[EU-lobby-data] Comments by FoEE media team on crunching project

Wed Nov 7 15:17:20 UTC 2012

Hey there guys,

We had a little tour of the lobbypudo and the api with the media people 
here this morning. I think they're quite interested about it, although 
because this goes beyond their own technical knowledge, they had 
troubles advising. So it was more an exchange of views and 'common 
sense' input from their side, as well as questions.

- they had lots of questions about what happens if, after the launch, we 
find out that there are inaccuracies with the crunching - I felt a bit 
of concern there, even though I explained that's exactly what we're 
trying to handle at the moment and that's why we're postponing the 
launch. They suggested we should really give ourselves bog enough a 
testing phase of several weeks.
- Fran had a question about the media plan and the launch. At the moment 
helen is working on it, but she won't be there when the whole thing is 
finished. Do we have an idea how we're going to organise the transition? 
Will she brief the new CEO media officer? I feel Fran is not really 
confident with handling this on her own.
- both fran and sam suggested we should thinkof some sort of 'user 
guide' to make available on the website once it is finished to help 
people make the best use of this website in their search
- they also suggested that we might want to think of adding some kind of 
note/disclaimer that this is about cross-matching/crunching already 
publcly available information (we are not making it up) and also explain 
how the crunching is done, what sort of tool we are using to come up 
with our lists (not for the geeks who know how this works, but for the 
more 'lambda' journos or people visiting the website). even if there is 
a priori nothing to worry about (except if crunching doesn't work and 
lists are not shown properly - like what we spotted this morning) we 
should think of having some lawyer having a look at the website and 
advise on any legal risk (I know it's a bummer, but these days this has 
become more of an issue)
- in terms of audience, when I explained about the hackday, fran and sam 
suggested that we should also probably try and do some more outreach 
within the circles of people with an interest in data issues (which we 
have started doing via OKFN and are still planning to expand via IFJ and 
EJC)

That's it for now. I'll forward them Helen's draft when we get it. I 
just thought I would keep you posted about internal discussions as we 
go. talking with them, I realise we made a good decision to postpone the 
launch :)

cheers

Natacha

-- 
Natacha Cingotti
Lobby transparency and corporate power
Friends of the Earth Europe
Tel: +32 2 893 10 23
Fax: +32 2 893 10 35
Skype: c_natacha
natacha.cingotti at foeeurope.org

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