How to be a Roads Scholar

Roads Scholarhow to be a

Simple question kickstarted investigation: Why doesn’t anybody drive on this toll road?

4 bloggers joined forces. None of us were journalists.

Team included lawyer, programmer, environmental activist & social worker.

Ultimate crowdsourcing experience resulted in a week-long series of posts.

Non-compete contracts between the E-470 Toll Road Authority and local communities

was a treasure trove.

Non-competes designed to protect toll road investors and make driving on public road miserable.

Local governments forced to lower speed limits, defer maintenance, add new stop signs and

promise no new competing roads.

Testified to Colorado House Transportation Cmte:

Cities blackmailed into lending $20M taxpayer dollars to shore up the road’s shaky private finances.

Energized community groups fighting new toll road projects.

State changed laws to protect land owners. New public-private toll roads were halted.

How to create your own open government crowdsourced reporting.

Request specific documents. No fishing expeditions

Be nice to public workers retrieving info. They’re often limited by technology not desire to help you.

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.

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.

Decide upfront how to tell the story: Serialize. Visualize. Video. Mobile. Social media.

Timing is everything. Find a news hook.

Make it as easy as possible for the media to pick up the story.

Engage in collective intelligence:

Help each other by copy editing, sharing documents and researching issues.

Assign a naysayer for fact-checking and logic flow.

Figure out a distribution strategy to get the information to the community and advocacy groups.

Have a strategy for merging your investigation into the political realm.

Identify your action goals: new legislation, revised law, regulatory change, etc.

Take a victory lap.

Promote your work under a Creative Commons license to help distribute it far and wide.

Wendy Norriswnorris@stanford.edu

@wendynorris

Roads Scholarthat’s how you can be a

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