i4bi wiki - User contributions [en]

FOIAbase

2012-01-05T17:21:20Z

FactChecking: New page: We propose to create a FOIA-centric website, called FOIAbase, where users can brainstorm ideas for potential FOIA requests, refine those ideas into actual FOIA letters, raise money to fund...

We propose to create a FOIA-centric website, called FOIAbase, where users can brainstorm ideas for potential FOIA requests, refine those ideas into actual FOIA letters, raise money to fund the requests, and browse released documents as well as statistics on the response rate and wait times of different government agencies. While such a tool would certainly not eliminate all the drawbacks to the current system, we believe that if implemented properly this site could serve to not only engage a wider audience in the FOIA process but also potentially reduce duplicate requests and allow for a more efficient filing and response system.

We envision FOIAbase as having four primary functionalities that combine elements of popular websites Quora, Reddit, Kickstarter, and PACER, specially tailored to the FOIA process. Additionally, we plan to provide badges for those users who register and are verified as legal experts (or “FOIA experts”) so that others on the site may weight their comments and input accordingly, while still encouraging broad participation from all non-expert users. Similarly, we plan to provide a different type of badge to individuals who possess a “preferred filing status” (i.e., members of academia, students, and news/media representatives) and are charged less by federal agencies to fulfill their requests. The four stages of FOIAbase are the following:

1. Quora-style idea brainstorming: In this stage, users will be able to post new ideas for materials that could be requested under FOIA as well as comment on and refine the ideas posted by others. There would also be a voting mechanism, fashioned along the lines of Reddit, permitting users to vote up the ideas they most support and want to see filed. Ideas that receive a critical mass of support from users then move on to the second stage of the site, “Claiming & Filing.”

2. Claiming & Filing: Users, especially those designated as “FOIA experts” and those with preferred statuses, will be encouraged to “claim” popular ideas and take responsibility for drafting and submitting the actual request, as well as keeping the community appraised of any responses, developments, or other updates on the process.

3. For requests that require payment, users may submit the fee request to a site moderator who would initiate a Kickstarter-style fundraising process for the request, through which any individual may contribute however much he/she would like towards funding the request. When the goal sum is reached, the moderator could then process the payment and send it directly to the relevant agency (in order to eliminate - or at least reduce - the possibility of user fraud).

4. Finally, FOIAbase will serve as a repository for all retrieved documents through user-filed requests. In order to incentivize journalists (and other preferred status individuals) to claim requests, a 30-day posting period will be allowed during which filers could retain exclusive access to the retrieved documents. After that period, users will be asked to post all documents publicly, and any filers who had retrieved the documents using FOIAbase-raised funds would be required to do so. In addition to serving as a PACER-style repository for the retrieved documents, FOIAbase would also collect statistics on how long different agencies took to respond to requests, how much they charged for fulfilling requests, how often they denied requests, etc.

Main Page

2012-01-05T17:19:34Z

FactChecking: /* The Ideas */

<big>'''Ideas for a Better Internet (i4bi)'''</big>

<big>''About i4bi''</big>

This joint Harvard/Stanford interdisciplinary seminar will continue a year-long arc of developing and building ideas for a better internet. During the fall, students will incorporate ideas identified by a public call for proposals from the previous spring, and work through the process of building out these ideas. The course will meet on alternate Mondays in the fall term.

By the end of the fall session, students will have proposed a tangible means of implementing at least one idea and will have made significant progress on conceptualizing and building at least one solution. Students will interact with entrepreneurs, organizations, and policy makers with a significant stake in shaping the future of digital technology and the Internet to solicit advice, guidance, and feedback.

During the winter term students will finalize the projects that they have developed throughout the fall semester, engage in visits to companies and organizations, and prepare a working demo or proposal to be presented at a culminating event with leaders of Silicon Valley and beyond.

By the end of the course, students will have launched their solution-based projects to the world in conjunction with those proposing the ideas.

== The Ideas ==

<big>''Harvard-based Ideas''</big>

[[Mirror As You Link]]

[[Mesh Network]]

[[FOIAbase]]

[[Web Citizenship]]

<big>''Stanford-based Ideas''</big>

[[Future of Education]]

[[Distributed Social Networking]]

[[Moby Dick Project]]

[[Privacy Icons]]

Reddit/Kickstarter/Quora for FOIA (Formerly Fact Checking)

2011-11-23T02:38:44Z

FactChecking:

We want to build a site that promotes wider participation and involvement in brainstorming, filing, and fundraising for FOIA requests. The site will ideally combine elements of Reddit, Quora and Kickstarter to allow users to:

1) suggest, comment on, modify and vote on proposed FOIA ideas;

2) "claim" an idea and file the actual FOIA request for it, keeping the community appraised of any response, updates on the process etc.;

3) use Kickstarter to raise money to fund the request; and

4) finally, access a repository of all retrieved documents as well as
statistics about how long different agencies took to respond, how much
they charged, what they denied requests for, etc.

Reddit/Kickstarter/Quora for FOIA (Formerly Fact Checking)

2011-11-23T02:38:04Z

FactChecking: New page: We want to build a site that promotes wider participation and involvement in brainstorming, filing, and fundraising for FOIA requests. The site will ideally combine elements of Reddit, Quo...

We want to build a site that promotes wider participation and involvement in brainstorming, filing, and fundraising for FOIA requests. The site will ideally combine elements of Reddit, Quora and Kickstarter to allow users to:
1) suggest, comment on, modify and vote on proposed FOIA ideas;

2) "claim" an idea and file the actual FOIA request for it, keeping the community appraised of any response, updates on the process etc.;

3) use Kickstarter to raise money to fund the request; and

4) finally, access a repository of all retrieved documents as well as
statistics about how long different agencies took to respond, how much
they charged, what they denied requests for, etc.

Main Page

2011-11-23T02:36:13Z

FactChecking: /* The Ideas */

<big>'''Ideas for a Better Internet (i4bi)'''</big>

<big>''About i4bi''</big>

This joint Harvard/Stanford interdisciplinary seminar will continue a year-long arc of developing and building ideas for a better internet. During the fall, students will incorporate ideas identified by a public call for proposals from the previous spring, and work through the process of building out these ideas. The course will meet on alternate Mondays in the fall term.

By the end of the fall session, students will have proposed a tangible means of implementing at least one idea and will have made significant progress on conceptualizing and building at least one solution. Students will interact with entrepreneurs, organizations, and policy makers with a significant stake in shaping the future of digital technology and the Internet to solicit advice, guidance, and feedback.

During the winter term students will finalize the projects that they have developed throughout the fall semester, engage in visits to companies and organizations, and prepare a working demo or proposal to be presented at a culminating event with leaders of Silicon Valley and beyond.

By the end of the course, students will have launched their solution-based projects to the world in conjunction with those proposing the ideas.

== The Ideas ==

<big>''Harvard-based Ideas''</big>

[[Mirror As You Link]]

[[Mesh Network]]

[[Reddit/Kickstarter/Quora for FOIA (Formerly Fact Checking)]]

[[Web Citizenship]]

<big>''Stanford-based Ideas''</big>

[[Future of Education]]

[[Distributed Social Networking]]

[[Moby Dick Project]]

[[Privacy Icons]]

Fact Checking

2011-10-13T18:28:16Z

FactChecking: /* The Idea */

<big>'''Fact Checking'''</big>

== The Idea ==

The Internet is a primary source of news and information today, though unlike established media the Internet lacks traditional fact-checking mechanisms. But does the Internet really need traditional fact-checking? Fact-checking general information on the Internet is an abstract and decentralized but relatively straightforward undertaking. Broad classes of falsifiable information, like health advice, superstitions, product marketing and history, have entire websites dedicated to their confirmation or refutation: WebMD, Snopes.com, Amazon Reviews and Wikipedia. Each of these websites has mechanisms to cite sources of information, vote on the credibility of information and solve domain specific problems to each class. Undoubtedly, there is still a tremendous amount of false and inaccurate information on the Internet, but sites like Snopes and Wikipedia do a sufficiently good job of establishing what is true and false that we chose to focus on a slightly element: sourcing Internet information.

To help readers better understand where the information they read in online sources comes from, we propose to develop a design a sort of Turnitin.com for the Internet. Turnitin.com is an online service that analyzes student work for plagiarism by comparing the submitted work to a database of other work and Internet sources. Turnitin generates "originality reports" for each submitted document (sample shown here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/62/Turnitin_sample_report.png ). Our idea would be to have a similar service available to analyze online news stories, blog posts, etc. and show readers where the information comes from originally -- be it a blogger, a press release, another news story -- so that they can better assess the originality and reliability of the report.

Such a service could have two broad advantages to Internet users. First, it would provide them with a better sense of the original source(s) of information they read online. This corresponds (loosely) to the original fact-checking focus, since sourcing, though it does not explicitly indicate whether information is true or false, often provides a strong signal about how accurate and reliable that information is, based on the reputation of its source. Second, this service would also have benefits related to the Turnitin.com plagiarism-detection goal by allowing Internet users to distinguish between news stories (or quotes) that are simply being pulled verbatim from other articles or press releases and those that are the product of original reporting and writing. Ideally, this could serve to reward original journalism and motivate better, more thorough reporting over speedy stories generated primarily by copying and pasting material from other sources.

Fact Checking

2011-10-13T18:21:43Z

FactChecking: /* The Idea */

Fact Checking

2011-10-13T18:19:21Z

FactChecking: /* The Idea */