New Web Site Brings News Contributors from All Over the World
Together in an Unedited and Interactive Environment to Share Stories,
Blogs, Videos and Images
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Allvoices, a
new citizen media start-up, today introduced an open global community
where anyone can report and share news from anywhere in the world. The
Web site gives the diverse community a chance to share and discuss news,
videos, images and opinions tied to events and people. It is the first
community to weave together traditional news, blogs, online resources
and anyone who wants to share their voice.
Since its beta release in April 2007, Allvoices has built a rapidly
growing community of individuals voicing multiple perspectives on
important news and issues facing people today.
The Allvoices community provides eyewitness news and perspective that is
free from traditional editorial oversight and censorship characteristic
of global media organizations. Allvoices’ Web
site aggregates, contextualizes and categorizes a broad base of breaking
stories and individual perspectives through unedited points of view.
Using a set of proprietary algorithms, Allvoices has created a
technology platform that utilizes more than 3,500 mainstream feeds and
online sources of news to provide relevancy and context for user
generated news. Story rank on the home page is determined by the number
and diversity of other sources citing the particular news event and
community-activity on the report.
“Allvoices is using technology to leverage a
single voice. Contributed content is validated by the community,
traditional media and other online sources,”
said Amra Tareen, CEO of Allvoices. “At a
time when traditional news establishments are facing severe cutbacks,
the need for citizen reporting is more important than ever, and we
believe our model of merging user-generated content and professional
news sources into one community will create the first true people’s
media.”
Registered users can report news on a broad range of topics divided into
the following categories: Politics, Business, Conflict & Tragedy,
Science & Technology, Sports and Entertainment. Allvoices takes each
news posting, organizes it by location, time and category, and creates
context by bringing together existing, relevant news stories, blogs,
images and videos. The technology platform also has an algorithmic
ranking method and a system that strings related content together. A
person can report news on Allvoices from their cell phone with SMS, MMS
or via the Web site, by clicking on "report your news.”
Each news event is assigned an event code number that will help
individuals add their voice from their mobile phone to an existing news
report by automatically linking the related contributions together.
Allvoices spawned from a trip Tareen took last year to Pakistan where
she witnessed the devastation of the 2005 earthquake and felt her own
pictures and experiences were not enough to make a difference back home.
Inspired by the individuals she met, Tareen wanted to create a place for
individuals from all over the world to report on what they know first
hand and share their experiences via photos, video and stories. Born and
raised in Pakistan and Australia, Tareen used her personal experience,
her Harvard MBA and her previous career as a Silicon Valley venture
capitalist to start the Allvoices community.
“At it’s core,
Allvoices is about fostering democracy; about giving power to the
people; about their voices having the effect that makes a difference,”
said Tareen. “We believe that differing points
of view complete the human story.”
About Allvoices
Allvoices’ mission is to create a global
community for sharing news, videos, images and opinions from multiple
points of view that invoke an emotional connection between individual
perspectives from around the world. Allvoices brings together context,
insight and diversity of opinions around a broad range of topics and
issues on the global, national and local levels. Allvoices is one of the
largest global communities offering unedited and relevant news and
perspectives in one place. Using a set of proprietary algorithms,
Allvoices utilizes professional and online news sources, blogs, images
and videos to determine relevancy, foster credibility and maintain
openness with each contribution made to the site.
Release Summary:
Allvoices (www.allvoices.com), a
new citizen media start-up, today introduced an open global community
where anyone can report and share news from anywhere in the world. The
Web site gives the diverse community a chance to share and discuss news,
videos, images and opinions tied to events and people.
Contacts
Racepoint Group
Meagan McCrystle, 415-694-6704
mmccrystle@racepointgroup.com