understanding & mapping corporate networks with open data

Understanding & mapping

CORPORATE NETWORKS

Introductions The Problem The power of corporate networks How investigators record corporate networks currently Octopus & Demo The power of visualizations of corporate networks How to become part of the movement

WORKSHOP

INTRODUCING

Hera Hussain

OpenCorporates: The World’s Company House  

Community & Partnerships Manager

the largest open database of companies in the world. In 3 years, we have gathered legal and financial information on over 70 million companies in 70 jurisdictions worldwide.

OpenCorporates

PROBLEM The

TRANSNATIONAL

FAR TOO MANY GAPS IN WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT

CORPORATIONS

There are

The Top 20 firms included companies such as Serco, IBM, Morgan Sindall, Capita Business Services, Kier MG Limited and Willmott Dixon Construction Limited.

power of corporate networks

The

ANONYMOUS COMPANIES CAMPAIGN TED Prize Winner 2014

HOW DO INVESTIGATORS RECORD

NETWORKS?

STATUS QUO

PROBLEM WITH

HAND WRITTEN NOTES, UNLOVED

SPREADSHEETS & PROPRIETARY

SOLUTIONS

A mapping tool that enables investigators to build complex corporate networks from open data. bit.ly/octopusit

OCTOPUS ALPHA

PROPRIETARY COMPETITORS •  Upto £5000/licence •  Refuse access to data once payments

are stopped •  Proprietary identifiers

DEMO

INFLUENCE OF CORPORATIONS? VISUALISATIONS

HOW WE BEGIN TO MAP

Let’s start with…

BP network in OCTOPUS

ADVANCED VISUALISATION

ADVANCED VISUALISATION

MYSTERY / UNRESOLVED QUESTIONS

“Why do all BP’s Cayman Island incorporations seem to be concentrated on pipelines and the Caucasus? Does it use a Belgian affiliate to handle earnings from the Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq, and if so is that for reasons of tax efficiency? Did a tiny company owned by Price Waterhouse Cooper take over legal compliance functions for huge parts of its network in mid-2010 as part of a “Macondo shield”, to insulate BP executives from possible liabilities over the Gulf of Mexico spill?”

WHAT DID THIS ACHIEVE?

WHAT NETWORKS

WOULD YOU MAP?

OCTOPUS TOOLKIT

HOW TO INVESTIGATE COMPANIES Investigating Companies: A Do-It-Yourself Handbook by Corporate Watch OpenCorporates blog series •  Understanding corporate networks. Part 1: Control via

equity” Click here. •  Understanding corporate networks. Part 2: Control

without voting” Click here. •  Understanding corporate networks. Part 3: where’s the

data? Click here. Share this document by sharing this link: http://bit.ly/octopustoolkit

HOW YOU CAN BE PART OF

THE MOVEMENT

h#ps://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/3129100592/in/photostream/  

SHARE YOUR WORK Add the networks you

have already mapped to octopus

as Open data!

1

h#ps://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/3129100592/in/photostream/  

Start a new network For your next campaign on

corporate transparency

2

h#ps://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/3129100592/in/photostream/  

HOST A

OCTOPUS-ATHON

3

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CHANGE THE WORLD 1.  Finding data: Hunting down data sources that can be

scraped. 2.  Getting more data: Write code to release open data

through bots 3.  Researching & Analyzing data: Crunch and analyze the

data to find out what it tells us. 4.  Answer questions about data: Use your knowledge

about law, the finance industry, a country or anything else to answer questions about the data.

5.  Visualizing data: Communicate the insights revealed by the data through visualizations.

6.  Telling a story: Investigate corporations, fraud, money laundering through our data and write about it.

Great! How do I sign up?

CODERS DATA

HUNTERS MISSIONS  missions.opencorporates.com    

Everyone

else

EMAIL  hera@opencorporates.com  

Any questions or

ideas? hera@opencorporates.com