Most of us today are dependent on News Sources on the Web to stay updated with Current Events. There are a plethora of websites out there serving up the news. It is a problem of plenty! Most of us have a ready list of 5 websites we check every morning for the news. That's what I do anyway! Is there a way to make this task easier?
That is primarily what our News Syndication Service (NSS) is going to do! The NSS is a service (program) which will run on a dedicated server with its own "News Database" and scan the internet 24/7 for the latest News. That's it! That's all it does but it does it well! There are other services that actually deliver this news to you and I will get to the details of that next. The rough sketch looks something like this.
We have a NSS Service that will be running on a dedicated server. This program will continuously scan the internet for News and keep updating our News database along with links to the original content for attribution. The NJ-BOS "cube" is another program running on the same server as the NSS that is in charge of curating the raw-news based on User Preferences and forwarding it to the TalkShop API on another physical server for onward delivery to the Apps. The NJ-BOS cube itself does a lot, lot more than what I have just explained but I am trying to keep this post simple! In reality we will have clusters of 3 servers not 2 and we have over 37 different services not just the 3 mentioned here - and this is not counting the services/apps we will be building as we grow for analytics purposes!
What does all this technical gobbledy-gook mean in the end to you the consumer? You get news from a variety of sources delivered to you. The delivery is not controlled by AI algos driven by commercial interests but by YOUR preferences. As with the posts made by other subscribers, You decide what news you want to see and will see just that! In the order that it was posted and not the priority list decided by some AI algo! That is the key difference.
Helping identify Bias and Fake News.
Is the Media telling us the Truth or Is the truth what the Media is telling us?! Very important question to ask ourselves in this era of rogue leaders like Putin, Ruto & Modi! Just how reliable are these News sources that we are depending on? Are agencies doing their due journalistic diligence before putting out their stories? Are they pro- or anti- establishment? Are they reporting the news like they should be or are they merely broadcasting press-releases for the Regime in power - because as we have seen in India - these happen to be 2 different things! Going further, what percentage of news stories are actually true and which come under the bailiwick of #fakenews?!
We need help evaluating news sources so we can make informed decisions! Specifically, I think we need to objectively evaluate news sources to classify them on various criteria like Fake news and Bias.
Fake News is
NOT news that you don't agree with! Fake news is news that is factually untrue, usually sensational in
nature that is created and propagated either to attract clickbait
revenue or to discredit a celebrity, politician or Company. Then we have Bias. News stories always have a political slant depending on the journalist/media agency - however subtle. This is what I call Bias! These are the first 2 criteria that I would evaluate a News Source on! What percentage of their stories have failed the #fakenews fact checks? Do the stories have any bias - they always do! Which way does a News Source lean? We can then build a nice little chart that looks something like this (Click on image to view in larger size).
Again, TalkShop will NOT block any content from reaching our subscribers. If folks want to read MSNBC they will see that! If they want to depend on InfoWars we will deliver that! We will present the data objectively and allow the user to make his own choices as to what he wants to see! Rather than have a random AI algorithm control what we see and the order in which we see it, the Subscriber will make that decision empowered by the additional data we equip him with!
Is the chart above too complicated? Maybe we can simplify this a little bit as follows?
This is a work-in-progress and the design will evolve as we go forward. But I hope you get the broad idea! We want to provide our subscriber with the data that will empower him to decide which news sources he wants to base his opinions on! The NSS will get you the news you want to see! The TalkShop API will give you the tools to express your opinion about it!
I hope you have a better idea now about the News Syndication Service which will form the core of the TalkShop idea.
I am trying to fund this project without going to VCs or Corporate interests because I believe that a platform like this needs to be community funded and owned! You can help make this product a reality with a small contribution using the @buymeacoffee link below. First 1000 folks to contribute $25 and above will get free access for life. The first 1000 folks to contribute $5 and above will get free access for the first year. Expected go-live is April-2025.
Help me bring this idea to life! Every little bit helps! 🙏
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