Wile E. Coyote, long the victim of Road Runner’s more agile gait, is the quintessential antihero. He represents the chase: you can plot, plan and hope to catch that bird, but eventually you fall off a cliff and get slammed on the head with an Acme anvil. LittleSis analyst @WileECoyote — who is from the Southwest — believes in this power structure metaphor. “There is a point for each of us when being handed what seems to be a prize actually causes the ground beneath our feet to crumble into nothingness. Not to push the metaphor – but I hope to be careful to always build from the ground up,” he says.
Coyote found us through a Google search and says the site appealed to him because of the user-generated approach. Sites that aggregate information frustrated him and required additional research, rather than having it all in one place to begin with. “LittleSis has real promise as an open source of well documented research on the connections between individuals,” Coyote says. “My hope is that there will be hundreds of people adding information on a daily basis, and I’m always pleased when someone has gotten to something before I have!”
He makes most of his edits surrounding education and philanthropic relationships, since it relates to his day job as a university fundraiser. Coyote uses the site to watch the way money flows from donors to people and institutions. “Every major charity and university in the country has researchers gathering this sort of information,” he says. For the last few weeks, Coyote has been researching and posting the top venture capital and venture capitalists to the site, which has helped him make recommendations in his day job. “Money interests me – especially how it moves,” he says.
A self-described “infomaniac,” Coyote stays tied in to the news. He reads his local paper in print and The New York Times online, but also punches keywords into news feed databases for multiple sources.
Coyote has been with us since the beginning of LittleSis and we’re grateful for his time and excellent research.