DocumentCloud
Encyclopedia
DocumentCloud is a web-based software platform created for journalists to allow the searching, analyzing, annotation and publication of primary source documents used in reporting. It is the only two-time Knight News Challenge grantee. Journalists from newsrooms including the New York Times, ProPublica
, the LA Times, the Guardian
, PBS, the Las Vegas Sun
and other news organizations have uploaded over 1.5 million pages to DocumentCloud as of June of 2011.
and Aron Pilhofer at the New York Times as one of the Knight Foundation News Challenge grantees for 2009. The Knight News Challenge grant was awarded to Umansky, Pilhofer and Klein to build and operate DocumentCloud as an open source-based resource for journalists.
DocumentCloud also relies on a range of open source projects, including:
for building model-based design. It implements a variant of the Model–View–Controller framework.
ProPublica
ProPublica is a non-profit corporation based in New York City. It describes itself as an independent non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. In 2010 it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its...
, the LA Times, the Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, PBS, the Las Vegas Sun
Las Vegas Sun
The Las Vegas Sun is a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper. It is one of Las Vegas, Nevada's two daily newspapers. It is owned by the Greenspun family and is affiliated with Greenspun Media Group....
and other news organizations have uploaded over 1.5 million pages to DocumentCloud as of June of 2011.
Knight News Challenge Grant 2009
DocumentCloud was founded as a non-profit organization by Eric Umansky and Scott Klein at ProPublicaProPublica
ProPublica is a non-profit corporation based in New York City. It describes itself as an independent non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. In 2010 it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its...
and Aron Pilhofer at the New York Times as one of the Knight Foundation News Challenge grantees for 2009. The Knight News Challenge grant was awarded to Umansky, Pilhofer and Klein to build and operate DocumentCloud as an open source-based resource for journalists.
Knight News Challenge Grant 2011
Credited as a success for the Knight News Challenge, DocumentCloud was once again awarded a grant by the Knight Foundation as part of their 2011 grantees. The 2011 grant is intended to add interactive functionality to DocumentCloud to directly engage document readers for purposes other than mere document reading, with the primary target being annotations by readers.Merger with Investigative Reporters & Editors
DocumentCloud merged with Investigative Reporters & Editors, a membership based journalism non-profit, in the summer of 2011 as part of DocumentCloud's search for a stable and sustainable home. As of the merge, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) took primary responsibility for maintenance and future development of the platform, including DocumentCloud's 2011 Knight News Challenge grant.Open Source Software
DocumentCloud is built entirely on open source software, and is the originator of several notable open source projects, including Backbone.js, Jammit and Underscore.js.DocumentCloud also relies on a range of open source projects, including:
- the TesseractTesseract (software)Tesseract is a free software optical character recognition engine for various operating systems.Originally developed as proprietary software at Hewlett-Packard between 1985 and 1995, it had very little work done on it in the following decade. It was then released as open source in 2005 by Hewlett...
optical character recognition library - Ruby on RailsRuby on RailsRuby on Rails, often shortened to Rails or RoR, is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.-History:...
web framework - the SinatraSinatra (software)Sinatra is a free and open source web application library and domain-specific language written in Ruby. It is an alternative to other Ruby web application frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, Merb, Nitro, Camping, and Rango. It is dependent on the Rack web server interface.Designed and developed by...
ruby micro web framework - OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice
Backbone.js
Backbone.js (read "back bone JS") is a JavaScript libraryJavaScript library
A JavaScript library is a library of pre-written JavaScript which allows for easier development of JavaScript-based applications, especially for AJAX and other web-centric technologies....
for building model-based design. It implements a variant of the Model–View–Controller framework.
Additional Citations
- DocumentCloud's potential outside of Journalism ProfHacker blog in The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Sunlight Foundation Introduction to DocumentCloud
- Interview with DocumentCloud co-founder Aron Pilhofer by the Online Journalism Review
- Neimanlab's encyclopedia entry for DocumentCloud