NewsTrust goes open source

Today, we're excited to announce that we are open sourcing the code for NewsTrust.net, our social news platform.

We have just published that code on Github, under the name SocialNews. It runs on the popular Ruby on Rails web framework, which is also open source.

This SocialNews code will enable developers to create their own social news sites, using our platform to help people find good journalism together. We are really happy to make our tools and methodologies available to a broader community.

Last month, we announced a new direction for NewsTrust on our blog, and this open source project is part of that transition. NewsTrust is now pivoting from a standalone news curation site to a consultancy that will serve the needs of larger partners and help their communities become better informed about important public issues.

We are very grateful to our partners at Transitions for providing the funding to make this open source project possible. This will enable them to test new applications of our social news platform in Eastern Europe and other world regions.

Developers can download SocialNews Version 1.0. here and read our technical documentation here. This open source code is licensed by NewsTrust Communications under the terms of the Berkeley Software Distribution ("BSD") license. We are moving on to new projects and don't plan to actively develop or support this code base in the short-term, but we will post code updates on Github from time to time, along with corresponding notes on this page.

NewsTrust also offers a range of consulting services to organizations that wish to help their communities become better informed and more engaged about public issues. For example, NewsTrust can provide development services to help your organization adapt this SocialNews code to create your own social news site. To inquire about our partner services, email us at partners-at-newstrust-dot-net.

The NewsTrust and SocialNews projects were a team effort and we are grateful to all our contributors for their work over the past six years. This SocialNews open source code was prepared by Subramanya Sastry, NewsTrust's engineering manager. The NewsTrust code was written by the following developers: Adam Florin, David Fox, Caleb Waldorf, Subramanya Sastry and Mark Daggett. The following editorial staff members played an important role in developing the various features of this application: Kaizar Campwala, Derek Hawkins, Jon Mitchell, Mary Hartney, Gin Ferrara, Andrew Hazlett. Special thanks to Ezra Fox and the members of the larger NewsTrust community for testing and feedback.

Last but not least, we would like to thank our many funders for helping us develop and improve this software platform over the years. They include the MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, Open Society Foundations, Ashoka, Ayrshire Foundation, Mitch Kapor Foundation, Sunlight Foundation -- as well as private donors such as Craig Newmark and Doug Carlston.

We can't wait to see what new creative uses come out of this open source project. We ourselves benefited greatly from the open source code movement while developing our application and we are happy to return the favor with SocialNews.

Enjoy ...

Fabrice Florin
Executive Director and Founder
NewsTrust Communications

 

UPDATE - Jan. 24, 2012: Here is a NewsTrust Guide for Administrators, which describes how NewsTrust and SocialNews work. This guide includes short tips on how to use our tools, with different sections for members, hosts and admins. It is particularly useful if you have installed SocialNews on your site and would like an overview of its services, with short operating instructions for each tool.

Introducing source reviews on NewsTrust

Today we're pleased to announce a new NewsTrust feature: You can now rate or review news sources on our site, in much the same way as you review individual stories. If reviewing a story is comparable to rating individual dishes at a restaurant, then source reviews are like rating the restaurant itself -- like you might do on Google, Yahoo or Yelp.

Source reviews combine a quick trust rating with a thoughtful note about the source's journalistic strengths, weaknesses and areas of expertise.

We've already begun using valuable information our users have added to calculate these trust ratings, and we encourage you to refine your ratings of news sources whose work you're familiar with.

This feature has two key applications: source reviews and rating your sources.

 

Source reviews 

To review a source, click on its name anywhere on the site to go to that source's profile page. Then fill in the "Review this source" form in the middle of that page.

The source review form has three parts:

• Rate it: Do you trust this publication? (Rate it on a scale from 1 to 5.)
• Add a note: What are this source's strengths and weaknesses?(Write an open-ended comment.)
• Expertise: Which topics is this source an expert on? (Click all that apply -- or add more topics in the box below.) 

To review a source, click on its name anywhere on the site to go to that source's profile page. Then fill in the "Review this source" form in the middle of that page. Once you've saved your review, you can go back and edit it anytime. 

You will also see reviews from other members on source pages:

For more detailed information on source reviews, check out our FAQ. 

 

Rate your sources

On our "rate your sources" page, you can rate our most popular news sources all in one place. Each source has a quick-rating area, where you can rate a news outlet on a scale of 1 to 5. You may see that some are already filled out; that's feedback you've already given us. If your ratings have changed as you've read more news, please update them and add more!

 

Thanks to our team

We'd like to thank Engineering Manager Subbu Sastry and Designer Caleb Waldorf for their hard work on these applications. Executive Director Fabrice Florin and Managing Editor Jon Mitchell also played key roles in development, and the NewsTrust team is excited about the rollout of these features.

We welcome your feedback on these changes -- feel free to leave a comment below or send an email to feedback at newstrust dot net.

To jump to rating your sources, click on the badge below.

 

Thanks for your participation!

Try our new review tools

We just launched a new version of the NewsTrust review tools, to make it easier and faster for you to check and review stories on our site.

Our new review form (see screenshot) features big buttons with two choices per question. For example, we ask if a story is 'fair' or 'unfair' (instead of asking you to rate the fairness of that story on a scale of 1 to 5). Our current rating form continues to work the same of for existing reviewers, and you can easily switch between versions (use the drop-down menu at the top right of any review form).

We also streamlined our toolbar to provide a better user experience for new visitors and experienced members alike. You can now quickly view story info, star stories you like, and share them on Facebook, Twitter or email, straight from the toolbar. Our improved popup window offers the same features for sites that don't support the toolbar.

What's New
Here are some of the new features in this release:

New Review Form

• simple review form for new members
• big buttons with positive/negative answers for simple form (instead of 1-5 ratings) 
• compact format shows short review form by default, with only three questions
• help balloons show quick review tips when you mouse over question marks 
• expanded review section lets you add notes, comments, quotes and links
• larger text box with a lot more room for writing notes or comments
• current rating form still available for experienced reviewers
• drop-down menu lets you switch quickly between review forms 
• saved settings show the same review form you used last time (expanded or not)
• no more "guest reviews" to reduce confusion and spam - only members can review now

New Toolbar & Popup

• new toolbar has been streamlined to a single line, to reduce visual clutter
• star icon lets you bookmark stories you like, and add them to your picks widget 
• story info tab lets you get more information about the story you are viewing
  
• edit info button lets trusted members (with a level of 3 or more) edit story information
  
• share buttons let you quickly share stories on Facebook, Twitter, Email and more
• login link makes it easy to login or logout from the toolbar (or popup window) 
• popup window offers the same features for sites that don't support our toolbar

New Review Form
Our new review form is shown by default to new members, to help them get started as reviewers. But many experienced reviewers may also find it helpful. 

This simplified review form features big buttons with two choices per question: for example, we ask if a story is fair or unfair (instead of asking you to rate the fairness of that story on a scale of 1 to 5). We also offer help balloons with quick review tips when you roll over question mark buttons.

The new review form is also more compact. To quickly add a note, quote or link -- or share your review with your friends -- just click on Expand your review (see expanded view). This lets you add notes, comments, quotes and links -- using a larger text box with a lot more room for writing your reviews.

You are welcome to keep using our original rating form, if you prefer (we now call it "rating form" to distinguish it from the new review form). To switch between review forms, simply click on the drop-down menu at the top right of any form (shown to the right). This lets you preview all of our review tools. When you see a review form that you like, simply click on the yellow 'Save' button to update your settings. You can change your review settings as often as you like.

Lastly, we have discontinued "guest reviews" by non-members, to reduce confusion and spam. Going forward, you must be a registered member to review stories on NewsTrust, and you need to login before you can use the review form.

 

New Toolbar & Popup Windows
We also streamlined our toolbar to provide a better user experience for new visitors and experienced members alike.

You can now quickly view story info, star stories you like, or share them via Facebook, Twitter, or email, straight from the toolbar. Our improved popup window offers the same features for sites that don't support the toolbar.

To learn more about these new features, check our Toolbar Visual Guide.

Try it out for yourself! Click here to review a sample story using our new review form.

Note that if you don't like this new form, you can you can easily switch back to our current rating form, which still works the same as before (use the drop-down menu at the top right of any review form). 

Go check out all these new features on our site and let us know what you think. Be sure to click on any yellow 'Review' button next to any story title to see our new review form, with all its bells and whistles.

Thanks to our Team
Many thanks to our wonderful web development team: David Fox, Subramanya Sastry and Caleb Waldorf created a much improved user experience in just a few weeks. This core team was supported by our editorial staff members Kaizar Campwala and Jon Mitchell, who worked beyond the call of duty to make this new review tool possible. Thank you all for a job well done!

Our new review tools were designed with the help of our community, through a variety of surveys, emails and conversations this year. We're very grateful to all our members, advisors, partners and friends who took the time to check our early designs, test our site and share their invaluable feedback.

Please share your comments, suggestions at the bottom of this page - or email us. What do you like most? what do you like least? did you experience any bugs? how can we improve these new review tools?

Thanks again to all our supporters for making this community effort possible. We hope that these new tools and enhanced user experience will make it easier for all of us to find and share good journalism together -- and make more informed decisions as citizens.

Enjoy!

Fabrice Florin
Executive Director, NewsTrust

The Growing Importance of Information Found Online

via EarlyEdition.com

"The CIA may not hold the same respect they once had, but you must admit their intelligence-gathering techniques must still be superior to either yours or mine."

At least, that's what you would think. I mean - it is the "C.I.A." They are an agency of "intelligence," so how they get their information should be legit, right? As it turns out, newspapers are becoming less and less of a research source and the C.I.A. is increasingly turning to the Internet to accumulate information.