At EveryBlock, we’ve talked a lot about “context”. It’s one of the things that people– especially people in the journalism community– say that the site is missing. They’re right, of course, in that we collect and present an immense amount of data without textual analysis or narrative history.
It’s one thing to note that a certain crime occurred in a certain place, but if there is no original reporting about it in the– as is the cast with the vast amount of crime– there is precious little more on EveryBlock to help people understand, “why?”
But there is a way on EveryBlock that we can provide context– when there is breaking news on a block that days before was unremarkable.
Say, for instance, that a building suddenly collapses in the middle of a block. This collapse will be covered on EveryBlock in the form of news stories and Flickr photos. If it’s a major story, the block page and surrounding area pages will fill up with content describing the event.
But the most fundamental way to find out the context of a story is to find out what happened before. The thing that interests me is the day before, the week before, the moment before the news.
On the block page for the building that collapsed, for instance, there may be a failed building inspection, a long list of building violations for water in the basement, a picture of a brick that fell off the building weeks ago, or a business review that complains of a musty smell. Little bits of info to answer “why”.
EveryBlock does this silent collection for every block of every city we cover. There is much work to do in knitting these facts into everyday knowledge, but clearly there are many ways to tell a story.