Certain things are too good to leave them to journalists
Somebody else should use them.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) has just released a list of their top guides and tip sheets in 2020.
Those resources can be used for investigations of all kinds, of which I am reporting only what may be the coolest ones… for a certain audience (see the original article for details and links!):
- Online tools to track shipping containers, ships or aircrafts, from private jets to military flights, all across the world
- techniques to recognize fake news, or find and use satellite images
- tips on how to discover the real owners of corporations
- a guide to help non-journalists to “investigate politicians, corporations, property, and more”
- researching government contracts for COVID-19 spending
Who else should use the same resources FIRST?
The most powerful superhero ever is an investigative journalist. If it is a coincidence, it shouldn't
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Back in 2011, I first proposed that schools should use and produce Open Data as part of their normal activities, not only about them. Later, I detailed the same proposal in several writings, but especially these:
Please check out the three links above. Especially, but not only, if you are a high school teacher, or anybody interested in school as the first place to learn active citizenship, not as a hamster wheel, facing the wrong way, in any country…
In my opinion, those writings of mine also give very good reasons to use those GIJN resources in all high schools, as well as some concrete tips of what to make with them.
If you agree, please do spread around this suggestion as much as you see fit. If not, why? Please let me know!
Who writes this, why, and how to help
I am Marco Fioretti, tech writer and aspiring polymath doing human-digital research and popularization.
I do it because YOUR civil rights and the quality of YOUR life depend every year more on how software is used AROUND you.
To this end, I have already shared more than a million words on this blog, without any paywall or user tracking, and am sharing the next million through a newsletter, also without any paywall.
The more direct support I get, the more I can continue to inform for free parents, teachers, decision makers, and everybody else who should know more stuff like this. You can support me with paid subscriptions to my newsletter, donations via PayPal (mfioretti@nexaima.net) or LiberaPay, or in any of the other ways listed here.THANKS for your support!