New AP platform to help reporters access hyper local data

The Associated Press is launching an initiative to provide reporters with local data to assist them in reporting the effects of issues on the public. Joining with Data.world, AP is providing a platform to enable users to collaborate in analyzing data. “The beauty of the Data.world platform is that users can set their own permission settings for individual data sets. This means that the AP can import its data and hash out conclusions in private before expressing confidence and opening up the work to readers,” writes John Mannes in TechCrunch, March 3, 2017.

The AP has been helping states and towns with data quests. In one recent instance an AP analysis of data from Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf showed that towns using full-time state police personnel pay only a fraction of what other towns pay for local police departments. The governor wants towns with state coverage to pay more. (The Reporter, February 16, 2017, by Mark Levy of the Associated Press)