Panel: Tracking Dictators, Diving For Leaks & Opening up Sensative Data

CITIZENS OF EVIDENCE: Independent Investigations for Change The Art of Exposing Injustice - Part 3 The 17th conference of the Disruption Network Lab TRACKING DICTATORS, DIVING FOR LEAKS & OPENING UP SENSITIVE DATA Emmanuel Freudenthal (Freelance Investigative Journalist, Dictator Alert, FR/KY), Natalie Sedletska (Investigative Reporter & TV Host, UA), Brennan Novak & M C McGrath (Transparency Toolkit, US/DE). Moderated by Shannon Cunningham (Freelance Investigative Journalist, US/DE). This panel focuses on the connection between grassroots investigations and data analysis, and how it is possible to make sensitive data accessible without restriction and open them to the public, facilitating the publication of large datasets. Referring to the collaboration between investigative journalists, "citizen journalists", and the "open-source intelligence" community, Emmanuel Freudenthal will present the methodology of acquiring information behind Dictator Alert – a Twitter bot that tracks the planes of authoritarian regimes installing ADS-B antennas – reflecting on the pros and cons of experimenting with a more "objective" type of information.M C McGrath and Brennan Novak (Transparency Toolkit) will focus on how the tools they are building enable anyone to publish data in searchable archives and sort through large datasets, even without many resources or technical skills, making the publishing of a large sets of documents more accessible to activists and citizen journalists – where previously only large coalitions of media organizations with particularly good technical resources could setup something like this. Furthermore, the panel reflects on the use and impact of open information, and the possibilities for people to contribute a greater variety of insights over time, and the difficultues of relying only on media outlets or single journalists to write the first story, which is often a very hard and complex activity in the case of large datasets. https://www.disruptionlab.org/citizens-of-evidence Photo credit: Elena Veronese Produced by Voice Republic For more podcasts visit http://voicerepublic.com