Algorithm sums it all up
Published 7:11 am Friday, March 29, 2013
It’s funny. Back in the early 1980s, when Gannett proposed creating a national newspaper that would synthesize news down to easy-to-read-and-comprehend stories, critics abounded, especially those who feared dumbed-down “McNews” articles. Today, when a teenager comes up with a way to synthesize (other peoples’) news down to smartphone-sized tidbits, he’s handed $30 million.
(It turns out some of USA Today’s critics were right: The paper’s attempt to “capsulizing” news from each state has never really worked; whereas some of its “old-fashioned,” longer-length investigative journalism has been top notch, from reports on the federal school lunch program to military suicides and other problems veterans face.)
Nick D’Aloisio, 17, launched his company, Summly, in 2011. The application, “an automatic summarization algorithm,” lets users skim through articles on their mobile devices. Summly “sums up articles in 400 characters, making it easy for users to scan for information and get to full articles if they want a more in-depth read,” according to an article. (Hey, if they apply it to commonly assigned books in school, they can launch “Clff Nts.”)
So Summly sums up articles in 400 characters? Wow. So do “headlines.” And the first paragraph of a story, if it’s written in classic “pyramid” style.
Maybe Summly will be a hit for buyer Yahoo, maybe not. Just don’t pretend that it’s worth $30 million, just because it’s an “app.” What Summly comes down to is that it’s not easy or desirable to read something of any length on a phone. Which is why we have computers, tablets, books, magazines, newspapers, and electronic readers.
Regardless the reading venue, the more and more newspapers and wire services are cut back, the less and less news there is for anyone to summarize.
In related but much less reported news, a judge last week ruled that a company that “relays excerpts of Internet news articles” violates copyright laws — notching a big victory for the Associated Press. The offending company, Meltwater News Service, (it takes some gall to call yourself a “news service” when you don’t produce any) said it was disappointed and will appeal. It called the ruling “at odds with a variety of prior decisions that have paved the way for today’s Internet.”
Ah, yes, today’s Internet, where news is free. In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote took aim at that absurd idea:
“Permitting Meltwater to take the fruit of AP’s labor for its own profit, without compensating AP, injures AP’s ability to perform this essential function of democracy.”
Indeed.
To Summly: Like food, it’s important to know where news originates. And to pay for it, and/or give credit to the provider.
