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I had high hopes for Everyblock, the hyper-local social network (almost a geographic form of Facebook). Besides user-generated content, it aggregated much publ

by tcbawo 10y ago

I had high hopes for Everyblock, the hyper-local social network (almost a geographic form of Facebook). Besides user-generated content, it aggregated much public information (permit applications, police reports, etc.). It was initially developed through a grant as open source software. I was convinced that newspapers would latch onto the platform. But, that never really seemed to happen. NBC News bought it and shut it down in 2008. They attempted a re-launch, but I haven't followed it since then.

carlmungz 10y ago
In the UK we had a company which started out as an investigative journalism agency and then pivoted to selling data on company insolvency (http://www.exaronews.com/insolvency-index http://www.exaronews.com/insolvency-index). Sadly, they could not make it work but I think more journalists need to be exploring models like that. ProPublica seem to be doing a good job of it at https://www.propublica.org/datastore https://www.propublica.org/datastore