Michael Heumann
Aug 24, 2017 · 3 min read

I believe we at www.truthfilter.com have come up with a viable solution to the fake news problem. We call it “crowd-sourcing the truth”, but it is really crowd-sourcing the fact checking process, combined with the collective evaluation and filtering of pro and con evidence submitted by others according to widely accepted metrics of evidence reliability. The result is an instant readout of the reliability of specific assertions using simple color-coded live text links. The links, which can range in color from “true-blue” or green to “warning red”, grey for “grey areas” or notational yellow for neutral links to more information lead to the actual sources that support or disprove assertions made in the article or provide addition crowdsourced considerations that may help the reader understand the underlying facts or contentions. The color-coded links can be followed to reveal the actual pro&con evidence submitted, the sources of the crowd-sourced evidence, and the collectively determined evidence reliability scores, all of which help determine the shade of color of the linked text. Beside the obvious benefit of crowd-sourcing the tedious process of fact-checking, this approach has two other significant advantages over existing fact-checking systems:

  1. The process of guiding readers through the evidence evaluation process teaches critical thinking and media literacy, creating a virtual army of more astute and less vulnerable media consumers. The development of these skills will be essential if our democracy is to survive the current crisis.
  2. The open system addresses the common criticism of exising fact-checking organizations as having a liberal bias by being open to all evaluators, but limiting the inputs to verifiable facts rather than opinion… in fact one of the key criteria used to evaluate the assertions is to clearly identify opinion stated as fact. One of the biggest problems in todays polarized social-media driven news world, is that editorial content is more valuable as an advertising commodity and editorial content is too often mistaken for actual news. TruthFilter teaches poeple how to tell the difference while providing in-depth information needed for us to make informed decisions.

To find out more about how our system works please go to: www.truthfilter.com and watch the 90 second introductory video. We are currently seeking a developmental partner to host an experimental beta version of the software as well as some seed funding.

We are also working on a system for allowing authors to tap the expertise of multiple contributors using a color-coding manuscript annotation and suggestion system called Open SourceBooks.

Having recently sold our Nature Window 4K HDTV Channel, our Video division is now working on a documentary that explores how the post-scarcity economic path just out of our reach is already leading to a rediscovery of the most adaptive and perhaps most enjoyable form of human interaction, the support and fulfillment of most of our material needs by the age old system of sharing and the cycle of paying it forward and gifting.

Finally, our most ambitious long term project is WisdomPedia.org, a place to create a collective tribal elder for the rapidly expanding global village.

Without AW (augmented wisdom), the science fiction scenarios involving AI will continue to wreak havoc like they have already done with our increasingly AI driven financial markets.

Michael Heumann, Founder TruthFilter, KnowledgeCenter.com Wisdompedia.org and VideoSource.com

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