Culture Compass

Culture Compass — Because truth emerges from dialogue, not monologue.It has Research rooms: where one can add sources, extract quoted claims, map contradictions, find counter papers, publish briefs.

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Culture Compass — Because truth emerges from dialogue, not monologue.

Inspiration

The internet is loud, fast, and weirdly confident. In a world of information overload, I wanted a way to research with accountability: every claim should have a receipt (an exact quote), contradictions should be explicit, and outputs should be shareable as a real brief—not just a chat log.

Culture Compass is my attempt to make truth-seeking feel like a product: structured, source-grounded, and built for solo deep work (while still supporting small groups).

What it does

Culture Compass is a real-time research platform built around Research Rooms.

Inside a room, I can:

1.-Add sources (URLs + metadata) and tag them by region/discipline/stance

2.-Extract claims with receipts (each claim is tied to an exact quote)

3.-Mark and browse contradictions (e.g., geography, methodology, values)

4.-Challenge a claim by pulling counter-sources (Crossref + arXiv suggestions)

5.-Generate a Morning Brief (AI-written summary with citations)

6.-Publish a public report (brief + claim cards + contradiction map + a 3D globe showing geographic diversity)

How we built it

Backend (Serverpod):

  • Serverpod 2.9 (Dart backend)
  • PostgreSQL (data)
  • Redis (real-time presence + room events)

Frontend (Flutter):

  • Flutter app
  • Riverpod (state management)
  • Go Router (routing)
  • Google Fonts (Fraunces + Inter for the “cozy library” aesthetic)

Report page (Web):

  • Vite + TypeScript

AI + research integrations:

  • Groq API (brief generation)
  • Crossref + arXiv (counter-source suggestions)

Challenges we ran into

Receipts-first UX: Forcing quotes makes outputs more trustworthy, but increases friction—so the workflow had to stay fast. Real-time correctness: Presence + event streaming is easy to demo, harder to make reliable. Disagreement without chaos: Contradictions are valuable only if they’re categorized and navigable.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • An end-to-end flow that works: create room → add sources → extract claims → mark contradictions → challenge claims → generate brief → publish report.
  • A public-facing artifact (the report page) instead of “yet another summary.”
  • A distinct product identity: cozy library aesthetic + receipts over vibes + contradictions treated as features.

What we learned

  • Research tools don’t win by “summarizing harder.” They win through structure, accountability, and shareable outputs.
  • Real-time features multiply product value and debugging pain. Worth it, but only with clean event design.

What's next for Culture Compass

  • Better contradiction typing + filtering so rooms scale without losing clarity.
  • More polished report layouts for truly publishable briefs.
  • Higher-quality counter-source retrieval and relevance filtering from Crossref/arXiv.
  • Optional: a tighter “claim challenge” loop (confidence scoring, reviewer notes, and follow-up tasks).

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