UPDATE: there is now a dedicated page for the Nigeria Extractives Data Expedition here
Who operates the often poisonous wells in the Niger Delta? How does the money flow between the contractors running the oil fields and the government?
Join us for an online Data Expedition to Investigate the Extractive Industries of Nigeria, December 7, Noon-18:00 CET / Lagos (11:00-17:00 London, 8am-1pm New York).
The problem: Companies hide in plain sight
Data on the extractives industry is increasingly going public, from EITI‘s information about money flows from companies to governments to the UK’s decision to make its register of the beneficial owners of private companies public in the future. As more information about the oil, gas and mining industries makes it into the public domain, more people living in resource-rich countries have the potential to benefit. Information transparency can lead to greater public scrutiny of these industries that affect so many lives. Databases such as OpenCorporates are rapidly expanding and making companies involved in extractives and other industries easier to trace. Meanwhile, other data published in local media or tucked away in companies’ annual reports has seemingly been hiding in plain sight for years.
What are we going to do?
We want to begin cracking this data open and analysing it to facilitate investigations by journalists, organisations, activists and governments who all need to know how extractives impact people’s lives. In collaboration with OpenOil, School of Data will bring together those with an interest in learning to work with data to help tackle some of the biggest issues in the extractive industries today, with a focus on Nigeria. The Data Expedition will complement our recently launched Follow the Money network, which pushes for the transparency needed to help citizens around the world use information about public money to hold decision-makers to account.
What will you learn?
- Network analysis: Investigate the corporate supply chain in Nigeria’s oil industry by using networks to see who is connected to whom
- Corporate research: Cut through generic names like “Shell” and “Exxon” to identify the specific corporate vehicles responsible for activities in places such as the Niger Delta
- Mapping: Work with maps of geo-coded oil spills, company license areas and other data to draw connections that might not be apparent in text-based media
- Web-scraping: Find company data and establish leads for other investigations related to the oil industry by scraping the web
Data journalist, open government nerd and Community Coordinator at OpenSpending.
