TheCambridge Record

Become an auditor

This site republishes the city's record and then invites you to catch it being wrong. Volunteer auditors are how every page earns the right to be trusted, and anyone can become one.

The ledger is empty. The program is just starting, and 12,620 pages are waiting. The first audit filed will be the first entry. · the audit ledger →

Already an auditor? Log in →

1
Pick a screen name. Like Wikipedia or Reddit, you don't need to use your real name. Your screen name goes on every page you verify, and its track record is its reputation.
It takes a name, a password, and an email address. The address stays private, never appears on the site, and exists only so you can be helped if you lose the password. Claim your screen name →

Been here before? Log in and pick up where you left off →

2
Take the course, then practice. A 10-minute read built from what's already on every page: what a policy order is, how a roll call reads, why a charter right pauses a vote. Then audit three practice pages with mistakes planted on purpose: a wrong date, a wrong term length, a link that goes somewhere else.
Practice is worth zero points. Everyone starts the real scoreboard at 0. Finding the planted mistakes is what certifies you. Try them now: practice A · practice B · practice C · answers. Found all three? File your certification. Your screen name enters the public ledger with a measured reliability score from day one.
3
Audit any meeting or any item. Every item page carries an “audit this page” button. Press it and the page walks you through four checks against the city's own record: the headline, the outcome and its date, every name on the roll call, and where the city-website button actually lands. One question at a time, with the thing you're checking lit up and the city's own page a click away.
A claimed screen name is the whole of the setup, and there is nothing to install. Every page needs two independent audits to be marked verified. Anything that doesn't match gets flagged for deeper review, and a flag scores once review confirms it. (Checking the documents themselves is a separate, heavier pass for experienced auditors, and not part of a first audit.)

How a page becomes verified, and stays that way

○ Unauditedwaiting for its first audit
◐ Audited onceneeds a blind second audit by a different auditor
● Verifiedtwo independent audits agree; the mark carries both screen names and dates
♻ Page changedaudits are tied to the page's exact content. If the page changes, verification resets and the page needs fresh eyes

✋ Be one of the first auditors: claim your screen name Questions first? Email us. Or watch the open repository, where every audit is a public file.

Three ways to work on the record

The record arrives in three conditions, and each one needs something different from a person. The machine takes every page as far as it can go; where it stops is where you start.

Audit a pageYou judge what we published against the city's own record. Four checks, about ten minutes, and two independent audits mark a page verified. Start auditing →
Check a machine's readingA computer read these documents off the scan. You read the same page on the city's PDF and say whether it matches. Usually it does, and that confirmation is the finding. 15,850 pages are waiting. See what needs checking →
Type what no machine can readThe handwritten era, before 1900. These are photographs of a clerk's handwriting, and they become text only when a person types them. Every page is typed by two people independently; the record takes only what they agree on. 5,981 pages are waiting. See what needs typing →

No account, no email, nothing to install, on any of them. Pick a screen name and it carries your record on all three.