The Outlook: the secret sauce of CLIP's data commons

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馃摦In this week鈥檚 newsletter, we bring you the main learnings from the听Virtual Newsroom Visit to CLIP听– the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism.

听weaves the ecosystem of investigative journalism in Latin America while fostering collaborative cross-border investigations in the public interest. Since its foundation, CLIP has led or participated in听45 cross-border collaborative investigations听in the region, partnering with听more than 140 media and civil society organizations.

听CLIP’s team hosting IPI Media Innovation Visit:听

Emiliana Garc铆a,听General Manager
Rigoberto Carvajal, Information Architect and Tech Lead
Jos茅 Luis Pe帽arredonda, Community Editor
Angela Cantador, Journalist

听

The challenge: delivering costly investigative reporting

Computer-assisted reporting has been a听. Yet, for many media organizations, the task of data collection comes at a high cost to time, money and human resources, in addition to often limited access and lack of cybersecurity measures to keep the investigative process safe.

CLIP has been pioneering innovation in the region and with their own technological and data team, developing听tools by and for journalists, to facilitate collaboration and journalistic research. In 2020 CLIP’s team developed听, a data community for Latin America, which was the focus of the newsroom visit.

The solution: a decentralised data commons

NINA is a data commons that connects听40 databases, including CLIP鈥檚 own databases in more than听21 countries. It currently has 412听users across the region and has had a transformative effect on delivering large-scale cross-border investigations, like听, and听.

听What does NINA do?听To put it simply, it optimises work times. It is a research tool that allows journalists to:

To quickly search public procurement databases and other public and private databases from various countries in the region, all in one search result
To cross-reference information between countries; speeding up their investigations and uncovering new stories
To learn how to use tech tools for their investigations

Originally conceived in 2019, NINA was finally created with a grant from听. In line with the mission of CLIP, collaboration was at the heart of the product, highlighted听Emiliana Garc铆a, CLIP’s General Manager.

The methodology behind uploading data to NINA followed several principles:

听Potential for stories:听听whether coming from CLIP鈥檚 investigations or current events
听Potential closure or block of public data in certain countries:听听to avoid losing valuable data
听No local hub:听for example, in certain countries, like Nicaragua
听Easy API access:听in countries like Costa Rica, where is it easy to navigate public databases

馃挕

Watch the full event to see a demo by听Angela Cantador – 听CLIP鈥檚 journalist to find out how you can start using the tool.

Since launching NINA, CLIP has hosted听12 workshops听on using the tool and showcased it in over听25 webinars and conferences. These opportunities are used to receive feedback and continuously improve the UX experience. In one of such workshops, the idea of allowing journalists to add their own databases has been brought up and has since become a feature of NINA called听DAPIS. In 2023 – NINA connected to more databases, like听听and听.

“The real magic of NINA is that all the APIs speak different languages, have different parameters and responses, so NINA makes this translation and has the ability to map all these APIs to convert all the responses and requests in a standard structure”, said听Rigoberto Carvajal, CLIP’s Information Architect and Tech Lead.

NINA keeps evolving, in 2024 they developed an听AI chatbot –听that allows “knowledge data search” that allows to simultaneously search both structured and unstructured databases, providing precise references for the query results.听A user can provide a query in English for a search in Spanish-language documents, as well as听request data to be provided in CSV format. Moreover, each user can restrict access to the data and ensure the privacy of the data sources.听“This is as good as gets, as a solution for using chatbots in journalism”, said听Jos茅 Luis Pe帽arredonda,听CLIP’s Community Editor.

Innovation Deck

Voices Festival is back for a second edition, this time in Zagreb, Croatia! Get your free ticket to attend from 28 February to 1 March a unique event designed to reflect on themes shaping our relationship with information and media today. Featuring high-level debates and workshops on pressing issues such as AI, disinformation and climate journalism, as well as a captivating play and film screenings.

Other opportunities

馃搷Global, deadline:听15 February 2025
馃搷Global South, deadline: 28 February 2025

Share your thoughts, reach out to the Media Innovation team and help us shape our media support programmes!听Say hi 鈥撎�[email protected].

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