2019/Grants/PermaNews
Title:
PermaNews
Name:
Matt Terenzio
Wikimedia username:
E-mail address:
mterenzio@gmail.com
Resume:
Geographical impact:
global
Type of project:
Technology
What is your idea?
A formats and protocol for storing news versions on blockchain technology. The metadata about news articles is stored in a decentralized, immutable way, so there is a permanent record of it and whether it changes or not.
Why is it important?
Censorship, removal and revisioning are threats to us understanding news in the past. We need a decentralized way to be a watchdog about this. Additionally, blockchain technologies have a strong verifiable source credibility baked in to the nature of a wallet, making it difficult to game such a system.
Is your project already in progress?
How is it relevant to credibility and Wikipedia? (max 500 words)
Links to external sources are not sufficient in a time when censorship, removal and revision can happen. In the case of revision, it is difficult to tell. While there are tools, it can be improved greatly.
What is the ultimate impact of this project?
A permanent source of record for news, that may eventually get removed or changed or time, as well as a verifiable source system built in to the protocol.
Could it scale?
By the nature of decentralized blockchain technologies it can scale and has no central point of failure that can't be routed around.
Why are you the people to do it?
I've been working on this problem since the mid-aughts and am working with the Arweave community. We've made some progress and will be bootstrapping this system in the coming months.
What is the impact of your idea on diversity and inclusiveness of the Wikimedia movement?
By it's nature, this system has no central control or focus. It's about as free and open as internet technologies can get.
What are the challenges associated with this project and how you will overcome them?
We will need a decent amount of digital currency to store the initial news that will bootstrap this to a critical mass. We are getting some from the Arweave community and have other donation promises to the project.
How much money are you requesting?
$250 to $10,000 US dollars
How will you spend the money?
On digital tokens to be used as storage space. My development work will be donated by myself and perhaps my employers. I specified the entire range because the project will need more than this funding and we will be looking for more backing.
How long will your project take?
It's in the works. Will be active within months.
Have you worked on projects for previous grants before?
I received a Knight Prototype Fund grant for atomic news research https://github.com/mterenzio/fission https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/how-project-fission-wants-to-be-the-lego-for-news-/s2/a556558/