I gave this presentation at the Open Development Camp in Amsterdam, October 2014.

1. Understanding&mapping
CORPORATENETWORKS

2. Introductions
The Problem
The power of corporate networks
How investigators record corporate
networks currently
Octopus & Demo
The power of visualizations of corporate
networks
How to become part of the movement
WORKSHOP

3. INTRODUCING
Hera Hussain
OpenCorporates: The World’s Company House
Community & Partnerships Manager

4. the largest open database of companies in the world.
In 3 years, we have gathered legal and financial information on over
70 million companies in 70 jurisdictions worldwide.
OpenCorporates

5. PROBLEM
The

6. TRANSNATIONAL
FARTOOMANYGAPS
INWHATWEKNOWABOUT
CORPORATIONS
There are

7. The Top 20 firms included companies such as
Serco, IBM, Morgan Sindall, Capita Business
Services, Kier MG Limited and Willmott Dixon
Construction Limited.

14. powerofcorporate
networks
The

15. ANONYMOUSCOMPANIESCAMPAIGN
TED Prize Winner 2014

16. HOWDOINVESTIGATORSRECORD
NETWORKS?
STATUSQUO

17. PROBLEMWITH
HANDWRITTENNOTES,UNLOVED
SPREADSHEETS &PROPRIETARY
SOLUTIONS

18. A mapping tool that enables investigators to build complex
corporate networks from open data.
bit.ly/octopusit
OCTOPUS ALPHA

25. PROPRIETARYCOMPETITORS
• Upto £5000/licence
• Refuse access to data once payments
are stopped
• Proprietary identifiers

26. DEMO

27. INFLUENCEOFCORPORATIONS?
VISUALISATIONS
HOWWEBEGINTOMAP

29. Let’sstartwith…

30. BPnetworkinOCTOPUS

31. ADVANCEDVISUALISATION

32. ADVANCEDVISUALISATION

33. MYSTERY/UNRESOLVEDQUESTIONS
“Why do all BP’s Cayman Island incorporations
seem to be concentrated on pipelines and the
Caucasus? Does it use a Belgian affiliate to
handle earnings from the Rumaila oil field in
southern Iraq, and if so is that for reasons of
tax efficiency? Did a tiny company owned by
Price Waterhouse Cooper take over legal
compliance functions for huge parts of its
network in mid-2010 as part of a “Macondo
shield”, to insulate BP executives from possible
liabilities over the Gulf of Mexico spill?”

34. WHATDIDTHIS
ACHIEVE?

35. WHATNETWORKS
WOULDYOUMAP?

36. OCTOPUSTOOLKIT

37. HOWTOINVESTIGATECOMPANIES
Investigating Companies: A Do-It-Yourself Handbook by
Corporate Watch
OpenCorporates blog series
• Understanding corporate networks. Part 1: Control via
equity” Click here.
• Understanding corporate networks. Part 2: Control
without voting” Click here.
• Understanding corporate networks. Part 3: where’s the
data? Click here.
Share this document by sharing this link:
http://bit.ly/octopustoolkit

38. HOWYOUCANBEPARTOF
THEMOVEMENT

39. h#ps://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/
3129100592/in/photostream/
SHAREYOURWORK
Addthenetworksyou
havealreadymappedtooctopus
asOpendata!
1

40. h#ps://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/
3129100592/in/photostream/
Startanewnetwork
Foryournextcampaignon
corporatetransparency
2

41. h#ps://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/
3129100592/in/photostream/
HOST A
OCTOPUS-ATHON
3

42. WENEEDYOURHELPTOCHANGETHEWORLD
1. Finding data: Hunting down data sources that can be
scraped.
2. Getting more data: Write code to release open data
through bots
3. Researching & Analyzing data: Crunch and analyze the
data to find out what it tells us.
4. Answer questions about data: Use your knowledge
about law, the finance industry, a country or anything
else to answer questions about the data.
5. Visualizing data: Communicate the insights revealed by
the data through visualizations.
6. Telling a story: Investigate corporations, fraud, money
laundering through our data and write about it.

43. Great!HowdoIsignup?
CODERS
DATA
HUNTERS MISSIONS
missions.opencorporates.com
Everyone
else
EMAIL
hera@opencorporates.com

44. Anyquestionsor
ideas?
hera@opencorporates.com