Collaboration becomes civic memory

"I've spent a fair amount of 2025 toggling between my parents' MyChart accounts. From scheduling appointments to reviewing test results, I - and their doctors - have a one-stop shop for managing their various healthcare needs. A hematologist can request lab work, and a gastroenterologist can review the data before recommending a medication or procedure. Everyone is working from the same information. It's time-stamped, efficient, and verifiable."

"We don't need a mega newsroom. We need an infrastructure layer - a shared repository to upload interviews, link articles, and dump the results of open records requests - all with a clear chain-of-custody protocol. Imagine clicking into one page for that $5.5 billion proposal and seeing the ordinance language, key budget tables and project lists, interview transcripts, legislative timelines, and publishing schedules."

MyChart demonstrates how a centralized, time-stamped system lets clinicians and family caregivers access the same information to coordinate care. In Atlanta, multiple governing bodies are deliberating a $5.5 billion plan to redirect property tax revenue toward mayor-requested neighborhood investments instead of placing funds in each jurisdiction's general fund. Coverage of the proposal is widespread but fragmented, with interviews, records, and reporting isolated across outlets, causing duplication and hindering verification of claims, amendments, and votes. A shared civic repository with chain-of-custody, linked documents, timelines, and publishing schedules would centralize materials and enable coordinated verification across newsrooms.

Read at Nieman Lab