HACK THE FAKE NEWS INITIATIVE: Machine Learning Challenge
Did you know that around 20 000 to 30 000 thousand articles are published online in Bulgaria daily by news outlets, informational agencies and other informational, entertainment and niche online media? Our initial assessment shows that among the professionally prepared news, analyses, interviews and commentaries there is a certain portion of the content that does not follow any journalism standards and worse, is a deceptive or manipulative representation of real events or an outright fabrication. The publishers of this type of content operate multiple domains and rely on extensive popularisation on social media. The average consumer hasn’t got the reflexes and the media literacy to be able to critically analyse and distinguish between proper news and the so-called “fake news” pieces.
We are turning to the power of technology to find a disruptive solution to a global trend, impacting all areas of life and public activity.
We are inviting the brightest talents in data science & programming to apply their latest knowledge in machine learning to create one or more algorithms that evaluate the possibility for a random article you encounter online to be fake.
WHY SHOULD YOU PARTICIPATE:
- Join efforts with other experts and learn in practice more about machine learning
- Put your tech skills to a solution which impacts the whole society
- Winning teams will have the chance to make a real impact by collaboration with media, communication experts and other key players in the online environment
MORE ABOUT THE HACKATHON CHALLENGE:
Hackathon Participants will have to apply the most effective machine learning or reinforced machine learning methods to create an algorithm that looks for patterns in fake news structure, punctuation and sentence building and goes beyond occurrence of certain words or evaluation of the reliability of source or other factors that fake news publishers can easily adapt to. With the support of media listening & analytics company Sensika we are providing participating teams with a training set of over 1500 articles, evaluated by communication experts and a test set of more than 20 000 articles, published over a certain period of time.
AFTER THE HACKATHON
The second step would be to bring to life the algorithms created through a coordinated effort of industry organisations, media and public entities. At the public workshop will participate key organisations at the Bulgarian market, such as leading media groups, leading PR associations, top Bulgarian companies.
Representatives of all sides will come together to brainstorm possible applications of those algorithms (such as mobile applications, browser widgets, media integration).
Depending on the results of the workshop there will be additional efforts to apply created algorithms and increase consumer awareness and literacy about the fake news.
CAMPAIGN PIONEERS
United Partners - a hybrid agency providing integrated communication solutions.
The Bulgarian PR association (BAPRA) objectives are to support and strengthen PR as an activity, working in favour of the modern society development.
CO-ORGANIZERS
Data Science Society - a community of people dedicated to promoting better collaboration between science, education and business, to accelerate ethical and open innovation. For the past 2 years, ur driving core of 10 people has been joined by 30 volunteers and over 1000 members of the community.
SENSIKA - an innovative, cloud-based, single-access-point Information Intelligence platform that seamlessly fuses relevant and actionable insights from external and internal sources straight into the workflow of every employee in the enterprise, to support sound and agile business decisions, anywhere & anytime.
KEY PARTNERS
Endorsed by IPRA – the International Public Relations Association
The Bulgarian Society of PR - a non-profit organisation, created to defend the ethical practices in PR. The society is aiming to unite and structure the PR industry in Bulgaria, impose self-regulatory measures and professional standards.
New Bulgarian University - a private university in Sofia, Bulgaria. Currently the “Hack the Fake News Initiative” is supported students in PR, who are processing test sets for the hackathon and by students in computer sciences.
КОГА: 19.05.2017
МЯСТО: United Partners Office ulitsa "Sv. Sveti Kiril I Metodii
ВХОД: €5
HACKATHON CHALLENGE PROGRAM:
Friday, May 19
18.15 - 19.00 - Registration
19.00 - 20.00 - Presentation of case & introduction to the fake news problem
20.00 - 20.30 - Team forming & building
20.30 --- working on case
Saturday, May 20
09.00 --- working on case
Sunday, May 21
14.00 - Deadline for submission of solutions
14.00 - 15.00 - Presentation of solutions by teams
15.00 - 16.00 - Evaluation of solutions by jury & awarding
Data Science Society
Data Science Society is a community of people dedicated to promoting better collaboration between science, education and business, to accelerate ethical and open innovation. For the past 2 years, our driving core of 10 people has been joined by 30 volunteers and over 1000 members of the community. We get inspired & motivated by socialising with like-minded people and learning from each other online and offline, at our own meetups, talks and webinars.
SENSIKA
SENSIKA is an innovative, cloud-based, single-access-point Information Intelligence platform that seamlessly fuses relevant and actionable insights from external and internal sources straight into the workflow of every employee in the enterprise, to support sound and agile business decisions, anywhere & anytime.