Recently I was on an Open Data conference in Amsterdam, I meet people from OpenCorporates, they have developed a toolkit that they call Octopus. This toolkit is a series of research tools on how to investigate companies and other types of organizations.
Before you get started in doing an investigation into a company, you might want to head over to this website and pick up a copy of the book – Investigating Companies: A Do-It-Yourself Handbook by Corporate Watch
Next step would be to take a look at the 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.
As you know there are many companies that have anonymous subsidiaries or are completely anonymous, to tap into this area of anonymous companies you should get started with Idiot’s Guide to Anonymous Companies by Global Witness.
To get a view of a company, head over to the Open Company Data Index by OpenCorporates to see how open company registrars are around the world and what data is available.
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