Welcome to the Profiles Sub-Department!

Are you ready for some wiki training? Don't worry, we'll go over most of this during in-person training soon!

<- Back to the Profiles Guide

Table of Contents

Profiles Research

How do we assign work?

Researching Officials and Candidates

Helpful Hints/FAQ

Introduction

On this wiki page, you will find a description of the body of work the Profiles Sub-Department is in charge of along with links that will give you the details you need to perform every task.

Three Good Traits of a Researcher

The three traits of a good researcher at Vote Smart are Thoroughness, Accuracy, and Speed, in that order. That is, if you can do nothing else, be thorough. If you can do two things, be thorough and accurate. If you're thorough, accurate and fast, that makes you a rockstar - this generally comes with practice.

The quality of our data depends on this hierarchy. Practicing being thorough and accurate first will help you to be a valuable member of the team. Speed will inevitably come as you gain more experience. If you attempt to be speedy right off the bat, not only will you be putting bad data into our database, but you won't develop a strong foundation for future growth. Your supervisor will provide you with feedback to help you recognize the errors that you make, and will help you get faster over time by teaching you the techniques the team has developed over a long period of time. Be patient!

Profiles Resources

To do this effectively, you will need to be familiar with the following:

Vote Smart's Website

Our Website - specifically the biography sections; it is crucial that you understand how our data goes from the original source to our website.
An example candidate: Barack Obama

The Profiles Wiki

Our Wiki - it contains valuable background information, data standards, staff and intern expectations, and training and management guides. To start, pay special attention to the processes and policies we have put in place.

Admin - Our User-Friendly Portal to the Database

Admin - a user-friendly way enter and check pieces of data. You will be using this extensively, and will be shown how it works during training. Just take a look for now.

Schedules - Available in Google Docs and the Desktop Drive

Our schedules contain lists of states, candidates, and sources, as well as providing a system to keep us on track
Your supervisor will show these to you and assign your daily and weekly tasks.
On many of our schedules, there is a column labeled "Notes" - this is where notes go for each website. They can be very helpful.

Sources

The primary sources from which we collect our data. See some examples of what a primary source is on the Data Standards page.

It is extremely important to be thorough in collecting biographical, contact, and office information. Although you might not see how a specific piece of information could affect a voter's decision, we can't make that decision for the voter. Do not move on to the next politician or source until you have searched all areas for new content.
Familiarity with these sources and a reliable routine will contribute to accuracy, thoroughness, and speed (listed in order of importance) in profiles research.

Profiles Research

Now that you have checked out all the resources we use to collect and enter information in the Profiles Sub-Department, lets get a little bit more specific and check out the intricacies to our Profiles Sub-Department!

How do we assign work?

Your supervisor will assign you a state and office to work on (for example, Tennessee State Senate). You will find the corresponding tracking sheet for that state and office on the Research drive > Research Divisions > Profile Coverage > Elections > [current year] Elections > Candidate Profiles. In addition to the tracking sheet, you will also need to search for that state and office in Admin under the Office Seeking or Office Held options for a list of candidates and current officials.

Click the ID number by the name of the candidate to open their Biographical Information page in a new window.
Also open the campaign and/or official website. To do this, click the Addresses Tab on their Bio page. Click on the election or the current office held. Scroll down and click on the link to the candidate or official's website. Scroll down again and click "Visit...". The website, if the link is working, will open in a new window.
If there is no website entered in Admin, search for one via Google. Keep in mind that candidates are increasingly utilizing Facebook to communicate with their constituents, and may list biographical information there. Use your best judgement to determine if the site is actually affiliated with the candidate, or if it is just a fan page. We will only use information that is posted on an official Facebook page.
If you are unable to find one, record the candidate ID and "No Web Presence" on your tracking sheet and go on to the next name on the list. For elected officials, if a website is not listed, you can visit the general legislative body's website and then search for the individual.
Find as much information as you can. It is best to start in the "About Joe" or "Meet Jane" sections of the website. Presidential and Congressional politicians should not have any empty fields in their bio without exhaustive research.
If you add information to a candidate/official's bio page, record the candidate ID and updated code in your tracking sheet.
Go on to the next name on the list. Let your supervisor know where you left off before you leave each day.

Researching Officials and Candidates

Each year, the Profiles Sub-Department completes research on officials and candidates by finding their websites and taking information directly from this primary source.

Searching for Websites

Searching for websites can be looked at as a battle between yourself and Google. Discovering what keywords to use that will bring up the best results is an art in the research world. Mastering a routine for finding websites will allow you to find more content and become an effective researcher.

"Biography" Tab - Admin

Check out Barack Obama and look for "Biography" in the tabs at the top. This guide will explain everything you need to know about entering the information you have found into Admin, which will automatically upload your additions to the website (after SAVING of course!).

Go to the Biography Tab page now for a tutorial of the Biography Tab.

"Addresses" Tab - Admin

Along with the "Biography" tab, this is the most common type of update that we do, and one of the most important. The information we find and input into the "Addresses" tab provides citizens access to mailing addresses, websites, social media, and emails that the politician uses to communicate with his/her constituents.

Go to the Addresses Tab page now for a tutorial on the Addresses Tab.

"Offices" Tab - Admin

At certain times of the year, mainly after elections, you may be assigned to completing some updates to office information. This can include advancing officials into office, changing leadership positions, or adding officials to committees once they have been assigned. The associated wiki pages will help you get familiar with this type of data.

Go to the Office Tab page now for a tutorial on the Office Tab.

"Public Statements" Tab

In the Profiles Sub-Department, we collect "Issue Positions" (sometimes abbreviated "IPs") for mainly state level officials and candidates. This is due to the massive nature of doing any research on state level officials (there are about 7400 state legislative offices, for example). It is vital that anyone working in the Profiles Sub-Department be familiar with how to collect issue positions, how to enter them into Admin, and how to categorize/tag them perfectly!

Go to the Issue Positions page now for a guide on how to enter information in to this tab. in the Profiles Sub-Department, we only collect the "Issue Positions" type of public statement so look for that first!

Finding and Adding Photos

The Profiles Sub-Department is also in charge of finding photos for officials and candidates without a photo, with an out-dated photo, or who have a bad photo. This process works a little differently because we use the Desktop Drive instead of admin.

Go to the Photos page to learn how this process works.

Helpful Hints/FAQ

You have now delved pretty far into the basics of the Profiles Sub-Department. You may be wondering about a bunch of different things. We have put together a Helpful Hints/FAQ page to try to answer some general questions/provide you a quick source of hints/tips for decreasing errors and increasing speed.

Head to the Helpful Hints/FAQ page for some FAQ's and some advice on become a better profiles researcher.

PVSWiki : BioGuide

Revision [18608]