now and then, but that feels fine. Not worth a huge engineering effort as they're relatively low frequency. We can either just hard code the ones we want, or create a data structure and pick a random selection, along the lines of:

@research_videos = [
  { title: 'The FOI Clearing House: an openDemocracy investigation into FOI at the heart of government',
    url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXbhBHfeOzk' },
  # and so on…
]

<% @research_videos.sample(3).each do |article| %>
  <div class="research-video">
    <!-- … -->
  </div>
<% end %>

[RichardTaylor]

We should consider the specific videos.

Do we have existing content relevant to the WDTK readership?

We could create specific content, being prepared to give it prominence on the front page might encourage the creation of content.

Are we just boosting viewcounts and donating Google juice to other parts of the organisation?

New video ideas which might fit well on the WDTK front page:

• Someone from mySociety speaking about the benefits of transparency to society.
• A video on the challenges we face running the service
• A campaigning video, covering how we campaign through our activism, what's not working at the moment with our access to information laws / cultures, and the changes we'd like to see.

[garethrees]

Do we have existing content relevant to the WDTK readership?

Probably

We could create specific content

This issue isn't about this – it's about better promoting what we have right now, and if some specific is created later, having an established place to put it.

Are we just boosting viewcounts and donating Google juice to other parts of the organisation?

As explained above, mySociety does not only run services; it attempts to fix underlying societal issues. The two go hand in hand. We are not in competition with ourselves.

[garethrees]

Do we have existing content relevant to the WDTK readership?

From a quick scan:

• Workshop: What can you do with FOI using WhatDoTheyKnow?
• Reforming Freedom of Information: mySociety policy paper launch event
• The FOI Clearing House: an openDemocracy investigation into FOI at the heart of government extracted from TICTeC Show & Tell - Right to Know across Europe
• A change in the law for school starters in Scotland — through FOI extracted from TICTeC Show & Tell - Right to Know across Europe
• Regulating Access to Information
• TICTeC Civic Tech Surgery #3: Accessing quality information – don't know how much FOI is in this one
• Source & manage Freedom of Information data for impactful investigations & campaigns with Alaveteli – a bit more general FOI & Alaveteli
• TICTeC 2018: How a crowdsourced FOI campaign improved EU transparency
• Why use WhatDoTheyKnow?
• WhatDoTheyKnow: Meet The Users. Gavin Chait, part 1 and part 2

[lucascumsille]

We should have a "Donate £10 to support our research or browse more" link at the end.

Hey @garethrees I think UX wise it would make sense to add a browse more button. However I think we shouldn't miss the opportunity to add a donate CTA section right below the video section. Let me know you opinion on this last part. I know we have a donate button in the footer, but not sure how many users actually see the footer or pay attention to it, personally I tend to ignore the footer unless I'm looking for a page that would be easier to find in the footer more than in the header. If you like the CTA approach I could ask Myf for a catchy copy.

[lucascumsille]

PR here: #1541