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Locally Focused Foundations Increase Support for Community News and Information Projects - Knight Foundation

Locally Focused Foundations Increase Support for Community News and Information Projects - Knight Foundation

FOI-enabling site MuckRock.com offering free beta accounts

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Michael Morisy ([email protected]) is looking for users for the FOI-enabling website he's founded called "Muckrock.com." Email him for a free beta account. MORE: http;//www.muckrock.com

"MuckRock.com is a new website that allows journalists, bloggers, interest groups and anyone else to easily request, track and share documents through local and federal Freedom of Information processes," he says. "We have a unique request wizard that offers categories of information that can be requested, or users can request anything else that they would like. We then ensure that the request goes to the right agency and track it's progress."

When the request is fulfilled, MuckRock handles OCR'ing the document, and makes it available in a online, embedded viewer that the requester is free to use to display the documents anywhere on the web.

"An even shorter description," says Morisy. "It's a 100% legal, FOI-powered, community-generated WikiLeaks that dabbles in data analysis tools. We're currently processing requests at the state and local level in Massachusetts and at the federal level everywhere."

MuckRock launched in March in a private beta. Morisy graduated in 2007 from Cornell University, where he was managing editor of the student daily, and interned at the New York Daily News. He's now a community editor at TechTarget, a technology advisory consultancy based in Newton, Mass. MuckRock is his own effort.

http://www.muckrock.com/blog/

http://www.muckrock.com/foi/feeds/submitted/

FOI-enabling site MuckRock.com offering free beta accounts

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Michael Morisy ([email protected]) is looking for users for the FOI-enabling website he's founded called "Muckrock.com." Email him for a free beta account. MORE: http;//www.muckrock.com

"MuckRock.com is a new website that allows journalists, bloggers, interest groups and anyone else to easily request, track and share documents through local and federal Freedom of Information processes," he says. "We have a unique request wizard that offers categories of information that can be requested, or users can request anything else that they would like. We then ensure that the request goes to the right agency and track it's progress."

When the request is fulfilled, MuckRock handles OCR'ing the document, and makes it available in a online, embedded viewer that the requester is free to use to display the documents anywhere on the web.

"An even shorter description," says Morisy. "It's a 100% legal, FOI-powered, community-generated WikiLeaks that dabbles in data analysis tools. We're currently processing requests at the state and local level in Massachusetts and at the federal level everywhere."

MuckRock launched in March in a private beta. Morisy graduated in 2007 from Cornell University, where he was managing editor of the student daily, and interned at the New York Daily News. He's now a community editor at TechTarget, a technology advisory consultancy based in Newton, Mass. MuckRock is his own effort.

http://www.muckrock.com/blog/

http://www.muckrock.com/foi/feeds/submitted/

FOI-enabling site MuckRock.com offering free beta accounts

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Michael Morisy ([email protected]) is looking for users for the FOI-enabling website he's founded called "Muckrock.com." Email him for a free beta account. MORE: http;//www.muckrock.com

"MuckRock.com is a new website that allows journalists, bloggers, interest groups and anyone else to easily request, track and share documents through local and federal Freedom of Information processes," he says. "We have a unique request wizard that offers categories of information that can be requested, or users can request anything else that they would like. We then ensure that the request goes to the right agency and track it's progress."

When the request is fulfilled, MuckRock handles OCR'ing the document, and makes it available in a online, embedded viewer that the requester is free to use to display the documents anywhere on the web.

"An even shorter description," says Morisy. "It's a 100% legal, FOI-powered, community-generated WikiLeaks that dabbles in data analysis tools. We're currently processing requests at the state and local level in Massachusetts and at the federal level everywhere."

MuckRock launched in March in a private beta. Morisy graduated in 2007 from Cornell University, where he was managing editor of the student daily, and interned at the New York Daily News. He's now a community editor at TechTarget, a technology advisory consultancy based in Newton, Mass. MuckRock is his own effort.

http://www.muckrock.com/blog/

http://www.muckrock.com/foi/feeds/submitted/

Former British PM joins WWW foundation board

The Knight Foundation reports that former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has joined the board of directors of the World Wide Web Foundation. The Web Foundation was started with $5 million in seed funding by Knight Foundation and is chaired by Knight Foundation CEO Alberto Ibargüen. It was created by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, to lead transformative programs to advance the Web as a medium that empowers people to bring about positive change.

More: http://www.knightblog.org/?p=4699