Deep Dives 9 - Wikileaks Archive

The ninth instalment of the Deep Dives Research Challenge series brings us back to the Wikileaks motherload. Deep Dives into the Wikileaks archives are the most popular research challenges and it's not hard to see why.

Wikileaks has built a trusted reputation for releasing authentic documents that, to date, have never been proven to be forgeries or fake. This is why founder Julian Assange characterizes the organization’s leaks as “pristine”.

This round of the research challenge is completely open-ended.

Thus, it's up to the individual contributors to find a focal point. By encouraging our contributors to follow their own interests, we believe, this allows for maximum freedom for researchers while also ensuring diversity of content.

“WikiLeaks is a giant library of the world’s most persecuted documents. We give asylum to these documents, we analyze them, we promote them and we obtain more.”

- Julian Assange

Der Spiegel

• The Wikileaks archive contains well over 10 million documents
• Wikileaks Docs have been cited in over 28,000 academic papers and US court filings
  

https://www.wikileaks.org/

Participants are able to select topics from a broad range of categories including: international politics, the economy, war, military, corporations, trade, intelligence, etc. and much more. The archive really offers endless possibilities. Use the custom search feature to sharpen your focus.

The Wikileaks Index

Back in late 2016, Wikileaks revealed the existence of a little known index that combines onsite and offsite resources relating to Wikileaks material. This invaluable tool helps make the mammoth amount of documents available on the Wikileaks website more accessible and systematic.

https://file.wikileaks.org/file/

Always Exercise Caution

When engaging in research of government websites, intelligence agencies and whistleblower sites, such as Wikileaks, we strongly urge you to take all necessary precautions.

We recommend that you take the time to properly explore available privacy tools and VPNs.

Check out the inaugural Deep Dives Challenge for tips on protecting yourself, here.

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The Wikileaks Archive Challenge

• Search the Wikileaks archive at wikileaks.org
• Find an overlooked, underrated, underreported or obscure leak/ email/ cable/document/ court filing on a topic that interests you.
• Build a post around your findings
• Provide additional sources to make your case and strengthen your position
• Explain the significance of the leak and why it’s an important piece of news that should be communicated to the public.
  
  If you’re having trouble finding a focus, begin with a person, country or topic of interest such as; Clinton / Netanyahu / Gaddafi / Saudi Arabia / China / Chemical Weapons / Free Trade / Trafficking / etc.
  
  You never know what will turn up!
  
  

Rules

• Help spread the word, resteem this post
• Limited to 1 contest entry per account
• Submissions must be made in a separate post (not in the comments)
• Submissions must be posted before the deadline (UTC - Saturday, Nov 24th 2018, 12.00.00PM)
• This research challenge is open for two weeks
• Use the lead tag “deepdives”
• Your entry must include references to a document/documents found in the Wikileaks archive
• Provide a link to the specific document or page
• Make an attempt to keep your post concise and to the point
• You may leave a link to your entry in the comments below
  
• Please, do not plagiarize the work of others
  
  Note: Longer entries with multiple links and references does not equate to higher quality. Clear and concise work with a handful of supporting sources is preferable.
  
  

Winners

The Winning Post Should

• Meet the rules criteria
• Winners will be announced 48hrs after the submission deadline
• Well researched
• Fully sourced
• Clearly presented
• Original Content (not widely reported on in the media)
• Significance should be clearly articulated
• 3 Outstanding contributions will be acknowledged
  
  

Prizes

• Liquid SBD (or STEEM) earned by the original contest post will make up the total rewards
• Example: 100 STEEM – 1st place = 50% // 2nd = 30% // 3rd = 20%
• Bonus @v4vapid & @ausbitbank upvotes and resteems for exceptional and/or original contributions
• SP earned from challenge announcements and the winner’s announcements will go to the community account @deepdives
  
  

Contributions

Those that do not ‘win’ should not view their work and efforts as being wasted. All submissions are valuable and will be contributing to building a body of research on the blockchain. We hope that contributors support each other’s efforts wherever possible whether by sharing tips, links or through constructive feedback to their fellow researchers.

Good luck and happy digging!

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Deep Dives Community

Contributors

Be sure to check out some of the great work done by Deep Dives contributors over the last several months. Past winners and contributors include:

@palikari123, @krnel, @geke, @bifilarcoil, @thoughts-in-time, @an0nkn0wledge, @gregorypatrick, @deliberator, @angryman, @richq11, @tarazkp, @v4vapid.

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Deep Dives Aims

• Promote original content
• Promote investigative journalism
• Promote focused and quality research
• Encourage community engagement
• Encourage collaboration and teamwork
• Recognize and reward high quality original content
  
  

Over time, Deep Dives aims to build a repository of high quality research and original content preserved on the blockchain.

We hope you join us in building this unique resource.

It truly is a community effort and your exceptional contributions are what fuels this project.