NewsTrust.net

Purpose

Newstrust.net is a non-profit, non-partisan news aggregator that uses several layers of story filtering based on the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ to provide the highest quality journalism to its users.

Each article is rated in multiple categories including accuracy, context, evidence, importance, sources and style. In addition to the stories being rated, the reviews, the publications, and even the reviewers themselves are subject to peer review, and rated on things like transparency, activity, and experience.

Newstrust.net hopes that this web of content filters will allow the legitimate journalism on the Internet to bubble to the top and prevent corruption and falsely promoted stories (remember when digg.com had to remove their ‘top 100 diggers’ list due to payoffs and fraud?).

Business Plan
NewsTrust.net is a non-profit project and was initially supported by founder Fabrice Florin’s own funding and a little outside help. NewsTrust.net has received a number of private donations as well as foundation grants such as a multi-year $450,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation in November of 2007.

Team
Newstrust.net was founded in 2005 and based in Mill Valley, California. Newstrust.net has over 7000 registered members.

Tech/Architecture
Newstrust.net is currently in beta, which launched in November 2006 and is planned to launch in full in fall 2008.

Links/Commentary
Official NewsTrust.net About Page
Interview with Founder Fabrice Florin
Google Tech Talk Video Presentation of Newstrust.net