understanding & mapping corporate networks with open data
TRANSCRIPT
Understanding & mapping
CORPORATE NETWORKS
Introductions The Problem The power of corporate networks How investigators record corporate networks currently Octopus & Demo The power of visualizations of corporate networks How to become part of the movement
WORKSHOP
INTRODUCING
Hera Hussain
OpenCorporates: The World’s Company House
Community & Partnerships Manager
the largest open database of companies in the world. In 3 years, we have gathered legal and financial information on over 70 million companies in 70 jurisdictions worldwide.
OpenCorporates
PROBLEM The
TRANSNATIONAL
FAR TOO MANY GAPS IN WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT
CORPORATIONS
There are
The Top 20 firms included companies such as Serco, IBM, Morgan Sindall, Capita Business Services, Kier MG Limited and Willmott Dixon Construction Limited.
power of corporate networks
The
ANONYMOUS COMPANIES CAMPAIGN TED Prize Winner 2014
HOW DO INVESTIGATORS RECORD
NETWORKS?
STATUS QUO
PROBLEM WITH
HAND WRITTEN NOTES, UNLOVED
SPREADSHEETS & PROPRIETARY
SOLUTIONS
A mapping tool that enables investigators to build complex corporate networks from open data. bit.ly/octopusit
OCTOPUS ALPHA
PROPRIETARY COMPETITORS • Upto £5000/licence • Refuse access to data once payments
are stopped • Proprietary identifiers
DEMO
INFLUENCE OF CORPORATIONS? VISUALISATIONS
HOW WE BEGIN TO MAP
Let’s start with…
BP network in OCTOPUS
ADVANCED VISUALISATION
ADVANCED VISUALISATION
MYSTERY / UNRESOLVED QUESTIONS
“Why do all BP’s Cayman Island incorporations seem to be concentrated on pipelines and the Caucasus? Does it use a Belgian affiliate to handle earnings from the Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq, and if so is that for reasons of tax efficiency? Did a tiny company owned by Price Waterhouse Cooper take over legal compliance functions for huge parts of its network in mid-2010 as part of a “Macondo shield”, to insulate BP executives from possible liabilities over the Gulf of Mexico spill?”
WHAT DID THIS ACHIEVE?
WHAT NETWORKS
WOULD YOU MAP?
OCTOPUS TOOLKIT
HOW TO INVESTIGATE COMPANIES Investigating Companies: A Do-It-Yourself Handbook by Corporate Watch OpenCorporates blog series • Understanding corporate networks. Part 1: Control via
equity” Click here. • Understanding corporate networks. Part 2: Control
without voting” Click here. • Understanding corporate networks. Part 3: where’s the
data? Click here. Share this document by sharing this link: http://bit.ly/octopustoolkit
HOW YOU CAN BE PART OF
THE MOVEMENT
h#ps://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/3129100592/in/photostream/
SHARE YOUR WORK Add the networks you
have already mapped to octopus
as Open data!
1
h#ps://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/3129100592/in/photostream/
Start a new network For your next campaign on
corporate transparency
2
h#ps://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/3129100592/in/photostream/
HOST A
OCTOPUS-ATHON
3
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CHANGE THE WORLD 1. Finding data: Hunting down data sources that can be
scraped. 2. Getting more data: Write code to release open data
through bots 3. Researching & Analyzing data: Crunch and analyze the
data to find out what it tells us. 4. Answer questions about data: Use your knowledge
about law, the finance industry, a country or anything else to answer questions about the data.
5. Visualizing data: Communicate the insights revealed by the data through visualizations.
6. Telling a story: Investigate corporations, fraud, money laundering through our data and write about it.
Great! How do I sign up?
CODERS DATA
HUNTERS MISSIONS missions.opencorporates.com
Everyone
else
EMAIL [email protected]
