The practical application of an oracle.

Oracles, I feel better just knowing that there is one alert and looking out for me when I am on patrol.

Does anyone else use one and if so what sort of things do you use them for?

Are you in constant contact or do you check-in?

What ways would you suggest one utilize this resource?

You should search for the oracle threads on here.

Oracles are best contacted well before a mission. They can study maps in advance and pull up resources ahead of time.

When I was in the field and working solo, I would check in with an Oracle every 10 minutes with the cross street of my location. That way, they knew to look up new location-based resources for the new area, and if I disappeared they would know where to start looking.

Of course, the primary purpose of an Oracle is that during an emergency situation, they can access information easier and faster than you can.

Out in the field, what location-based resources did you find most useful?

What was a sticking point you always wanted to see improve?

Ideally, an Oracle would do research in advance, and create a patrol route for you to more or less follow. This could be locations of recent crimes, the last place a missing person was seen, a bar that tends to get rowdy, etc.

However, sometimes you spring for an Oracle an hour or whatever before you go out and they don't have time to do much intel. They can still be helpful. For example, I went on a patrol in Brooklyn with the NYI and a guy had his cat run over, and our Oracle, Metadata, was able to get directions to the nearest animal hospital.

One thing I would like to see improved is that you sometimes need a second set of eyes on your situation and your goals. Sometimes an Oracle with a map and research can see trends that you don't see from being in the field, and vice versa.

The best synergy is if an Oracle can spot a trend in their research and have an RLSH check it out. The Oracle gets things handled with boots on the ground and the RLSH gets a missions without wandering around in the middle of the night aimlessly for hours on end.

Hm. We called in with cross streets every 20 mins but we just sort of wandered by the school playground and a few other places we know to be dealer spots at night. No hard rout plotted or logged. This must change.

If you could pass on only one piece of advice for a new oracle (other than reading the oracle wiki because she and I are both doing that) what would it be?

When acting as an oracle, what is your biggest gripe with the cape?

As a cape, what is your biggest gripe with an oracle?

The advice I would pass onto a new Oracle is to think outside the box. You are your network, make it a wide net and be able to sort through it and pull what you need to from those sources. You'd be surprised what kind of messed up leads you get on Twitter, Rise-Up and paying attention to weird stuff on the crime blotter, but always be thinking of going beyond, beyond, beyond.

My biggest gripe as an Oracle would be people not letting me know ahead of time to do the research or, if I do it, they don't use it. A lot see intel as something extra, not something essential to mission success.

As a cape, my biggest gripe would be Oracles that provide a synopsis on something instead of how I fit into the larger problem. It's great to have background information, but in the end you need a lead to do something about it. Without that window, intel just becomes a civics lecture.

Good stuff. Thanks.

I love the concept of Oracles but hate the fact that many seem to undervalue them. In the end, information is power and no one should squander power.

I'd like to add that freelancing as an oracle can be a pain in the butt. People working independently do not seem as knowledgeable about the existence of oracles, how to use them, or what to ask them so that their work can benefit their work. From what I've noticed, and Zimmer can probably attest to this, oracles are much more effective when given a group, or region of people to work with.

I would like to make a request. Would someone with oracle experience please do a basic work-up for the Rev and I when he head out Monday the 12th? I don’t mean man the net while we are on patrol that night. Nightingale will do that. What I am trying to do is have a comprehensive example of what our own oracle can and should put together. This will serve as a sort of guideline for us to learn from and expand on. It would also serve the whole community in the same fashion. Most people I have spoken with about this have never used an oracle and this could really be an eye-opener for just how valuable (and cool) an oracle can be for cape work.

This is an interesting thread to me and I hope it continues. I've never worked with an Oracle, though I've done some Oracle-like things before going out.

Hazmat, I'd love to give it a look. PM me the area you need information on and any specific details you'd like to focus on such as missing persons, homeless outreach, recent crime, etc.

My initial report for Salem, Oregon is complete and available for reading online at TOP.

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Great reoprt zimmer , thank you . That shooting you mentioned didn't happen at the chase bank . The guy robbed the bank then was followed by some guy and shot at the guy in the parking lot behind my building . I heard the shot but thought some kid blew up a 2 liter bottle with an m 80 . When the dozen cops showed up I gave a report of the robber looked like but they already had one . Don't know if the ever caught I'm .

Great stuff Zimmer. Me and tThe Rev will go over this together.

Thanks again.

You're welcome guys

Every city on TOC should have something like that. I'll have to modify Seattle's page when I get a chance.

Takes time to track a lot of that stuff down. A lot of those links are from usual TOP resources, some a location-specific from police. And it's still just a one page summary of the city, nothing exhaustive. I'm not against doing it in every city, that'd be awesome, but to do it right it may go slowly.

It's a starting point. I'll probably just copypasteedit and then add some more on the Seattle page.

I am interested in learning how to be an Oracle.

It seems to be as simple and as potentially complex as finding and providing useful information to people who patrol. I don't think there's a specific authoritative way to do it, although of course there are documented research techniques and stuff.

^^What he said. Check out the oracle project, there's a lot of good resources there. You might also talk to Artemis. She's near you and largely does oracle work if I remember correctly. Going off of that, I've found that it helps to have people who desire your services as an oracle. It sounds obvious, but it's not. Many people on here have serious issues with delegating tasks. However, once the right trust is established and you have people to provide info for, you'll have more motivation and direction for your researching.

I always thought I'd make a better Oracle than a field agent.
Wouldn't mind seriously looking into it.

I am not really a foot patrol type person.