Thursday, 25 August 2011

The European Journalism Centre together with the Open Knowledge Foundation is hosting a one and a half day data-driven journalism workshop on EU spending in Utrecht, the Netherlands on 8-9 September.

1. General information

Date
8-9 September 2011

Location
Kanunnikenzaal and Sterrecamer, Faculty Club, Achter de Dom 7a, Utrecht, the Netherlands

Capacity
Max. 35 participants. The workshop is aimed at aspiring data journalists, journalists, open data specialists, developers and others who have an interest in EU spending. There is no participation fee but the attendees are expected to arrange and cover their own transportation and accommodation.

2. Why EU spending?

EU spending is an important topic of investigation. The two most substantial data-driven investigations into EU spending in the recent years have been the investigation into payments and recipients of farm subsidies in the EU (farmsubsidy.org), and the investigation into the beneficiaries of EU structural funds (the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) in collaboration with the Financial Times). By bringing EU spending to public scrutiny, journalists helped enrich the public debate around this topic.
In this workshop participants will learn from data journalists who worked as part of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) structural funds investigation team and spending data experts how to get started with data-driven reporting on EU spending.

3. What will the workshop cover?

The participants will learn how to find and explore EU spending data from different sources, analyze it and find answers to their questions in order to produce stories. How did the BIJ get the data? Can it be applied to other countries? What other stories can we get from the data if we compare it with other databases? Which Dutch companies and which public bodies receive funding? (How) can spending data be connected with lobbying interests? Do EU structural funds beneficiaries get funding under other programmes as well? These are a few of the questions that we aim to explore (participants are encouraged to contribute their own questions).

4. Workshop leaders

Caelainn Barr, EU data journalist, formerly with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, London, part of the EU structural funds investigation team.
Friedrich Lindenberg
, developer with the Open Knowledge Foundation, contributing to OpenSpending, an international effort to make financial data accessible.
Chris Taggart
, originally a journalist and later magazine publisher, now CEO and co-founder of OpenCorporates: The Open Database Of the Corporate World, and founder of OpenlyLocal.com.

5. Programme (draft)

Day 1 (8 September)
13.00-13.15 Coffee
13.15-13.30 Opening remarks and welcome
13.30-14.00 Overview of EU spending data sources

Friedrich Lindenberg, the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF)
Caelainn Barr, EU data journalist, formerly with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ)
Chris Taggart, OpenCorporates.com, OpenlyLocal.com
14.00-15.30 Brainstorming: What stories can we get from EU spending data?
Participant introductions
Project group formation
15.30-15.45 Coffee break
15.45-17.00 Training session: How to find and analyse EU spending data

Friedrich Lindenberg, the Open Knowledge Foundation
Chris Taggart, OpenCorporates.com, OpenlyLocal.com

Day 2 (9 September)
09.15-09.30 Coffee
09.30-10.30 Talk and Q&A with Caelainn Barr, EU data journalist

The BIJ investigation into EU structural funds
How to find stories in EU spending data
10.30-12.00 Working session: preparing the data
12.00-13.00 Lunch break
13.00-15.00 Working session: finding stories in the data (I)
15.00-15.15 Coffee break
15.15-16.00 Working session: finding stories in the data (II)
16.00-17.00 Presentation of results, closing remarks and next steps

6. Interested to participate?

The workshop is aimed at aspiring data journalists, journalists, open data specialists, developers and others who have an interest in EU spending. If you are interested to participate in the workshop please email Liliana Bounegru (bounegru [at] ejc.net) to request an invitation. Please include in the email your affiliation (if any) and a sentence or two on your motivation to join this workshop. Do you know of any relevant databases that we can use during the workshop? Do you have any ideas of questions and stories that we can explore? If so please get in touch with us (bounegru [at] ejc.net).
If you are interested in keeping in touch with developments in this area, you may wish to subscribe to the joint EJC/OKF mailing list on data-driven-journalism, and follow us on Twitter (hashtag #ddj) and Facebook.

7. Organisers

The event is partially funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

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