Billions With Zero Knowledge

I’ve had the pleasure to work closely with my friend Craig Silverman for more than five years starting while he was part of the media relations team at Zero-Knowledge Systems and then when we worked together on various projects since then.

As part of my continuing series of interviews with members of the Canadian technology scene it was my chance to turn the microphone towards Craig Silverman to talk about his blog Regret the Error and the various projects he has going on.

So, Mr. Silverman after years of you doing interviews for & with me, this
is a new one. Tell me about how Regret The Error got started, which has become quite the success.

Yes, this is a bit of a switch. My, how the tables have turned, Mr. Hill. The hunter has becomes the hunted. Let’s hope my performance is up to par.

I launched Regret the Error in October 2004, but I came up with the idea several months before and just let it sit for a while. The concept was to create a site that presented the funniest, most egregious and shocking media errors and corrections, and also use this compelling content as a means to get people – journalists and the public – interested in the issue of media accuracy. I had been reading a lot of blogs at the time and wanted to come up with something media-related that might find an audience. To my surprise, the site attracted about 10,000 visitors its first day. That told me I was going to be doing this for a while.

How has the response been from editors and the newspaper industry?

I’m proud to say the response from the journalism community has been overwhelmingly positive. This is good for two reasons.

1. Hopefully it means I’m making a meaningful contribution to discussion and research into the area of media errors and accuracy.
2. And hopefully it suggests that journalists care about these issues and are interested in working on them.

I suppose the counterpoint could be that I’m not being provocative enough to incur dissention, but my goal is to have a positive overall effect on journalism and that means I‘m more interested in having a meaningful, professional discussion as opposed to screaming bloody murder about the press’ problems with accuracy. And, yes, there are problems.

As a side note, there are many editors and working journalists sending in errors and corrections from their own publications. So they seem to have no problem bringing their own missteps to light. I think that’s healthy.

Any thoughts on the changes occurring to the news media industry right now?

Depending on whom you speak with, this is a time when good journalists are losing their jobs or leaving the industry in droves and the mainstream media as we know it is slowing sinking like a dinosaur stuck in a tar pit. Or, it’s a revolutionary time in the history of the press, a time when new technologies are forcing old models and organizations to change and embrace new ways of delivering the news. This means being (get ready for the buzz words) “platform agnostic” – delivering news any and every way people want it. This requires new levels of transparency about the newsgathering process, and involving people other than journalists in the collection and dissemination of information.

I’m generalizing here with the two schools of thought, but as much as I lament the loss of jobs and believe this can only lower the quality of journalism, I look at the changes taking place as part of a remarkable opportunity for both the press and the media-savvy person at large. Journalists used to have a kind of monopoly on the news. Every morning a newspaper would hit your doorstep and tell you what you were supposed to know. Radio would fill you in during the day, and TV would wrap it all up in a nice package at night. Then you could turn to a magazine or book for a more focused or long-term view on the news. It was a nice little ecosystem of information, and the average person largely picked from a menu of options determined by the media itself. It made media companies rich as hell and it made journalists, who are notoriously underpaid, feel a sense of power and responsibility.

Now, for example, anyone can start a blog and report their own news, be it about what their cat did that day, or what they see going on in their community (work, geography, profession, family etc.) In the words of Dan Gillmor, anyone can “commit acts of journalism.” That’s remarkable. It’s also game-changing.

The old model is what one newspaper editor in the US called “fortress journalism.” The media opened the gates and provided the plebes with what the media determined important and then closed up until the next time *they* were scheduled to bring down the word of God. Rarely did the fortress open its gates and let the people in to see how this mysterious news oracle operated, or enable people to make a meaningful contribution. (Think of how little space was devoted to letters to the editor, and how hard it was for the average person to get a submission printed on the op-ed pages.)

Now it’s the people who dictate how, when and where they want their information. The explosion of options for receiving — and producing — news has changed the old dynamic and journalists and media companies are working to adapt. It’s a relatively messy process right now. Large organizations are often by their nature slow to adapt to change and so we have a blossoming of independent news providers, mostly online, doing some remarkably innovative things.

Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., the publisher of The New York Times recently set tongues wagging when he said, “I really don’t know whether we’ll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don’t care, either.” Obviously, he could have phrased that a bit better. “I don’t care” suggests a lack of engagement that brought out the knives in the press, but I think his statement is a positive one. (He subsequently clarified his statement; see here: http://themediamob.observer.com/2007/02/times-sulzberger-newspaper-will-be-around-for-a-long-time.html )

Newspapers as organized providers of information, commentary, analysis and entertainment will continue. But already a newspaper is much more than the paper product: it is a website with podcasts and video, and often also an electronic version. I don’t see the daily paper going away in the very short term, but there’s no question that newspaper newsrooms are thinking of themselves less as being linked to a paper product and more as news providers for a variety of mediums. If the people want their news online, a newspaper damn well better give it to them. And if they want video and audio and archives and chats with journalists etc., these operations know they don’t have much of a choice. People can and will go elsewhere for their news — and they can by and large get it for free. That old fortress is fast crumbling and the villagers have breached the walls.

Maybe that sounds negative, but I think there are remarkable opportunities for news innovation and the barriers to entry are lower than ever before. This is a threat to the established media companies, but they are also extremely well positioned. They have the staff (if they’d just stop cutting and look more to reassigning and retraining…), the resources etc. They also have one thing that brings us back to Regret the Error: credibility. In this onslaught of information and news, people want to find a source that they can trust. It’s an inherent human trait. Trust is a factor in so many of our daily decisions, and it is the cornerstone of the press. If large media organizations can rededicate themselves to delivering demonstrably more accurate, reliable and trustworthy reporting, they can rise above the noise and reaffirm their place at the top of the news food chain. One of the key ways to do this is to (in my best Ronald Reagan voice) tear down those fortress walls. Trust today requires transparency and collaboration. Let the villagers in.

For a really interesting take on this shift, I recommend reading this post from an executive at IDG. It’s really on point:

http://colincrawford.typepad.com/idg/2007/02/the_transformat.html

(Hat tip to the remarkable Jeff Jarvis for spotting it.)

Tell me about your role as Director of Verification for NewAssignment.Net?

Ah, a perfect segue. NewAssignment.Net is a non-profit project started by Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at NYU. The goal is to see how professional journalists and the public at large can collaborate together to research, report, write and edit stories. The idea is to experiment with “open source reporting” and see if we can develop the tools, process and standards that could be used by other media organizations and groups. The focus is on investigative reporting.

My role is to try and develop the fact checking portion of the project. How do we enable groups of people to come together and verify the research and reporting done by the NewAssignment reporters? What tools and systems can we build to meet the highest possible standard of accuracy in what we do? Those are the questions we’re grappling with, and it’s going to take time to answer them. As of now, the team just launched the new site where this “crowdsourced” reporting can take place, and within that site there will soon be a section devoted to networked fact checking. Check it out and please sign up to contribute:

http://zero.newassignment.net

Hopefully, we can develop the technology, policies and practices that can be used by other groups and media organizations to incorporate the so-called “wisdom of crowds” into their work. Reuters has already stepped up with some funding because they recognize the opportunities for this kind of work. And because we’re non-profit, we can act as an incubator and experimental place to advance this concept.

You can read more about my role here:

http://www.newassignment.net/blog/craigsilverman/nov2006/06/can_there_be_inn

More about crowdsourcing here:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/crowds.html

And:

http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com

You also just got your first book deal, congratulations. What can you tell me about the book?
Thanks. Not to brag, but I’m actually under contract for two books right now. The first is a book based on my work at Regret the Error. It will be a definitive look at media errors and accuracy going back to the time when news was exchanged by word of mouth through the invention of newspapers and broadcast media and into today. I look at how the press evolved to make accuracy a cornerstone of its operations, and how studies over the last 70 years show that we are, unfortunately, not walking the talk. The book will feature tales of some of the most egregious and hilarious media errors of history and recent times, and offer suggestions for making the press more accurate. Of course, it will also include hundreds of the best corrections from the website. It will be released in December. Penguin is publishing it in Canada, and Union Square Press (a division of Sterling) is publishing it in the US, UK and Australia.

The second book is a project I’m co-writing. I’m working with the infamous Mafiaboy. He’s the guy who, as a teenager, unleashed devastating denial of service attacks against web giants like Yahoo!, eBay, E*TRADE etc. back in 2000. The FBI and RCMP hunted him down and arrested him a few months later. He’s now grown up and is ready to tell his story. (He has never uttered a word to the press.) We are also going to write about the realities of online security and offer people and businesses concrete advice about how to protect themselves. His goal now is to help educate people about online security. That book will be published in Fall 2008. Penguin owns the world rights to that one.

I never would have guessed it would come together like this, but if I hadn’t spent three years at Zero-Knowledge I probably wouldn’t be able to write this book with him. It goes to show that you never know how certain experiences are going to benefit you down the road.

What do you find exciting about what’s occurring in Montreal in terms of the technology & social media scene?

Well, I was very impressed by some of what I saw at BarCamp Montreal. I think we’ve got a lot of sleeper hits gestating in Montreal and we’re edging our way towards a bit of a breakout. What I like most is the sense of community that seems to exist. People working in these areas are always open to collaborate, meet and talk. There is competition but also a sense that a rising tide can lift all boats. I continue to be impressed by what Hugh McGuire has done with LibriVox (so much that I wrote about the project for The New York Times and Montreal Gazette; read the articles at http://www.craigsilverman.ca ), and even though he talked a bit of smack about the lethargy of Montrealers, Julien Smith is a podcast master. Though I can drink him under the table and proved it a few weeks back. Then there’s Mitch Joel who, I swear to God, knows everyone. I recently had trouble finding a source for an article I was writing, so I sent Mitch an IM and he gave me the perfect contact in about a minute flat.

I’m also wondering exactly what the hell this Project Ojibwe (now Akoha) thing is all about, Austin? You used to not be able to keep anything a secret and all of a sudden you’re a freaking vault. It scares me, though as a former member of your communications department at Zero-Knowledge, I have to say I’m also extremely proud. As a final note, I think it’s interesting and promising that Google is coming to town. It shows once again that we have a huge amount of talent here. Let the recruiting battles begin.

For a few possible readers of the blog who might want me to ask, have you heard from Spanky Bodega and do you know if he has any words to pass on to his fans?
Spanky actually sent me a letter recently. He is in Costa Rica. It said:

“Craig,

The raven flies at night and the dog howls in the day. Spanky here. Sun is good, beer is better. My novel is coming along well but the police have confiscated chapter two due to its potential to ‘incite violence and upset the masses.’ Will bribe them with Baton Rouge ribs to get it back. Please send 15 racks of Baton Rouge ribs. (Ten for me, five for them. Extra sauce all around.)

And tell everyone to stop worrying; that rash cleared up fine.

Spanky B.”

On Mon 19 Mar 2007.