Reports that Matter

The reports of official inquiries are often a gold-mine of high-quality information on matters of public importance. However, these reports are often inaccessible or hard to find and even when findable are difficult to use. This project will collect, archive and structure official reports from around the world making them permanently and reliably available and presenting their contents such that users can search, browse and analyse them quickly and easily. Even when material is findable it is usually locked up in inaccessible .pdf files that can be large files, hundreds of pages long, which are frequently unsearchable because they are scans of paper documents rather than digital documents.

Inspiration

The inspiration came from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, whose reports were publicly available online — a formative experience showing how open publication can support collective reckoning and understanding.