[School-of-data-announce] Data Expedition on December 7: Investigate the Extractive Industries of Nigeria

[Anders Pedersen]

Hi all,

Who operates the often poisonous wells in the Niger Delta? How does the
money flow between the contractors running the oil fields and the
government?

*Join us for an online Data Expedition December 7 to Investigate the
Extractive Industries of Nigeria.*

Register for free<https://docs.google.com/a/okfn.org/forms/d/1p-3Bqr3MkIQZ_VoQqed7OKoAfmoYZffZaJ32HdLHNRE/viewform>

*The problem: Companies hide in plain sight*

Data on the extractives industry is increasingly going public, from
EITI<http://eiti.org/>'s
information about money flows from companies to governments to the UK's
decision to make its register of the beneficial owners of private companies
public<http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/31/public-register-firms-secret-owners-cameron>
 in the future. As more information about the oil, gas and mining
industries makes it into the public domain, more people living in
resource-rich countries have the potential to benefit. Information
transparency can lead to greater public scrutiny of these industries that
affect so many lives. Databases such as
OpenCorporates<http://opencorporates.com/>
 are rapidly expanding and making companies involved in extractives and
other industries easier to trace. Meanwhile, other data published in local
media or tucked away in companies' annual reports has seemingly been hiding
in plain sight for years.

*What are we going to do?*
We want to begin cracking this data open and analysing it to facilitate
investigations by journalists, organisations, activists and governments who
all need to know how extractives impact people’s lives. In collaboration
with OpenOil <http://openoil.net/>, School of Data will bring together
those with an interest in learning to work with data to help tackle some of
the biggest issues in the extractive industries today, with a focus on
Nigeria. The Data Expedition will complement our recently launched Follow
the Money network <http://followthemoney.net/>, which pushes for the
transparency needed to help citizens around the world use information about
public money to hold decision-makers to account.

*What will you learn?*
- Network analysis: Investigate the corporate supply chain in Nigeria's oil
industry by using networks to see who is connected to whom
- Corporate research: Cut through generic names like “Shell” and “Exxon” to
identify the specific corporate vehicles responsible for activities in
places such as the Niger Delta
- Mapping: Work with maps of geo-coded oil spills, company license areas
and other data to draw connections that might not be apparent in text-based
media
- Web-scraping: Find company data and establish leads for other
investigations related to the oil industry by scraping the web

See the blog post at School of Data
here<http://schoolofdata.org/2013/11/15/data-expedition-december-7-investigate-the-extractive-industries-of-nigeria/>.
Hope to see you join the investigation!

Best,
Anders
-- 


*Anders PedersenCommunity Coordinator  |  skype: anpehej  |  @anpe
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