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July 20, 2004
News We Don't Normally Get, but Should
Every morning I go to a Website I consider essential for anyone who wants to understand what is happening in Iraq. It's part of Mark Prutsalis' TIDES World Press Reports, a service that is being demonstrated as a core part of the Strong Angel II: Designing the Edge endeavor this week.
Funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and compiled from a variety of sources, including translations from many Middle Eastern newspapers and the foreign press covering the Iraq situation, Prutsalis puts together a daily summary called the "Iraq Reconstruction Report." It's surely the best overall capsule of the on-the-ground situation you can find. He's also doing a "Global Threat" report containing stories about various terrorism and other threats to peace and stability.
Here at Strong Angel, Prutsalis, who normally works from his home in Brooklyn, has been compiling his regular reports. He's also doing a daily publication he calls EDNA, or Edge Daily New Alerts, as part of the technology demonstration.
I've urged Prutsalis to create an RSS feed for this great service, and he said it's on his list. (He also knows he has to make the site look better on Mozilla, where it's currently not very readable.)
He's also thinking about the value of collecting information from another on-the-ground source: bloggers. This would add enormous value, I believe, to the report, provided he selected the most credible bloggers.
I've been following TIDES for some time now. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of the situation in the Middle East. I don't have to like the anti-American tilt of the news coverage, but I'm better informed knowing what the Arab press is telling its own readers. This is important work, and deserves wider recognition.
(Cross-posted on eJournal.)
Posted by Dan at July 20, 2004 07:20 AM
Comments
Prutsalis is the man, plain and simple Dan.
I've been reading TWPR for a year and a half
and experience withdrawals when its funding
periods end. BTW, how long is it funded for
this period?
Posted by: Robert Stevens at July 22, 2004 04:08 AM
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