It's important that we maintain access to fact-based, diverse perspectives on global and local issues that affect us. I've created an app that curates information from a wide range of reputable sources and creates custom daily reporting for me on events and trends that I care about.
The Value Proposition: Building a Personal OODA Loop
Military strategist John Boyd developed the OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) as a framework for decision-making amidst uncertainty. Most of us do not do the first two steps well. We observe what is happening through social media feeds designed to maximize engagement over accuracy. And we orient using fragmented news sources that prioritize outrage over context.
To fix this, I have created a system that helps me answer three questions:
- What decisions should I make right now?
- What should I recommend to colleagues, clients, or stakeholders in different positions?
- What societal or policy changes should I support or advocate for?
My system gathers information from a diverse array of sources. By looking at developments from the perspective of Reuters, Al Jazeera, South China Morning Post, The Hindu, Deutsche Welle, and dozens of other international outlets, I can see how different regions frame and interpret the same events. This reveals a deeper context of what is really happening.
The Democratization of Global Insight
Until recently, building this kind of capability required enormous resources. Professional intelligence analysis demanded human linguists to monitor foreign media, intelligence analysts to synthesize information across sources, massive budgets for data acquisition and processing and secure communication networks. Only presidents and billionaires possessed this kind of real-time insight.
But for personal strategic awareness, I can now obtain all of the above for free (or at least cheap).
Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) makes critical information publicly available. RSS feeds provide structured access to global news sources. And cloud-based AI tools offer free or inexpensive usage tiers sufficient for personal use.
The software that I used to build my system runs entirely on free infrastructure and costs less than $5.
How I Built It
My system aggregates over 40 high-quality sources spanning different major regions and analytical perspectives:
Global News Sources: Reuters, AP, BBC, along with Al Jazeera (Middle Eastern perspective), SCMP (Asia-Pacific), The Hindu (South Asian), Deutsche Welle (European), and others.
Think Tanks and Analysis: CFR, CSIS, Chatham House, Carnegie Endowment, plus regional specialists like ISS Africa and Americas Quarterly.
Cybersecurity Intelligence: KrebsOnSecurity, filtered Hacker News, Threatpost, and Bellingcat's OSINT investigations.
Economic and Defense: Financial Times, Defense News, Jane's Defence Weekly for the economic and military dimensions of geopolitical events.
The technical architecture is deliberately simple. Python scripts handle RSS parsing, content analysis, and email generation. SQLite provides local storage with automatic archiving of older data. GitHub Actions runs the system daily at 7 AM with zero maintenance. Gmail SMTP delivers formatted briefings directly to my inbox.
Key features include cross-referencing for fact-checking, smart deduplication of the same stories across sources, and clear separation between factual reporting and analytical assessment.
But the real value is in the automated information analysis. The system provides strategic context, identifies patterns across seemingly unrelated events, and maintains a coherent narrative structure for ongoing developments. It provides implications and predictions that are clearly differentiated from fact so I can take advantage of the analytical benefits of AI while still knowing what is true from what is conjectured.
Broader Considerations
It's worth acknowledging the contradiction that my system depends on high-quality reliable news sources, yet widespread adoption of AI-based analysis systems like mine could undermine the economic foundation that enables trustworthy outlets to maintain investigative teams and rigorous fact-checking. As I continue developing this system, I'm considering how to ensure the sustainability of valuable sources. Perhaps this is through targeted subscriptions to outlets that prove most essential, or by finding other ways to support the journalistic infrastructure that makes quality information possible in the first place.
Conclusion
We are all trying to navigate increasingly murky waters as we make daily decisions that impact our future, both individually and collectively. While there are many valid concerns around the use of artificial intelligence, I believe that using AI to generate insight from large data sets can be very valuable. By using these tools we can stay informed and make better decisions that help build secure communities. So that's what I am trying to do.