Identifying 'trusted voices'


I hadn't seen this Mercury News story when I wrote about the Jeff Jarvis commentary below, but it's absolutely on point.

The story contrasts systems that simply let readers rank stories according to their taste (like digg.com) versus a non-profit site called NewsTrust that asks for a much more nuanced evaluation.

NewsTrust's more thoughtful approach can yield dramatically different top stories. On Tuesday, NewsTrust's users selected ``Top Ten Myths About Iraq 2006,'' from a blog written by Juan Cole, president of the Global Americana Institute. Digg's top story was ``50 Reasons -- why it's great to be a Guy!!'' from a blog written by someone named Mike in Los Angeles. Reddit, a Digg competitor that was recently acquired by Conde Nast, featured ``Why iPods Are Never on Sale,'' from Salon.com.

Iraq versus iPods. That kind of sums it up ...

–Howard Weaver