Storyful’s Irish Election Open Database is now live. The database, featuring information on every candidate running in the 2016 general election, was developed during an “electathon” with DCU’s journalism students on November 6. One of those students, Aura McMenamin writes:
On November 6th, a group of seven DCU students visited the gleaming Storyful offices on Lower Mount St. We were there for the Irish Electathon. In short, we were creating a database of every single person running in the 2016 General Election.
We each chose a few constituencies to focus on for the day. By looking at different sources, such as Adrian Kavanagh's blog and Election Hub, we got a thorough list of various candidates. The database included basic information such as their DOB, gender, constituency and previous governmental positions. However, the main aim of the database is to detail their social media. We spent the day meticulously searching for and verifying their social media accounts. Aside from their profile on a party website or their personal website, we sourced their Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and even Snapchat.
We used what we learned in our journalism course to make sure each account was legitimate. We checked for verified accounts and read through their posts and interactions with other people on social media to gauge their veracity. For current ministers or TDs, we made sure to call mobile phone numbers from their old profiles on county council websites to make sure they were still in use. The database also covered an estimate of the expenses TDs and ministers have claimed on a yearly basis.
The database will be available publicly for citizens to access information about candidates seeking their vote. During the campaign buzz, voters will have a one-stop database to find as much social media access to a candidate as possible. An open source API will help news organizations, universities and others to build tools and to build stories around the election debate.
Two students, Jordan and Eoin Luc made a video of the day to be used to promote the database.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Eh-Si9bcQ[/embed]
