Re: Recommendation / Help Needed

Andre,
All,

I'm glad that you see some applicability to your projects with regard to these ideas. When a company can get their customers to install an app, e.g., a Web app, their customers won't have to establish and maintain routines of checking a website for fresh, interesting content.

While there do exist news apps, instead of grid-based syndication/aggregation layouts with hyperlinks to items' webpages or to app-integrated pages with ads, "composite" newspapers or magazines would, as presently envisioned, include the entireties of articles in aesthetic layouts with inlayed advertisements.

These apps might collect some basic usage data to appropriately distribute ad revenue to content creators. Alternatively, the newspapers or magazines could purchase licenses to redistribute articles, for unlimited uses or at a per use rate, with the entirety of ad revenue then going to the newspapers or magazines, in these cases. There appear to be many possibilities.

"Composite" newspapers or magazines would want to maximize customers' satisfaction and their brands' quality while in competition with one another. So, two example ones, "Bricolage" and "Mosaic", would, as envisioned, provide their customers with personalized articles and editorial content from a very large number of (overlapping) sources. Their AI technologies would be of use for selecting articles, organizing articles, generating aesthetic layouts, selecting ads, and more, per customer.

Important caveats with respect to news recommendation and personalization systems include, but are not limited to, avoiding filter bubbles [1].

That is a good point about wanting editorial control atop artificial-intelligence systems to be able to highlight content for customers. There should be dashboards for teams operating these kinds of systems. Perhaps, with such dashboards, teams could query one or more datasets, create charts and visualizations, enhance these with metadata, and add these to databases for subsequent distribution to customers. Some articles could be created in-house by newspapers' or magazines' teams and created charts and visualizations could be placed in such articles. Nowadays, modern dashboards might include AI assistants for helping with these tasks, querying data and co-creating charts, visualizations, and articles.

With respect to content-distribution services, I'm presently thinking about popular content-management systems, about software like CKAN and DKAN, and that public-sector websites and services could ping one or more content-distribution services as new content became available (or was modified). These content-distribution services would then rapidly and intelligently route information about new (or modified) content, documents and data, to interested users.

Thank you for the ideas about potential partnerships with civic-tech organizations, foundations, public-interest groups, and nonprofits with respect to realizing such content-distribution services for public-sector documents and data.

I will brainstorm some more about AI and information retrieval and recommendation systems (and customer perspectives) upcoming. Looking forward to continuing the discussion.


Best regards,
Adam

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble

________________________________
From: Andre Beckford <andrebeckford@icloud.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2024 6:28 PM
To: Adam Sobieski <adamsobieski@hotmail.com>
Cc: public-civics@w3.org <public-civics@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Recommendation / Help Needed


Hello Adam,



Thank you for sharing these ideas—they’re interesting! I’m intrigued by the concept of AI-enhanced technologies for routing information from publishers and producers to consumers in a more seamless, “push” format. I can see how such a system could be applied to both journalism and civic technology to keep people better informed without them having to actively seek out data. Can you give me examples of how this might look from a customer perspective?



Your point about routing public sector documents and data is especially relevant to Civic Titans. One of our goals is to use AI to make government data more accessible, transparent, and digestible for the average person. AI could intelligently curate and deliver insights about consumer spending, political participation, and even government spending in an intuitive format. If citizens had a personalized feed showing, for example, how their tax dollars are allocated or which companies their investments support, I believe it would empower them to make better decisions both economically and politically. Additionally, this can be tied to specific campaigns or petitions advocating for a shift in the investment direction of a 401k or pension from let’s say a “Prison Industrial Complex” company or from a company that has unethical labor practices to a company with practices that align with its customers.



The idea of “composite newspapers” that provide curated, ad-supported content is interesting, especially if it could integrate public sector data or consumer-centric insights that we’re aiming to highlight. A similar model might work for Civic Titans—an app or service that not only pushes news but also analyzes consumer and political data in ways that people can act on.



In terms of business models for the public sector, while monetization might be tricky, there’s potential for partnerships with civic tech organizations, foundations, or public interest groups who share a commitment to transparency and public empowerment.



Thanks again for these ideas! I’m excited to continue brainstorming, and I’d love to continue discussing how we could bring some of these AI-enhanced tools to life.



Sent from my iPad

On Oct 23, 2024, at 2:22 PM, Adam Sobieski <adamsobieski@hotmail.com> wrote:


Andre,
All,

For discussion, some more ideas to empower consumers, enable better economic decision-making, and reinvigorate journalism ecosystems (discussed in group previously) involve considering how AI-enhanced technologies could intelligently route information from publishers to subscribers, from producers to consumers.

Instead of people (or their designated AI agents) having to visit websites, to search, or to ask questions ("pull"), AI-enhanced services could route fresh news articles ("push") to people's client-side apps (or virtual-assistant AI agents) which could collate these into newspaper-like, multi-section, paginated layouts for their morning, otherwise daily, and/or weekly consumption while being capable of alerting or otherwise instantly notifying them in events of matters of urgent interest. With respect to business models, these "composite newspapers" could provide advertisements; portions of advertising revenues could flow to individual news articles' authors, to journalists and journalism organizations.

With respect to open government and civic technology, the public sector produces and publishes a vast quantity of important documents, reports, and datasets. These published public documents and data could, similarly, be intelligently routed. There might not be as clear of business models, however, for receiving, processing, routing, and transmitting these public-sector documents and data to interested government personnel, citizens, journalists, and watchdog organizations.

Unfolding research and development into news recommendation systems, including newly possible AI-related approaches, may provide secondary benefits pertaining to open government and civic technology.


Best regards,
Adam

________________________________
From: Andre Beckford <andrebeckford@icloud.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2024 3:44 PM
To: Adam Sobieski <adamsobieski@hotmail.com>
Cc: public-civics@w3.org <public-civics@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Recommendation / Help Needed


Hello Adam,



Yes, that’s essentially the case! In addition, I want the data presented in layman’s terms to raise awareness of how much money is spent by various demographics and whether those industries or corporations align with the social values of their customers—such as employment diversity and ethical practices.



The goal is to ensure the data can drive informed consumer choices and inspire action, especially when it comes to investments in 401Ks or pension funds. Many of these funds may inadvertently support companies with unethical practices or those that back anti-democratic candidates or policies. This could include steering investments towards more socially responsible alternatives.



I definitely see alignment with the topics you listed—[1], [3], [4], [5], and [6] resonate particularly well with Civic Titans goals. I’m excited about the possibilities you mentioned, like the idea of a mobile app or browser extension to help consumers make better economic decisions. That could be a game-changer in terms of consumer empowerment.



I really appreciate your interest and am open to any advice or collaboration as I continue to refine these ideas.




Thank you!

Andre Beckford
Sent from my iPad

On Oct 22, 2024, at 8:40 AM, Adam Sobieski <adamsobieski@hotmail.com> wrote:


Andre,

Hello. If I understand correctly, you're exploring uses of artificial-intelligence, productivity, and analytics tools and technologies to process vast quantities of data from many sources to better inform people, consumers and investors, with respect to [1][2][3][4][5] and, possibly, [6]?

I am eager to learn more about Civic Titans projects and to be of assistance.


Best regards,
Adam

P.S.: Imagine if people could use their smartphones to scan universal product codes on items to receive configurable, personalized information to be more aware consumers and to make better economic decisions (e.g., [6]). However, for online shopping scenarios, such a service might also be in the form of a browser extension.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_activism

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_voting

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_activism

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_consumerism

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socially_responsible_investing

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_capitalism


________________________________
From: Andre Beckford <andrebeckford@icloud.com>
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2024 12:53 PM
To: public-civics@w3.org <public-civics@w3.org>
Subject: Recommendation / Help Needed

Hello Civic Technology Community Group,

My name is Andre Beckford, and I’m working on a project called Civic Titans (www.civictitans.org<http://www.civictitans.org/>). I’m looking for feedback, recommendations and help with automating the collection of public data from sources like the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Nielsen Reports, the U.S. Census Bureau, Pew Research Center and more. I’m particularly interested in using AI-powered tools such as web scrapers and visualization platforms like Tableau or Power BI. I want to present the data in layman’s terms like using visual charts, infographics and storytelling.

Examples of the data I would like to present is showcasing consumer spending data broken down by demographic, highlighting spending categories like entertainment, food, housing, and more. I also want to draw connection between political influence by showing voting participation rates across demographics at federal, state, and local levels, as well as elected officials from African American communities compared to others.

Additionally, I aim to explore investment trends—specifically, how much is funneled into 401(k)s, pension funds, and personal accounts that may support corporations misaligned with our values. My goal is to demonstrate how economic choices can serve as both influence and activism. I look forward to receiving any feedback or help from the group in achieving this!


Thank you!

Andre Beckford