FinBiz

FinBiz

A directory of the organisations that help Chicago businesses, where every published line cites the source that proves it.

51organisations published
558services, every one cited
33excluded by written decision
15withheld, quote to re-verify
2awaiting confirmation

The problem

Business-support directories age badly. A programme ends, an organisation moves, a page disappears, and the directory keeps sending entrepreneurs to a closed door. Nobody lies. Nobody checks.

Checking by hand costs too much to do often. Checking automatically, without a strict rule, produces claims that are plausible and wrong, which is worse than a stale directory because it looks like careful work.

The answer

FinBiz collects, and then refuses to publish what it cannot prove. There is one rule and it is not negotiable:

A service is published only if it comes with a quote of at least eight words, present word for word on a page belonging to the organisation that provides it, and with the link to that page.

No quote, no publication. There is no option to override it: the rule is enforced by the program that builds this site, not by the good intentions of whoever runs it. Of the 558 services published today, 558 carry their quote.

What does not clear the bar is not deleted. It is set aside and counted. The 33 excluded services were excluded by a written and reviewed decision, and the 2 organisations awaiting confirmation stay that way until a human confirms.

A further 15 services are withheld: they do carry a quote, but the automatic comparison cannot find it word for word in the archived page. They are waiting for re-extraction, not deletion. Showing them and counting them as verified would be exactly the mistake the rule exists to prevent.

Where to go next

ArchitectureHow the repositories fit together. 3 min. InterfacesWhat each system promises. 5 min. Run itClone and start. 3 min. ContributeWhich repo, who decides. 2 min. DirectoryThe 51 organisations.