Lise Olsen on Resources for Getting and Using Data for #ddj

This is a public reposting of the fantastic list compiled by Lise Olsen, investigative reporter at The Houston Chronicle. The list is an accompaniment to her lecture videos for Week 2 of the Knight Center's "Data-Driven Journalism: The Basics" MOOC. You can follow Olsen on Twitter at @chrondigger, and the course at #datajmooc.

Starting Points:

Part one – search strategies and reporting on individuals

Websites:

Public Records laws –

The Reporters Commitee for Freedom of the Press has info on US laws  – and you do not have to be a citizen to use them. 

http://www.rcfp.org

The Global Investigative Journalism Network has links to laws worldwide.

http://gijn.org/resources/freedom-of-information-laws/

Advanced google search window here: 

http://www.google.com/advanced_search

Free US corporate records search tool (basic info)

www.corporationwiki.com

Search systems public records directory:

http://publicrecords.searchsystems.net

Links to free US data:

http://publicrecords.searchsystems.net/United_States_Free_Public_Records_by_State/

Googlemaps: 

https://maps.google.com

 - click on options to check out other views and information including street level maps, satellite maps (by downloading Google Earth), traffic and weather reports.

Data-driven Stories:

Quick-hit data-driven stories on the murder of J. Jesus Gallegos Alvarez

Houston Chronicle

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Slain-Mexican-official-had-Houston-ties-4477485.php

Infographic by Proyecto Diez (Spanish)

http://infogr.am/El-asesinato-de-un-secretario

Reporte Indigo – (in Spanish)

http://www.reporteindigo.com/reporte/guadalajara/negocios-de-alto-riesgo?page=2

Quick-hit TV data driven story: Lee Zurik’s investigation  of travel expenses/payroll data- WVUE

http://www.fox8live.com/story/21420457/lee-zurik-investigation-facebook-wine-country-and-dr-peter-galvan

La Nacion’s Senate travel data is explained in this blog entry:

http://blogs.lanacion.com.ar/ddj/data-driven-investigative-journalism/argentina-senate-expenses/

Links to that story and other winners of this year’s Data Journalism awards are here:

http://www.globaleditorsnetwork.org/dja/

More Ideas and Examples:

Part two: companies, beats and easy-to-use data tools

Websites:

Online phone directories:

http://www.whitepages.com

 (US) – provides some possible spouse names, ages, etc.

International links:

http://www.infobel.com/en/world/

http://www.numberway.com/

Find international white pages and yellow pages..

http://www.wayp.com/

Pacer – US Federal Court records 

http://www.pacer.gov 

(Fee)

Hoovers 

www.hoovers.com

 has some free data on major companies worldwide.

Investigative Dashboard: 

http://www.investigativedashboard.org

 - Corporate registries worldwide.

In the US, try 

http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

 - official gov’t website

Corporationwiki has basic info: 

http://www.corporationwiki.com/

Occupational Health and Safety Administration (US only) – Search tool for checking company accident and/or inspection reports.

https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.html

Google’s Public Data Directory

http://www.google.com/publicdata/directory

International Census data links:

http://www.census.gov/population/international/links/stat_int.html

Links to public records via the London Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/data

Government data links and directories:

Links to international census data

http://www.census.gov/population/international/links/stat_int.html

United Nations databases 

http://data.un.org

The London Guardian’s Datastore

http://www.guardian.co.uk/data

Several cool disaster coverage tools –

Hurricanes – great tips and lectures on the IRE webpage

http://ire.org/resource-center/hurricane-sandy/

Weather Underground

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/

Earthquakes

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/

International Red Cross

http://www.icrc.org/eng/

Environmental toxics around the world:

http://www2.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program/tri-around-world

Data-driven toxics story example: Ghost Factories is another example of corporate data – this time about pollution they leave behind

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/smelting-lead-contamination

NICAR: Data, training and a list of people who can help with data-driven journalism (see NICAR-L) available from this program of Investigative Reporters & Editors 

www.ire.org

Investigative Reporters & Editors – resource center

http://www.ire.org/resource-center/stories/

Database library:

http://www.ire.org/nicar/database-library/

International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – story ideas, links and how-tos and a new offshore banking database.

http://www.icij.org/

Examples of Corporate data-driven stories:

Azerbaijan President’s empire

https://reportingproject.net/occrp/index.php/en/ccwatch/cc-watch-indepth/1495-azerbaijans-president-awarded-family-stake-in-gold-fields

Oil patch deaths – an analysis of deaths in Texas (two parts)

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Workplace-deaths-drop-but-not-in-the-oil-4266141.php

Interactive map: 

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Where-and-how-oil-and-gas-workers-have-died-in-4263666.php?cmpid=hcael

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/energy/article/Eagle-Ford-pay-is-high-but-work-can-be-fatal-4285405.php

ICIJ”s Skin and Bones

http://www.icij.org/tissue

Video on how ICIJ Skin and Bones project was done:

http://www.chron.com/news/article/Where-and-how-oil-and-gas-workers-have-died-in-4263666.php?cmpid=hcael

Veja’s story about corruption connections – A Network of Scandals was built on its own archives.

http://veja.abril.com.br/infograficos/painel_rede_escandalos/network_of_scandals.html

Learn to make your own interactives in minutes with these tools:

Google Mymap video is only two minutes long and teaches how to make a map and  even embed photos or videos. 

https://support.google.com/maps/answer/62843?hl=en

Many Eyes – site with easy-to-try interactives. 

http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/create_visualization.html

Worldle – make graphics out of speeches, text. 

http://www.wordle.net/

Document Cloud (text analysis and storage tool)

https://www.documentcloud.org/home

If you know how to use spreadsheets…

Use Batchgeo to map dozens or hundreds of addresses by copying and pasting and hitting a button: 

http://www.batchgeo.com

Google Fusion tables to create relationship tables or maps.

https://developers.google.com/fusiontables/