Aaron Swartz's newest project: watchdog.net

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/watchdog

by rob • 18 years ago

36 16 18 years ago

henning2• 18 years ago

I've thought about doing something kind of like this in the past (tying together tons of data on corporations and individuals -- campaign finance, tax and financial info, etc) but concluded that to make it meaningful (rather than looking like a big data dump) would require a collaborative effort approaching that of Wikipedia and abandoned it.

The question is, you know X donated money to Y at a certain date, and Y is on the board of Z Corp, and ... so what? I never could figure out an answer.

aaronsw3• 18 years ago

Yeah, this was the bit that held me up on the data site for a long time. It didn't seem like succeeding could do anything but depress people. But talking to others in this sphere, there are some legitimate things you can do with the data: for example, Dennis Hastert (R-IL) recently had to resign in part because of some earmark data that someone uncovered; he was replaced by a pro-reform Dem particle physicist a month ago. So I think connecting it up to the media and building voter scorecards and stuff out of it could be effective.

tjr• 18 years ago

Indeed, if making such information easily available results in "actual changes", as opposed to merely "availability of information", then this would be totally awesome.

Of course, a website like this can only make the information available, but hopefully it will be used productively. Best wishes!

jraines• 18 years ago

I wonder which of his other ones are still going strong. Jobbook seems abandoned even though it was a great idea (or at least, addresses a real need).

There are a lot of organizations doing really good watchdog work -- the problem is getting people to pay attention.

henning2• 18 years ago

Sometimes it's impossible to resist the appealing thought that there are purely technological solutions to social problems.

randallsquared• 18 years ago

Technology is the only thing that has ever solved social problems. You just have to find the right technological solution. :)

aaronsw3• 18 years ago

Open Library, the other main thing I've been working on, is set to go 1.0 this week. So I guess that could be a qualified success. I did a more detailed review of projects on my blog: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/projects2007

Jobbook was a project I was doing with Seth Roberts; it got abandoned largely because Seth's publisher demanded that he stop working on it and focus on finishing his real book. If someone else wants to pick it that would be cool; I agree it addresses a real need.

deepsea• 18 years ago

A lot of interesting projects listed there.

Do you form some sort of business entity (like an LLC) to own such projects, or do you simply put them up on the web yourself?

What if one or more of them start making money?

ten-seven• 18 years ago

It's been done, in several different forms. It depends on your political leaning how you manage to do it. His politics is evident from other writings. Using the name "watchdog" gives it an air of legitimacy it may not, or ever, deserve.

apu• 18 years ago

Just because it's been done doesn't mean it can't be done again, better. And as long as relevant data is pulled for all candidates irrespective of affiliation, his political leaning should not matter.

Badlogin• 18 years ago

UK has had this for ages: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ http://www.writetothem.com/

Alex3917• 18 years ago

It seems like Aaron would benefit from writing down both his goals and assumptions.

xlnt• 18 years ago

So what is his plan to avoid the site being biased?

inklesspen• 18 years ago

How are his other projects doing? If I were going to get involved, I'd want to look at his track record of commitment, or lack thereof.

Aaron Swartz's newest project: watchdog.net

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