Decoding

DECODING

Decoding Data is being their first in a series of Guides that Exposing the Invisible will bring out in 2016. This one, like those coming, is based on materials that we produced while working on Exposing the Invisible along with new material we commissioned. Decoding Data should give the reader a good sense of work in progress, we don’t want to claim any uniqueness or any significance of the presented material - but it is solid selections of topics, approaches, and ideas - a great companion for those who are thinking of getting better at working with data and see how others struggled before them. For us, taking up on the entire series was sort of an internal call - here we are siting on so much great content, that if only it was given a different structure and little bit of new content here and there it could be a decent contribution to what everyone else is doing - trying to improve the way we work with data, images, sound and respect for our sources and contributors.

So yes, this guide is not comprehensive but is very condensed, and yes it might come across like a mixture of styles and organisational principles - but we don't know anyone who reads guides from A to Z (except we actually do) in a format that should not take you long to find your own way through it to get to places which will bemost interest to you.

What’s different about this Guide, yet that another guide about data In one sentence we would say - it focuses on the efficacy of data when there are some possibilities and we definitely do not fetishize its power.

The upcoming guides coming out in 2016 will be Sonic Investigation, Seeing from Above and Integrating Security into Investigations.

The Guide in numbers: 11 people from 8 countries contributed to the writing of this Guide | 20 countries were featured in 38 case studies | It is 142 A4 pages of 12pt font along with 76 images | We recommend 64 tools along with 89 resources | Metadata is mentioned 159 times, privacy 39 times and data is mentioned 798 times...

The release of data through Access to Information laws, whistle-blowers and technical and creative innovation has made more and more data publicly available. Governments and international institutions are publishing more, and a growing collection of initiatives around the world are making it easier for us to use in a meaningful way. This increased amount of data now available is being used by investigators, artists, activists and technologists to use to expose abuses and excesses of power, clarify how tax money is spent and look at how public services perform.