Troy-based startup has big plans for 2018
Business raises $100K, announces partnership with John Zogby
TROY, N.Y. » Our. News, a Troybased startup on a mission to combat fake news with its crowdsourced news validation platform, has some big plans for 2018.
The Our.News platform allows anyone to participate in the news by simplifying fact-checking, and letting users rate news content on various factors.
The company, founded two years ago and based out of the downtown Troy Innovation Garage, recently announced it raised $100,000 — and that it also has a new partnership with world-renowned pollster John Zogby.
The funds raised will be used by Our.News to build upon on its existing Beta prototype, with the goal of a fully-featured production release in the second quarter of 2018.
Zogby, of the Utica-based John Zogby Strategies, joins Our.News in its effort to sort out misinfor- mation online, and is expected help the startup company bring its platform to the public.
The new mobilefriendly platform will be built with advice and feedback provided by Zogby, who will be an adviser, contributor and investor. Our.News connected with Zogby through Upstate Venture Connect, an entrepreneur-led nonprofit helping to connect area entrepreneurs with the resources needed for success.
When Our. News CEO Richard Zack first pitched Our.News to Zogby, he said he loved it and could see many applications for it, both in business and for the public good.
“He was very enthusiastic about the idea,” Zack said.
“In the age of ‘alternative facts,’ and a crowded media landscape where it can often be difficult to separate fact from fiction, it has never been more important to have verified sources of ‘real news,’ and that’s what Our.News is all about,” Zogby said in a press release, though he was not available for an interview. “Innovations like Our.News empower our citizens and our democracy. I’m thrilled to be a part of this excep- tional team!”
Zack is excited about the company’s growth, and about bringing on board Zogby’s four decades of experience with polling, data analysis, and advising the world’s most important companies on gamechanging technologies, he said.
When Zack, a news junkie with a tech background, first started Our.News his intention was to make the world a better place with his new business. He’d been duped into believing a fake news story, and wanted to create a solution to the problem using technology.
In figuring out how to do that, Zack determined that people should be part of the process too.
“The news is a real human experience,” he said. “It’s by humans, about humans.”
And so Our.News was born, giving users the tools needed to properly rate and validate the news.
Those tools include sources and statistics, information on the publishers and authors, as well as a public opinion score.
In the face of fake news floating around the internet what’s needed is critical thinking skills, Zack said. “People have to solve this problem.”
The website was originally launched last July, and since then its gained hundreds of users and facilitated more than 20,000 news ratings.
Users can judge for themselves what’s factual, well-reported and unbiased — and what isn’t. It uses a combination of crowdsourcing and patent-pending algorithms to provide neutral background data, ratings, sources, related articles, and more, and then allows the public to rate the news or digital content for several factors.
With more than 82 percent of the public sometimes finding it difficult to know what’s true online, Our.News is meant to provide a neutral, transparent and effective solution.
Our.News even rewards users for their participation with OurCoin cryptocurrency, a feature it may expand on in the future.
In the past, Our.News was all about national news stories, but the company added a local news tab just last week.
In addition to all of this growth, Our.News recently announced a partnership with Educational Vistas, Inc. of Schenectady, to give students at over 350 school districts across New York state the free tools they need to fact- check and participate in
news validation. Together with the pre-seed raise and John Zogby Strategies partnership, this marks a major stage of development in Our. News’ growth, Zack said.
Looking forward, the CEO the company’s goal for this year is to be in great shape leading up to the 2018 midterm elections, when there will be a reinvigorated political conversation around the country. “We really want to help facilitate constructive discussions and dialogue around the news surrounding the midterm elections.”
From there, Zack wants to keep incorporating feedback and building the platform and to eventually reach two million users.
For more information about Our.News, or to check out the platform, visit the website Our.News.