One of the things that the Internet makes possible is the publication
of large databases of information about corporations, the government,
and the military in a manner that allows local organizers to retreive
information specific to their geographic area.
Often such information is difficult to obtain unless it is obtained for the whole country. While this would be unwieldly for local activists, it is possible for groups to band together, working at times with national organizations, to collect and disseminate such information.
The best known project of this kind is the Environmental Defense Fund's Scorecard project (www.scorecard.org), which is a database that you can search, by zip code, of toxic waste sites as catalogued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
This page will have information on other, similar databases as we hear about them. Databases about military contracts to universities, real estate ownership, corporate relationships, union busting campaigns, etc. might prove useful.
If there is a database that belongs here please contact us at techtip @ organizenow.net .