CBC’s story about a Hamilton man who found 1920s-era German bonds in an abandoned safe is the first time I’ve seen CBC using DocumentCloud.
DocumentCloud is a powerful document presentation online software package that allows – among many features – for easy annotation of source documents.
What this could mean in Hamilton
If CBC Hamilton uses DocumentCloud for displaying source documents, we’ll benefit from increased access to primary information and explanation of that information.
City committee agendas are lengthy, not indexed, and sometimes lacking in background explanations. They are public documents written for internal users. Using DocumentCloud’s annotation feature to provide “external” (citizen) readers with a better understanding of what council and committees are discussing will improve civic governance by increasing the information at the disposal of citizens.
Any news organization can use DocumentCloud. There is no cost for use, it’s advertising free, and doesn’t decrease the privacy of users. (Other third-party document viewers make their money by tracking readers)
If both news organizations use DocumentCloud, it will be a major step towards the future of news organizations from conduits for information to becoming conduits toinformation.