how to be a roads scholar
TRANSCRIPT
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Roads Scholarhow to be a
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Simple question kickstarted investigation: Why doesn’t anybody drive on this toll road?
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4 bloggers joined forces. None of us were journalists.
Team included lawyer, programmer, environmental activist & social worker.
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Ultimate crowdsourcing experience resulted in a week-long series of posts.
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Non-compete contracts between the E-470 Toll Road Authority and local communities
was a treasure trove.
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Non-competes designed to protect toll road investors and make driving on public road miserable.
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Local governments forced to lower speed limits, defer maintenance, add new stop signs and
promise no new competing roads.
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Testified to Colorado House Transportation Cmte:
Cities blackmailed into lending $20M taxpayer dollars to shore up the road’s shaky private finances.
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Energized community groups fighting new toll road projects.
State changed laws to protect land owners. New public-private toll roads were halted.
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How to create your own open government crowdsourced reporting.
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Request specific documents. No fishing expeditions
Be nice to public workers retrieving info. They’re often limited by technology not desire to help you.
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Make a librarian your very best friendto help research open government issues.
Ask state press association for tips on media rights and open record/open meetings law.
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Pay attention to the big picture. Use sidebars not body copy for details.
Write explainers on complex parts and link back to posts to keep the length manageable.
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Decide upfront how to tell the story: Serialize. Visualize. Video. Mobile. Social media.
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Timing is everything. Find a news hook.
Make it as easy as possible for the media to pick up the story.
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Engage in collective intelligence:
Help each other by copy editing, sharing documents and researching issues.
Assign a naysayer for fact-checking and logic flow.
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Figure out a distribution strategy to get the information to the community and advocacy groups.
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Have a strategy for merging your investigation into the political realm.
Identify your action goals: new legislation, revised law, regulatory change, etc.
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Take a victory lap.
Promote your work under a Creative Commons license to help distribute it far and wide.
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Wendy [email protected]
@wendynorris
Roads Scholarthat’s how you can be a
want to know more? contact me: