New site comment system hoping to diversify the views around news

Start-up Ameritocracy has designed a new commenting system in beta, which brings in comments from around the whole web.

In brief, the Insight App is a commentary layer which sits over any website - see it working on its own site - designed to give commenters more control over how they feedback to an article or online feature.

It's a user-contributed social media platform that allows users to rate or annotate phrases with questions or an 'Insight' comment. It also draws in conversation from around the web; so comment on the same phrase elsewhere will be brought into the discussion as well.

Insight icons dotted around the page show where other commentary in the article has taken place.

It trialled on Huffington Post on its Eyes&Ears section, and most recently on DailyMe, the personalised news site.



Comments sit centrally with Insight App, but publishers have control over what shows or doesn't.

In that sense, it's not like Google Sidewiki, another floating commentary system but in which publishers cannot edit or remove comments.

It also differs from Sidewiki in that it doesn't need a plug-in for users to see it.

Founder Porter Bayne says it's not an alternative to comment systems; "it's a supplement".

Bayne wants to make commentary more "contextual" he says, with a system in which the very first comment defines the thread.



It's about "creating a more organised and contextual relevance" around "pre-defined discussion topics" Bayne explains.

Insight is "interested in defining diverse and critical perspective," he adds.

Crucially, the thinking is to develop a "financial incentive for publishers to encourage a diversity of view points."

It will give publishers greater reason to encourage outside perspectives, he adds, driving conversation and traffic to their sites.

Insight App claims that during the HuffPo pilot visitor engagement increased by 300 per cent; and visitor time on site went up 200 per cent.

Insight App is developing advertising around the comments from the start, too. It offers help developing a publishers' ad inventory, customise placements, or remove ads altogether.

It's free for a publisher to download and use, but eventually Insight App hopes to build a sustainable business model around advertising, with its revenue share on ad space.

After receiving initial angel funding, Ameritocracy is looking to enter a new funding round, now it's launched and up and running in beta.

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