Importance of Volunteers
The Open Records Project consists only of volunteers.  Most have a day job doing something important.  Some are retired.  We’ve had volunteers as young as 18 and as old as 85.  There are three types of volunteers

Professionals – These are mostly computer programmers, financial analysts, and lawyers.  If you are a computer programmer, particularly a heavy database guru; Linux, C++, Java, MySQL, Hadoop Big Data, or Oracle we’d like to make your acquaintance.  We also like statisticians.  These highly skilled individuals donate the expertise that allows us to unravel complex public policy problems.

Data Diggers – These are people who make FOIA and open records requests and chase down the data.  They run to courthouses, county clerk offices, and other physical locations to retrieve records.  If you have a car and are interested, you can help, no other expertise required.

Crowd Sourcers – These individuals will take a chunk of records from the Data Diggers and perform some detailed analysis.  An example of crowd sourcing was an investigation to locate dead and duplicate voters from voter registrations.  These people work mostly in front of a computer.  Their most valuable skill is the ability to use Google and other search engines.

If you really want to make a difference in an open society, tell us how you think you can help.