Position: Who\u2019s Who Wiki Data Extraction Programmer<\/p>\n
Type: Full-time staff position (following 3-6 month trial period)<\/p>\n
Location: Mexico City, Mexico<\/p>\n
Start Date: September or October 2012<\/p>\n
Compensation: 12,500\u201320,000 MXP (approx. 1,000\u20131,600 USD) plus benefits, depending upon
\nexperience<\/p>\n
Who Are We Looking For?<\/p>\n
Are you creative, intelligent, and committed to issues of social justice? Do you thrive in a start-up
\nenvironment? Do you have experience with web scraping and\/or data mining? Are you a fluent Spanish
\nspeaker and also able to write perfectly in English? Are you willing to live in Mexico City? And would
\nyou relish the chance to be part of something big from the very start? PODER is a young organization
\ndeveloping a new web-based platform to improve corporate transparency and accountability in Latin
\nAmerica. We\u2019re looking for an experienced programmer who is comfortable with large datasets to
\ncoordinate data extraction for our site\u2019s information. This person would collaborate closely with our
\ndata architect and systems administrator, as well our team of researchers. Interested? Please keep
\nreading for more details.<\/p>\n
Organizational Overview<\/p>\n
The Project on Organizing, Development, Education, and Research (PODER) is an award-winning,
\nnon-governmental, non-profit corporate accountability organization that leverages business
\nintelligence, transparency technology, and community organizing to improve corporate transparency
\nand accountability in Latin America and to strengthen civil society stakeholders of corporations
\nas long-term accountability guarantors. Our vision is of a Latin America where the citizen sector
\nis sufficiently powerful so as to be able to engage the public and private sectors in horizontal
\naccountability relationships to ensure democracy and development. To accomplish this PODER
\nbuilds power with civil society organizations (CSOs) by channeling information, know-how, capacity
\nbuilding, and accompaniment to local corporate stakeholders at strategic nodes of the Latin American
\neconomy where our work has the greatest long-term effect. Together, PODER and our partners engage
\ncorporations and other stakeholders to ensure on-going corporate accountability. For more information,
\nsee Ashoka (www.ashoka.org\/fellow\/ben-cokelet) and Echoing Green (www.echoinggreen.org\/fellows\/
\nbenjamin-cokelet).<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s Who Wiki Project<\/p>\n
Currently PODER is building the alpha version of Who\u2019s Who Wiki, an innovative website whose
\nobjectives are to track Mexican and Latin American parastatal and private companies, corporate
\nelites, and their government counterparts and to empower citizen stakeholders to hold these actors
\naccountable. This open data, open software platform will make it possible, for the first time, for
\nstakeholders to reward or punish corporations based on the totality of their practices, including their
\nhuman rights, labor, and environmental records. Through this platform we analyze the corporate social
\nnetwork, at both national and regional levels, to further a public understanding of its individual and
\ncorporate members. This understanding will be fundamental as investors, civil society organizations,
\nand other stakeholders strive to democratize capitalism in Latin America. For more information, see:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/startsomegood.com\/Venture\/who_s_who_wiki\/Campaigns\/Show\/
\nwiki_driven_corporate_transparency_latin_america.<\/p>\n
Position Requirements<\/p>\n
PODER seeks a Data Extraction Programmer for our Who\u2019s Who Wiki project, preferably with
\nexperience in Mexico or Latin America, to conduct web scraping and data mining for our site. This
\nperson\u2019s specific responsibilities will include:<\/p>\n
\u00b7Coordinating with technical and research teams to identify and target key public and open data
\nresources for extraction and mining;
\n\u00b7Authoring and maintaining web harvesting scripts using a mix of free software libraries and some
\nproprietary tools to extract unstructured data from websites and services;
\n\u00b7Aggregating, cleaning, and merging collected data with in-house database and semantic web
\nplatform;
\n\u00b7Some light system admin duties including the setup and configuration of a web proxy and local
\ncache of key web resources for offline research and analysis.<\/p>\n
The successful candidate will: be detail-oriented and a multitasker; be able to set goals, prioritize
\ntasks, and work independently; be comfortable working in a fast-paced team environment and possess
\nexcellent communication skills with both technical and non-technical colleagues; possess strong
\nwriting skills in Spanish (and ideally English); speak Spanish fluently and ideally English as well; be
\npassionate about using their technical skills to promote progressive social change; have a strong interest
\nin information science, the semantic web, and related ontologies<\/p>\n
Qualifications:<\/p>\n
\u00b7A Bachelor of Science degree in computer science or information science, or 1-4 years of equivalent
\nexperience. A Master of Science degree in computer science or information science is preferred.
\n\u00b7Expertise in at least one major scripting language (Python, Ruby, Perl, PHP, etc.) and familiarity
\nwith others
\n\u00b7Experience using web harvesting software and programming techniques
\n\u00b7Experience with relational database design and implementation (SQL and web-access
\nprogramming)
\n\u00b7Some systems admin experience.
\n\u00b71+ years of physical presence experience in Latin America, preferably Mexico
\n\u00b7Fluency in Spanish (and preferably English), including demonstrable writing experience
\n\u00b7Qualifications, references to withstand a rigorous background check<\/p>\n
Desired Technical Strengths:<\/p>\n
\u00b7Experience with HTML scraping (parsing and DOM manipulation)
\n\u00b7Linux shell scripting (awk, sed, regular expressions)
\n\u00b7Familiarity with Visual Basic scripting
\n\u00b7Web proxy configuration using Squid or alternative
\n\u00b7Practical knowledge of semantic web and related ontologies<\/p>\n
Application<\/p>\n
Please send a resume or curriculum vitae, 2 academic writing samples (both in English and Spanish),
\n3 professional references, and links to any websites about you or your work to Ben Cokelet, Executive
\nDirector, at admin@projectpoder.org. No phone calls please. Only competitive applicants will be
\ncontacted.<\/p>\n
PODER ensures equal opportunity in employment or volunteer positions for all people without regard
\nto race, color, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, ancestry, national or ethnic origin,
\nmarital status, or disability.<\/p>\n
ITPers can also contact ITP Alum, Jaime Villarreal for any questions jesusjaime@lavabit.com<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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