Welcome

Since early 2016, his political news website Ocean County Politics quickly became a “must read” for its in-depth reporting about local government, campaign finance and investigations of public officials in Ocean County, NJ. Stories first broken by Gavin on Ocean County Politics are frequently cited by larger media outlets, including NJ.com, POLITICO, InsiderNJ and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show.

In 2017 he launched OPRAmachine , a statewide freedom of information portal that automatically publishes public records requests & responses, the first website of its kind to serve New Jersey. The website, which is active in all 21 counties, allows anybody to easily request public documents from state and local government agencies under the New Jersey Open Public Records Act (OPRA). It was the first production deployment of the open-source Alaveteli platform that targeted a single U.S. state rather than an entire country.

In 2019, he received the “Excellence in Local News Award” from the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair University in the “Innovate Local” category for his work with OPRAmachine.

Gavin has been recognized as an authority on government transparency in New Jersey as a result of OPRAmachine's impact. Most recently, he has appeared in court as an expert witness in OPRA cases, testifying in cases involving the production of digital data held by government agencies.

Interests

Linux, open source & Python
Politics & government
Data science
Civic tech

Education

M.S., Data Science & Strategic Analytics, expected 2020
Stockton University
B.A., Political Science, 2018
Stockton University

Skills

Public records & research

As the creator of New Jersey's largest public records research platform, Gavin is deeply familiar with the public records request process. With a journalistic and academic background, he is comfortable researching and synthesizing information from various sources.

Web & technology

Gavin is comfortable implementing and working with modern web, desktop & mobile technologies, including Linux & open source software and web development tools. His work as an IT solution provider allowed him to develop significant experience in this realm.

Media & communications

In the course of his work as an independent journalist, Gavin has produced and edited written reports and editorials as well as videos & audio podcasts. He also has experience writing press releases.

Experience

Graduate Assistant

William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy

Sep 2019 – Present Galloway, NJ

Research Assistant

William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy

Feb 2019 – Jul 2019 Galloway, NJ

Teaching Assistant

Stockton University

Sep 2018 – Dec 2018 Galloway, NJ

Accomplishments

Excellence in Local News 2019, Innovate Local

Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair University Feb 2019

Received for my work with OPRAmachine

See certificate

Student Leader of the Month

Stockton University Student Senate Nov 2016 – Dec 2016

See certificate

Readers’ Choice Best Computer Repair 2012

Asbury Park Press Dec 2012 – Jan 2013

Recent Posts

Last updated on Jan 19, 2020 6 min read

Mapping Philadelphia's Bike Sharing Data

Indego operates a bike sharing network in Philadelphia. They also publish anonymized data detailing usage of the service. As a part of my coursework for the Data Science & Strategic Analytics masters program at Stockton University, last semester I was tasked with creating a visualization that told a data story regarding the bike sharing program using the Python library matplotlib. Here's how I solved this project and produced the following animated visualization.

Last updated on Nov 10, 2019 1 min read

Asbury Park Press Interview

I was interviewed by the Asbury Park Press regarding my work creating the OPRAmachine freedom of information portal

Last updated on Aug 9, 2019 2 min read

GeigerSQL: Storing geiger counter data in a PostgreSQL database

Living in close proximity to the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township has always left me interested in studying background radiation and some of the safety concerns associated with the aging plant, which has since shut down. A few years ago I purchased an electronic geiger counter to monitor radiation, but never did much with it. Eventually I discovered Geigerlog, an open-source program for interfacing with electronic geiger counters and taking readings.

Last updated on Jan 18, 2020 1 min read