powerbaseacollaborativeresourceformonitoringpower.docVIP

Powerbase: A collaborative resource for monitoring power networks David Miller and Idrees Ahmad In early 2009, the Public Interest reporting website Spinwatch launched Powerbase a collaborative database on power networks. Powerbase is a Wiki-based free encyclopaedia of individuals, institutions and issues shaping the public agenda, from PR and lobbying firms, to government agencies. Powerbase focuses on power networks, on how they are organised and on associated issues such as ‘spin’ and propaganda in politics, the corporate world and elsewhere. It includes significant resources on neoconservative networks, terrorism expertise, policing and intelligence agencies. The project aims to serve as a resource for journalists, activists and academics, as an educational, campaigning, or knowledge transfer tool. Its research is produced under a GNU Free Documentation License to ensure free availability. By laying bare the professed or hidden affiliations of powerful actors, it seeks to highlight conflicts of interest, hidden agendas promote transparency in public life. One of the most important elements of the site is that the many links between Powerbase pages on related subjects mean that the pages are picked up and highly ranked by Google. As a result, research conducted one day is easily available to any person around the world with an interest and an internet connection the next. The database also serves as a collaborative resource for compiling data and references that can later be turned into articles for other publications. This makes it an ideal resource for investigative research as it blends research and publication seamlessly. Powerbase investigations have been covered in a wide variety of outlets including the Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, The Times Higher Education, Private Eye, The Ecologist, and the British Medical Journal as well as on numerous websites all over the world. Powerbase has a range of contributors incl