E-Media Tidbits

WatchingAmerica.com is one of those websites that makes me think, "Why is it that no one has done this yet?" Here's the concept: Provide links to articles from news websites around the world written about the U.S. And for articles written in other languages, translate them into English. The site provides an interesting view for Americans of what the rest of the world thinks of them and their government.

According to co-founder Robin Koerner, "The mission is to fill a gaping niche, if that isn't an oxymoron, and offer an unbiased, ground-breaking service to the public." His reaction mirrors mine: "We keep finding ourselves amazed that no one has done this before."

WatchingAmerica is a modest enterprise at this point. Koerner and his partner, Amanda Fehd, work on a voluntary basis; the small company is based in New York.

In effect, the site is akin to Google News, since it provides daily links to pertinent news as published freely on the Web. Koerner says that non-English articles are translated, but WatchingAmerica doesn't seek permission. He explains why: "We don't make any claims to copyright against those of the original authors. We are not charging for translated content so we are not in violation of originator's copyright, in particular because the stuff we are translating is actually public domain. We don't use any material which itself is not freely available, so there are no commercial loss issues (which is the basis of copyright). However, if an original author would like it, he is welcome to the copyright of our translation, or if he would prefer, we will remove any translation upon the authors' request. This has never been necessary, though."

Koerner's view is that his translations increase exposure of authors and traffic to their organizations, "so they have every reason to be delighted." (I'm not so sure about this; I can easily imagine a news publisher objecting on copyright grounds and requesting translations be removed. It's unlikely anyone would take legal action, but possible.)

The site's business model is simple enough: Try to build traffic and sell ads around it. Syndication is planned "soon," but there are not current plans to charge for that. Koerner is considering charging for access to the site's archives.