It has been a little while since I last checked in, but I do have something exciting to share. PRI, in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity (www.CPI.org) and Global Integrity (ww.globalintegrity.org) is embarking on an adventure combining investigative journalism, crowdsourcing, and government transparency and effectiveness, all in one package, the Corruption Index. (We announced this project a couple of months ago and are currently hiring positions to help make this happen.) The Omidyar Network and the Rita Allen Foundation are our primary funders for this project.
The Project will hire political reporters in every state capital and rank the 50 states for susceptibility to corruption and will use the methodology developed by Global Integrity which previously developed a ranking system at a nation-state level, evaluating countries on key indicators that are essential to mitigate corruption. These learnings will be translated at a state-level. For example, political financing laws, civil service management and state budget processes will be reviewed. The project team will also create online data, reporting and technology tools to empower citizens to demand greater transparency and effectiveness.
PRI will work with its 880 partner radio stations and key national programs like PRI's The World to inspire people through crowdsourcing and social media to take part in the project and spread the results.
Its like an evolving, organic and living investigative journalism project in partnership with the public. I will give updates as we learn from this ambitious effort and will share the victories, failures, and learnings!
