11th April 2008 
 
 
Tom Steinberg [[email address]] 
 
Dear Tom, 
  
FOI request about Action Network - RFI20080273 
 
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act (‘the Act’) dated 17th March 2008 
seeking information about the Action Network site. The reference number for your request is 
RFI20080273.  
 
You have requested the following information:  
 
 
Now that the BBC is closing Action Network, could you please tell me 
how much the project cost: 1. In total. 2. Per year? 
 
Please see attached spreadsheet with the information you requested.    
 
We are including some further background by way of explanation of these figures. You will see 
from the spreadsheet that the BBC’s Action Network website (originally known as BBC iCan) was 
started in 2003 and expanded in 2004 as more content and a dedicated team was built up to 
support it. However, with the growth of blogs and social networking sites over the last few years, 
and following an internal review, the BBC concluded that the Action Network website is no longer 
needed in its current form.  
 
As you are aware, the BBC will therefore formally close the Action Network website at the end of 
this month.  We are not, however, abandoning our commitment to an engaged citizenship; we are 
using lessons learnt from Action  Network  and  are now working on a digital democracy project 
that will aim to give the audience more access to our democratic institutions, with additional 
aggregated information about issues, organisations and representatives.  
 
 

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For further information on the closure of the website please see 
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A3349172 
 
We trust you find this information helpful.  
 
Appeal Rights 
 
If you are not satisfied with our response you have the right to an internal review by a BBC senior 
manager. Please contact us at the address above, explaining what you would like us to review and 
including your reference number. If you are not satisfied with the internal review, you can appeal to 
the Information Commissioner. The contact details are:  Information Commissioner's Office, 
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 01625 545 700 or see 
www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk 
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
T Samarasinghe 
Legal and Business Affairs Manager 
BBC Future Media and Technology  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Period
Project
Title
YTD Actuals
Mar-03
PAA-9740
ICAN
209,776
Mar-04
PAC-5683
ICAN
600,003
Mar-04
PAC-7649
ICAN
10,097
Mar-04
PAD-2614
ICAN
(1,101)
Mar-05
PAD-2614
ICAN
2,209
Mar-05
AAA-3789
ICAN
500,004
Mar-06
PAD-2614
ICAN
(734)
1,320,253

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