News E-models For Quality Journalism

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is embarking on a new online venture that the rest of us can only hope succeeds: Creating a new business model for quality journalism.

To counter the flood of digital fake news, Wales, whose founding of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia stands as one of the shining successes of the internet era, has announced plans for a for-profit, crowdfunded news website offering stories by journalists and volunteers working together.

The free Wikitribune, as it’s being called, will contain no advertisements. It will be fully funded by readers who choose whether or not to donate to the website, according to a recent announcement by Wales.

Scoff all you want at Wales’ idea. It sounds idealistic. It looks idealistic. It is idealistic.

But other idealistic crowdsourced projects, most notably the 16-year-old Wikipedia itself and the entire open-source software movement that profoundly changed the software world, have worked in the past.

Still, after years of studying crowdfunding, from reward-based platforms like Kickstarter and equity ones like AngelList, to today’s experiments in the blockchain space Jimmy Wales has his work cut out.

To be clear. The news, as he says, is “broken.” The business model for journalism is broken. The business of journalism is, simply put, experiencing an historic decline in paid advertising and circulation, leading to deep newsroom cutbacks that have harmed quality journalism at a time when quality journalism is needed most. Something needs to be done.

So enter Jimmy Wales, and the challenges he and his colleagues have decided to address with Wikitribune. Again, I’m not skeptical about the general concept of professional journalists and volunteer fact checkers and others collaborating together to produce quality content that readers can enjoy and trust, especially if each story is accompanied with a detailed list of all the sourced materials used in an article.

Current plans call for Wikitribune to raise enough subscription money to hire 10 journalists. But scaling and coordinating a larger team may not be as easy. Ensuring quality and timely reviews, and attracting enough funds for longer investigative projects, will require building an engaged and committed community.

Above all: How many contributing readers will it take to build a quality digital newsroom that can consistently produce high-quality, relevant, original and timely news content that readers want? And how will they overcome the fact that the vast majority of web readers now expect to get their news for free?

Besides the professional journalists, think about everyone else who will be contributing content: photo and video editors, facts and grammar checkers and others. A successful platform will either need well-designed economic incentives or a pro-socially motivated community to feel part of, possibly both.

Multiple, related experiments are also shaping up within the blockchain and cryptocurrency community. After Bitcoin showed the world that one can bootstrap a secure, global platform for exchanging value by combining cryptography with game theory, startups and open-source teams are now focused on building a stronger, decentralised Internet.

Projects like the ones developed by the teams behind Blockstack, Filecoin, Protocol Labs or the Basic Attention Token have the potential to completely reshape how content is generated, distributed, consumed and rewarded online.

While the infrastructure needed to reinvent advertising, online payments, cloud services, identity and reputation systems through crypto tokens is still early-stage, in the long run it will change how society sources, aggregates and rewards information and other digital goods, including news.

Eventually, Wikitribune or one of the platforms built on top of a crypto token can get there. Building a quality journalism platform is not an impossible dream with today’s technology. But it is an idealistic dream that’s going to take time, more than one organisation and multiple experiments to succeed.

Techcrunch:

 

« Criminalised: Watching Terrorist Propaganda Online
Russian Hacking Fuels Return To Paper Ballots »

Infosecurity Europe
CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

Practice Labs

Practice Labs

Practice Labs is an IT competency hub, where live-lab environments give access to real equipment for hands-on practice of essential cybersecurity skills.

Resecurity

Resecurity

Resecurity is a cybersecurity company that delivers a unified platform for endpoint protection, risk management, and cyber threat intelligence.

BackupVault

BackupVault

BackupVault is a leading provider of automatic cloud backup and critical data protection against ransomware, insider attacks and hackers for businesses and organisations worldwide.

XYPRO Technology

XYPRO Technology

XYPRO is the market leader in HPE Non-Stop Security, Risk Management and Compliance.

MIRACL

MIRACL

MIRACL provides the world’s only single step Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) which can replace passwords on 100% of mobiles, desktops or even Smart TVs.

Oxygen Forensics

Oxygen Forensics

Oxygen Forensics offer the most advanced forensic data examination tools for mobile devices and cloud services.

Beyond Security

Beyond Security

Beyond Security is a leader in automated vulnerability assessment and compliance solutions - enabling customers to accurately assess and manage security weaknesses in their networks and applications.

Cyber Exec

Cyber Exec

Cyber Exec is an executive search firm dedicated to global talent acquisition in Cyber Security, Information Technology, Defense...

CloudCodes Software

CloudCodes Software

CloudCodes is a cloud security solutions provider focused on providing cloud security solutions to enterprise customers.

Oxford BioChronometrics

Oxford BioChronometrics

By building profiles based on electronically Defined Natural Attributes, or e-DNA, Oxford BioChronometrics protects digital networks, communities, individuals and other online assets from fraud.

Lepide

Lepide

LepideAuditor is a powerful Data Security Platform that enables you to reduce risk, prevent data breaches and prove regulatory compliance.

CNA Insurance

CNA Insurance

CNA offers a market-leading suite of cyber liability insurance products and risk control resources for businesses of all sizes.

Red Points

Red Points

Red Points protects your brand and content in the digital environment.

Action1

Action1

Action1 is a Cloud-based lightweight endpoint security platform that discovers all of your endpoints in seconds and allows you to retrieve live security information from the entire network.

Digital Boundary Group (DBG)

Digital Boundary Group (DBG)

Digital Boundary Group (DBG) is an information technology security assurance services firm providing information technology security auditing and compliance assessment services to clients worldwide.

Wazuh

Wazuh

Wazuh is a free, open source and enterprise-ready security monitoring solution for threat detection, integrity monitoring, incident response and compliance.

Avatar Managed Services

Avatar Managed Services

Avatar offers proven, process driven IT support to companies who want to utilize their technology to their best advantage.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) - USA

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) - USA

NREL is transforming energy through research, development, commercialization, and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance (PQCA)

Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance (PQCA)

The alliance seeks to address cryptographic security challenges posed by quantum computing by producing high-assurance software implementations of standardized algorithms.

360 Advanced

360 Advanced

360 Advanced is a relationship-focused cybersecurity and compliance firm offering integrated compliance solutions customized to meet your business’ needs.

SafeAeon

SafeAeon

SafeAeon is a leading Cybersecurity-as-a-Service provider, offering 24x7 premium Managed Security Services with AI-powered and Human-driven 24x7 SOC.