General tips

The Iraq Inquiry documents on DocumentCloud

I’ve uploaded all 2.6million words of the Chilcot Report (also known as the Iraq Inquiry) to the document analysis service DocumentCloud. The documents can be found on the site here. You’ll need a DocumentCloud account to analyse the documents by entity or timeline (more on that here), but if you don’t have an account you […]

Help Me Investigate is on ice (but I’ll still help you investigate)

I’m putting Help Me Investigate, my collaborative investigation project, on ice. This year has seen the launch of a number of impressive crowdfunded and crowdsourced projects on platforms including Beacon and Contributoria – plus OpenCorporates Missions and the enormously impressive Bellingcat. Their rise, for me, confirms that there is no longer a need for the original mission that Help […]

Former HMI Health editor named best new journalist of the year at British Journalism Awards

Former Help Me Investigate Health editor Tom Warren has been named best new journalist of the year at British Journalism Awards. Tom, who joined the Bureau of Investigative Journalism last year, won the award for stories on payday loan lenders, party political funding, and the flotation of shares in Royal Mail. Some of the data on payday lenders was collected by Help Me Investigate. […]

Beth Ashton wins social media award

Former Help Me Investigate Education contributor Beth Ashton has won an award for her work in the social media team at Trinity Mirror. Carol Vorders gave me an award! #canihaveavowelpleasecarol pic.twitter.com/aaXdHm32c5 — Beth Ashton (@BethAshton) December 1, 2014 Beth wrote for Help Me Investigate Education in 2013 about a ‘leak’ that she stumbled across while […]

Help Me Investigate in 2013 – and 2014

As Help Me Investigate starts to plan new investigations in 2014, it’s a good time to look back at what we’ve been up to over the last year across the four sites (not including this blog). It’s easy to forget how much you do in a year – thanks to the many contributors who made everything […]

Help Me Investigate now on Medium

Help Me Investigate now has a presence on the publishing platform Medium – you can find us at medium.com/@helpmeinvestig8 Our first story on the site is an updated version of the HMI Olympics longform ebook 8,000 Holes: How the Olympic Torch Relay Lost Its Way.

Finding data in Scotland

I’ve delivered data journalism training in Scotland twice in the past few months, and thought I’d share some tips on what data is available there, given that most guidance on data journalism focuses on data in England or the US. General statistics and data Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics has a ‘data download’ page which allows you […]

FOI ideas: the Ministry of Justice data that isn’t published – but could be?

The Ministry of Justice is inviting suggestions on data that might be opened up – but the list of 43 datasets also provides lot of ideas for Freedom of Information requests. Let us know if you do anything with them!

Web security book reviewed on OJB

Over on the Online Journalism Blog I’ve reviewed Deep Web for Journalists by Alan Pearce. It’s a much-recommended book for users of this site too – read the review for a summary of some of the key takeaways.

Reporting the water industry – key performance indicators

If you’re interested in learning more about how the water industry works, Ofwat’s pages on regulating the industry provide information on the industry itself, what water and sewerage companies have to do to keep their licences, and how they are regulated. You can also find links to the water companies’ annual reports, including their ‘key performance indicators‘ The […]