Telling us that traffic accidents happen on streets over time is nice, but it’s just the beginning of an Open Data Odyssey that governments, civil society, and other organizations must begin together to document and describe the tertiary impacts of these events, and many other events, on our collective experiences and lives in large urban ecosystems like New York.
Open Knowledge, the UK-based nonprofit that focuses on unlocking data around the world, has released the latest version of its Global Open Data Index. The index attempts to make sense of the explosion in open government data portals, which have grown from just a handful three years ago to nearly 400 worldwide. The good news: the number of entries and data sets is growing. The bad: only 11% of the datasets surveyed are deemed open by the index.
What’s the data driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? Here are the week’s Top Data Journalism Links on Twitter (for December 1-9), including items from Stimme.de, Arnaud Wery, Datawrapper, The Economist, and m0le.net. Thanks to Marc Smith of Connected Action for gathering the links and graphing them.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network has joined a growing chorus of media organizations, human rights groups, governments, and others around the world calling for the immediate release of journalist Khadija Ismayilova. Ms. Ismayilova was arrested on Friday and imprisoned for at least two months on charges that are widely seen as part of a campaign to silence independent media and civil society in Azerbaijan.
Journalist Khadija Ismayilova, a Radio Free Europe/OCCRP reporter, was taken into custody yesterday in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the latest of a series of legal moves to put pressure on her. Ismayilova, known for her investigations into the business interests of the family of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, is charged in the latest case of inciting a man to commit suicide
The majority of the Arab press — whether available in print or online — depends largely for their news on what national or international press agencies produce. The only real investment is placed in supporting columnists whose opinions and analysis reflect the particular editorial line of the publisher and the owners of that outlet. This disproportionate support for columnists rather than reporters can best be seen when you ask any follower of Arab media to name a particular news reporter or investigative journalist connected with a particular journal.
New corruption rankings were released this week by Transparency International, and they find the world steeped in corrupt practices, regardless of economic growth. More than two thirds of the 175 countries ranked scored under 50, on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Denmark grabbed the top score, with 92, while North Korea and Somalia notched last, with an 8 score.
The lights of free speech are being steadily extinguished across the Arab world, heralding a new era of ignorance, intolerance, and repression. Saddest of all, the majority of Arabs — who saw free speech as the only gain from the Arab Spring upheavals – now seem willing to accept the loss of this universal human right, in return for promises of stability and economic prosperity.
What does it mean to be a professional journalist in a Syria fragmented by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, the interim Syrian government and Syrian Opposition Coalition groups, not to mention being under the mercy of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its likes. The straight answer is: “An assumed agent”, “traitor,” or “spy for the crusaders” and deserving death, whether the journalist is Arab or foreign.
