EIJC17 & Dataharvest

Follow the money: Close to 500 billion of EU subsidies flow back into the member states through a complex system of subsidies, grants and regional funds. Information on who receives these funds is scattered over a web of regional and national data portals.Up to now, we could not compare projects and spending across member states and regions. Subsidystories has changed that. We brought the data from the regional and national EU funding portal together in one place. We standardize it so that it can be made comparable, visualized and analyzed. In this presentation, we will show how we have traced the EU funds and give the audience insights in the data and start the conversation on how to uncover stories in the data, and hear different local and national angles to the leads and stories that we have found so far. This project was started last year at the hackday of DataHarvest and in February of this year we finally had the data together and launched in March. We will also address with the audience how we - as an Open Data NGO - tried to cater to journalists and worked with freelancers and volunteers throughout the project. We struggled with open data vs. embargoed data and eventually decided to set up a group of hunch hunters to work with the data in the open, but try to find exclusive stories. In the session we will first demonstrate the platform, discuss the data, the process and our findings. We will ask the audience for their local or national angle on the stories and leads that we have found so far. In the second part, we will discuss how we can better cater to journalists in the future, if volunteers and hunch hunters work, and how to balance open data and exclusivity. NOTE: THIS PRESENTATION IS FOLLOWED BY A HANDS-ON WORKSHOP AND NETWORKING ROUND TABLE FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO DIG INTO THE DATA IMMEDIATELY AND MAYBE FORM TEAMS OF JOURNALISTS.