About
What is the big idea here anyway? Well, our aim at recordsquest is to make public records available to all citizens, journalists, bloggers and reporters. It's a small idea really.
There is much debate about the future of newspapers, and many are uncertain about what will happen. One of the major critiques journalists level against folks trying to do reporting is that they do not do original reporting, but simply recycle news from newspapers. The same has been said about radio and television—but that is not the point. What we can do right here, right now is prove them wrong.
recordsquest aims to supplement online news by offering relevant public records alongside any given story. If you are reading a news story online, why should you have to take that reporters word for it? Wouldn't it be nice to just click on a citation, and download the relevant public record? The entire readership of any news website would be fact checkers!
Follow up stories would abound. Debunking journalists and big shot opinion columnists would become the norm. Letters to the editor would be backgrounded on fact, and journalists printing a story online could say, "If you don't believe me, take a look for yourself."
Also, this can make the analysis of public records a routine act of democratic participation. High school civics taught us that an informed public is good for democracy, didn't it? So, lets get informed.
Maybe now you are wondering how it works?
In order to take a test drive you are going to have to learn something new. But learning is fun, right? To start downloading and sharing the public records that will expose the next Watergate scandal you will need a BitTorrent client.
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