An interview with David Herzog as he begins his Fellowship year.
By Alecia Swasy
One issue, especially in smaller cities and counties, however, is whether they've moved beyond a paper ledger.
If you take David Herzog's computer-assisted reporting class at the Missouri School of Journalism, get ready to exhume the grit buried inside state agencies – highway accidents, missing persons and registered pesticide users.
It's a goldmine for journalists, eager to quantify trends in the news. Now Herzog wants to create a website where anyone can dig around and learn about Missouri data on everything from amusement park rides to revocation of teacher certifications. The project, called "Open Missouri," is the focus of his 2010-11 Donald W. Reynolds Fellowship at the Reynolds Journalism Institute.
"There's a burgeoning transparency movement in the United States," says Herzog, associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism. He applied for the RJI Fellowship to "kick start things in Missouri. It's something people can go to and learn about state government."
The main domain, openmissouri.org, will be the gateway for people to see what databases are maintained offline by the state of Missouri. "Many people will benefit from this: Citizens who are interested in the operations of government, journalists, Realtors or librarians."
Open Missouri is an outgrowth of his work teaching Computer Assisted Reporting classes at Mizzou and at week-long boot camps for members of Investigative Reporters and Editors.
He's also the academic adviser for the National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting, based alongside IRE at the School of Journalism. NICAR's database library maintains 40 federal databases, such as campaign contributions, which is updated weekly. "IRE and NICAR help journalists short cut the process with federal data," Herzog says. "Open Missouri will help do the same for citizens and journalists here in Missouri."
The initial phase of Open Missouri will be a sort of card catalog, or a guide, to what the state of Missouri keeps in offline databases. The site will also feature a swap section where users can share what they've obtained from state agencies. "It helps to have more context on what's out there," says Herzog, a Temple University graduate who worked as a reporter at the Providence Journal before joining Mizzou's faculty.
Herzog hopes to have the early version of Open Missouri up and running in November. Initially, it will be focused on state agencies, which maintain a myriad of data such as an inventory of the state's dams or the Attorney General's office list of major prosecutions. "The potential for the future could include city or county branches," Herzog says. One issue, especially in smaller cities and counties, however, is whether they've moved beyond a paper ledger. "A lot might not keep many records in computers," he says.
Herzog also plans to have a symposium during Sunshine Week in the spring of 2011 to showcase the benefits of government transparency. And there's potential for an e-book that would serve as a guide for others to set up their own website in the other 49 states. "I want to build a community of people who are interested in government data and have a community of people contributing," he says.
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