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A website rebuttal tool. A browser extension which indicates when a rebuttal exists to a page which is being browsed.
Numerous times I have found myself looking for a reply to a compelling article which has just been published, but completely unable to find one. Google doesn't index fast enough, or the specific nature of the desired content is too difficult to find through mere keywords. The solution I have come up with is to create a browser extension which allows users to connect replies (specifically rebuttals) that they (or anyone else) have written, to the original articles which they ar rebutting, so that visitors to the original article can easily see and click through to the rebuttal.
While anyone could do it, if the blogging community could get on board with this app, then as soon as some contentious article is posted in a mainstream media website, the blogosphere can react (as it does), and the people who read the contentious article could immediately know about the numerous articles which have been published in reply to it.
And of course, the original perspective could then rebut the rebuttals, and so on - creating a genuine online discourse 'throughout' the internet - rather than just on a single page, or in a single (biased? controlled?) location.
I have been working on an app to do this with a partner for a few weeks now, and have written a lot more on the subject in its blog. Have a look if you are interested in the idea - I think the ramifications of success with this app would be substantial.
http://www.rbutr.com
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Shane Greenup
Thanks so much for your comments. My partner and I have been receiving a lot of positive feedback so far, and it seems you have picked up on the heart of the issue straight away. We have also got our eyes on other functions, such as "More information" "I agree" "Review" etc sorts of linkages, but have decided to start narrow and build one principle as well as we can, and then expand from there. Partly because I think rebuttals are what is really missing (everyone already links to "people who agree with me" and "you might also like..." stuff) - this is the answer to the "Filter Bubbles" Eli Pariser was talking about. If every page you read gave you an automatic out into an opposing perspective... think of the perspective enrichment available to every user.
And Krisztian - yes, that is indeed one problem we encountered early on in our coding efforts. Thankfully Google made a huge step forward in helping to solve that problem in 2009 with the invention of Canonical URL's. Sadly, not everyone uses them (wikipedia for example), and as you say, there is scope for fraudulent sorts of websites to purposefully manipulate their own URL's to avoid recognition. Hopefully this won't happen too much, and if rbutr gets to the level of success where websites start doing that to avoid being rebutted, then hopefully people will become immediately suspicious of websites with unnecessarily crazy URL's without any rebuttals tagged for them....
Scott, RE thinking of the web different, try having a look at this video which I made the other day about what sort of an impact I can see this app having on the way information is organised on the web. It goes for 15 min though - but it is a mock up of an animation I would love to one day present in a TED talk. Hopefully once the app is successful and we are using genuine data rather than just imaginary visualisations :)
http://rbutr.com/2012/02/what-rbutr-could-do-for-online-discourse/
scott lee
I watched your video, and it talks about just what I was thinking.
One challenge I see is the login gate. A lot of sites offer news for paid subscriptions. Similarly, things like facebook are often a place where people can debate, but you need to log in. I never save my password and username, but it seems I would have to to use this device.
I'm also curious about the comlexity of the interface.
Also, there is also the issue of profit. Is there a way to profit, or is this a gift to society?
Anyway, just a thought.
Keep up the good work!
Shane Greenup
Similarly articles which require login before you can read them will likely be treated harshly for the same reason. So on one hand, good content may be lost, but with the amount of good content already available freely outside of these 'gated information communities' I don't think any real loss will be felt. Anyone who writes an amazing comment in facebook is free to, and should, go and write that same comment in their own blog, tumblr, twitter, forum... etc. There are so many outlets for publishing publicly online that there should be no fear of losing data behind login gates.
The complexity of the app, for the user, is minimal. There are some videos of the prototype in action on the website, but I will be making more by the end of the month as we will have finally applied a design to it.
We have thought about monetisation options, and there are a few available - but personally I am much more interested in making an impact on the net. Hopefully my other projects can continue to provide me with enough income to keep this project going until it has proven itself.