Abe Handler, The Lens
Thomas Thoren, The Lens
Todd Wallack, Boston Globe
- Google alerts
- Email lists
- RSS Feeds (FEC)
- IFTTT
- Page Monitor (Chrome)
- SiteDelta (FF)
- Changedetection.com, followthatpage.com
Common govt. data portal service, supports RSS feeds for updates or new data
E.g. Sunlight Foundation's Scout, Influence Explorer
SEC Filings
Morningstar Document Research (paid) — monitor whether any company based in a particular state files a form with any particular word.
Marshall Project's Klaxon checks webpages for changes and sends out alerts automatically
PANDA's email alerts
Baltimore Sun scrapes court appeals decisions
Boston Globe scrapes state court site
CPI scrapes lobbying reports and adds to Google Spreadsheet
P-D built scrapers for 911 calls, PACER RSS Feeds, ethics commission for large donations
Boston Globe scrapes court system data, court filings
Have tools that have more than one purpose. Repurpose what you have.
Gets city contracts. Looks at owners of those firms who got the contracts. Looks at donations from ethics data.
Alert reporter by email, update public-facing app.
Gaol: Use alert system to get new insights about contracting. Don't know contracts' values or dates, so computer tries to extract this info and reporter verifies. Reporter is training the app to get better.