The Transparency Corps experience has been expectedly different for each participant. Efrain Soriano shares lessons learned so far and how it’s shaping how he approaches his work now.

More newsrooms are working together — and with a range of other organizations — to help inform the public and tackle larger, more complex stories. But like anything else, collaboration takes planning to get right. These efforts are more nuanced than normal, however, as different organizations approach with different goals and objectives.

FOIA can be a tricky process, but you don’t need to go at it alone. Here are some of our favorite tips, tricks and examples of opening up the public records process, whether it’s hosting an event to train others or building a larger records campaign that works to get more people involved. The benefits: More transparency, more documents and stronger laws that work better for all requesters.

Collaborations editor André Natta provides some background about what led to the development of the Transparency Corps initiative and some insight into a broader vision for approaching collaborative projects moving forward.

The initial cohort of three journalists will work to build transparency skills while working on a collaborative public records project and help in the development of a broader initiative.