SpinSpotter: Take Back The Truth

[dearpeter]

I currently enjoy receiving Al Jazeera English. It is so far beyond BBC World or CNN it's not funny. And guess what, only 2 American cable co.s carry Al Jazeera English, I think in Burlington and Akron. That's consumer choice for ya.

[SpinSpotterFounder]

DearPeter: Interesting. I have seen only the "filtered" version of Al Jazeera and must admit to having read much more of the criticism of it than the praise, though Fact Company did an interesting piece on a BBC reporter who joined the network (whom, I understand, has since left). I would imagine it provides a fascinating view + sort of "voice" to the news. Question --- do you find it an objective source vs, say, BBC? I would love to see it SpinSpotted, if you do that, please let me know.

[dearpeter]

I'm not prepared to upgrade to FF3 yet, so I can't try your software yet. I'm super busy anyway.

[dearpeter]

But yes, I find AlJ's stories to be very informative and free of bias for the most part, though a certain anti-Americanism shows through on coverage of countries that America is messing around in, but I can forgive that. I feel CNN and BBC both spend up to 10 minutes of each hour telling me what channelk I'm watching, like I don't already know,

[dearpeter]

and they both seem to me to frequently try to get interview subjects to agree with their Westernized preconceptions. AlJ usually asks general questions and lets people talk.

[SpinSpotterFounder]

DearPeter: I will check it out. Please stay in touch. BTW: our IE version will be out in a few weeks. --Todd

[solitarybee]

Like the idea, and will be testing it... just a couple of thoughts / impressions. I use two other tool bars in FF3 - stumbleupon & facebook - would be cool if developer peeps made the position they take not exclusive but combinable side-by-side with other such apps/ plug-ins. Would be cool if there was a way of you getting in bed with SU also - if that makes take up sense.

[SpinSpotterFounder]

Hi Solitary Bee: When you go mark up some spin, see directions above or on the site, check out the share option You can share the spin you find with Stumble Upon. We are working of FB and agree we should do some integration. Thanks so much for the idea. Now, go use that tool and grab some spin to teach our algorithm

[allentazwell]

I can not get it to do anything

your instructions have THE WRONG SPIN.

1. YOU did not say i had to register.

2. you implied it was simple to do it's not Help!!

[SpinSpotterFounder]

Allen: Sorry our promo spin you. We weren't allowed to provide more detail because we signed a contract to appear at DEMO (where we won a "DEMO god" award). Happy to help you get Spinouclars working! You won't see a lot of spin in them *yet*, we just launched, and our Spin-Markers now growing. The most important thing to know is that YOU and other SpinSpotters will teach the algorithm. If you see a phrase that's spin, highlight, create a marker, make sure it fits under our spinrule and submit

[SpinSpotterFounder]

If that doesn't work, Allen, please email Support--at--SpinSpotter---dot­--com and say, in that email that you talked to Todd Herman: I will make sure we get you up and running. Thank you for taking your time to comment. Here's to truth!

[widgetbrain]

As a raging partisan and rabid activist let me say... this could be SWEET. Kudos to you for trying and i hope you can find a way to cut through the "digg" style popularity contest of many news aggregators and the (just us pals) private club mentality of the popular blogs.

[SpinSpotterFounder]

Widgetbrain: Thank you! Our system, the rules of spin our Journalism Advisory Board made, and a commitment to truth seeking from our SpinSpotters will prevent that. I give Digg huge respect but, I told my engineer on day-one, SpinSpotter will fail if SpinSpotter ever develops its own Point of View. If you are partisan, get busy creating and sharing Spin-Markers----you know what can be the most fun? Try to find spin that's in favor of your side (it's like learning a new language). Thank youx1000

[theNEOone]

I saw this in the WSJ and was immediately interested. It seems that you are a for-profit company whose revenue is expected to come primarily from advertising. I imagine that there will be some closely guarded secrets (algorithms) to maintain your competitive advantage. Pardon my skepticism, but wouldn't full transparency include releasing your filtering technology? It seems contradictory to have a private company in charge of determining what is or isn't spin.

[SpinSpotterFounder]

thanks for the note. I understand your skepticism. Our algorithm rates how good our users & system is at finding "violations" of the Rules of Spin that our Journalism Advisory Board created from the Code of Ethics fr Society of Professional Journalism. The algorithm doesn't care (or know about) topics, publishers, ideology. To your point, re, advertisers. Please read our Bios and Disclosures page. We disclose our advertisers, biz-partners, our politcal affiliations, philanthropy.

[maremel]

Very cute for a not-cute concept. Do like the washer tumbling! Would be a near visual as a core of the ongoing marketing... :)

[SpinSpotterFounder]

Thanks: I like the monkey. Heavy stuff to follow. Spin = serious topic but, we actually think we are about to launch something that will be fun to use in pursuit of the truth. There will be plenty of heavy stuff to follow. Here is a spin-fun-fact: did you know that Google News shows that no other software company, not SAP, Oracle, has been called behemoth? I a not saying there are not that but, the media virtually invented that moniker for one company: what other memes did they start?

[jumpwedge]

I guessing CNN, CSPAN, PBS, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, etc... are not on board with this project.

[SpinSpotterFounder]

Correct, Jumpwedge. We have journalists/writers/academics of *all points of view* involved (and, you will recognize their names when we release), but no media partners. That said, we are not anti-journalist by any stretch. We are anti-spin. We don't care if it's pro-liberal, anti-liberal or what. We want news from reporters who put a premium on objective language, fair treatment and as little opinion from them as possible. That said, one news entity actually wants to work with us.

[jumpwedge]

Well if you can get one liberal outlet on board you will get them all. This is like a FAIR 'fairness doctrine'.

[SpinSpotterFounder]

That's an interesting way to look at it. We actually are in search of all spin and hope to be fair but in now way like The Fairness Doctrine. I would like to say more but my DEMO contract is clear. If you are curious, please feel free to sign up for our DEMO. Since you seem passionate about this stuff, I would really value your feedback.

[jdfodio]

Good! @ "We want news from reporters who put a premium on objective language, fair treatment and as little opinion from them as possible." It doesn't help that most "news" don't actually have degrees in journalism. Any fool in a suit with an opinion sitting behind a desk is now called a "reporter". I miss the days when we couldn't tell what the "reporter's" opinion was...

Which "news entity" wants to work with you? (I've got a bet going with a friend of mine as to the answer...)

[rveep]

Can't wait to clear the air! good luck!

[SpinSpotterFounder]

Thank you. Fingers are crossed.

[turbohorse3]

Tremendous!!!

[SpinSpotterFounder]

Well, we hope the product is great, too. Thanks for viewing this.

[catsammanne]

This ROCKS

[catsammanne]

This ROCKS

[SpinSpotterFounder]

Cool. We hope you love the service, too.

[sszalavitz]

can't wait to see it launched!!!

[SpinSpotterFounder]

Nore can we---fingers.firmly.crossed.

[rag272th]

useless

[SpinSpotterFounder]

Hi Rag --- year, it's pretty much a "teaser" video. I should add that to the descriptor. We actually are barred from being more specific b/c we release at DEMO next week. But ... if you are concerned with Spin, please check us out. Honesty = Goodness.

[rag272th]

I'll pay attention because your response was so polite. But I am always suspicious of statistics which are reported without the expected error and the confidence level. Statistics without details are useless for anything other than spin.