ETHORITY®ETHORITY · FOUNDER & NETWORK
Led by Sten. Built around your challenge.
ETHORITY brings together strategy, research, data science, engineering, governance and commercial expertise to make AI useful for your organisation. Sten Franke leads every project and brings in the specialists needed to move from a business question to implementation, adoption and ongoing improvement.
- 2001
- Gridpatrol founded, an early internet-monitoring serviceSten Franke, career record, Oct 2026
- 2009
- first German Social Media Prisma, the mapping tradition the Good AI Prism continuesethority.de, 21 Sep 2009 · ethority.de ↗
- 2026/27
- the Good AI Prism study by Sten Franke & ETHORITYGood AI Prism Market Study 2026/27, Oct 2026
Sten Franke leads every project.
Sten Franke started media-time.de, a web directory for Germany, in 1997 and published the first German Social Media Prisma on 21 September 2009.
Sten Franke, career record, Oct 2026 · ethority.de, 21 Sep 2009
One sheet, a whole market.
Prisma 6.0 put 261 platforms and tools on one page in October 2014.
ethority.de, 22 Oct 2014
From the map into the organisation.
The Good AI Prism study maps 961 AI offerings across 24 topic areas, 8 data types and 6 technology layers; ETHORITY turns the map into plans that teams can carry. The market study examines 961 AI offerings. The separate online catalogue contains 485 profiles; the counts describe different populations.
Good AI Prism Market Study 2026/27, Oct 2026
The founder and the network
A founder-led team with a network of specialists brought in by scope.
Sten Franke
Founder & CEO
Sten Franke designs and builds AI systems, from model testing and cloud setup to the interfaces people use. He connects business decisions, software architecture and practical implementation.
AI architecture · Model testing · Cloud engineering · UX
His work spans programming, LLM evaluation, Google Cloud and AWS environments, and web applications built with Next.js and React. He connects business requirements, software architecture and practical implementation. Creator of the Good AI Prism, he brings market intelligence into AI decisions. Earlier, he created the Social Media Prisma, led a BVDW Social Media working group and contributed to its Social Media Kompass. His entrepreneurial work includes ethority, Gridpatrol and mediatime, following a practical foundation in electronics and industrial robotics.
sten@ethority.aiSten Franke in six dates
- 1997
The web. He founds mediatime and builds media-time.de, a Yahoo-like web directory that sorts the young German internet by category. Online as MEDIA-TIME INTERNETSERVICES, with captures through 2004: see the 1998 Internet Archive capture.
Sten Franke, career record, Oct 2026 · Internet Archive, capture of media-time.de, 11 Nov 1998
- 1997–2005
Search. His commercial software service 1a-Suchmaschinen.de helps companies be found in search engines.
Sten Franke, career record, Oct 2026
- 2001
Monitoring. He founds Gridpatrol, an early service that follows what is said about brands on the internet.
Sten Franke, career record, Oct 2026
- 2008
Chairs the BITKOM working group Customer Satisfaction; author in the Marken-Management Jahrbuch 2008/09.
ethority.de, 4 Jan 2008
- 2009–2014
Social media. On 21 September 2009 he publishes the first German Social Media Prisma, a one-page map of social platforms; the last version appears in 2019.
ethority.de, 2009–2014
- 2026
AI. With the Good AI Prism, Sten Franke & ETHORITY map the AI market itself, from the business task down to the technology underneath.
Good AI Prism Market Study 2026/27, Oct 2026
In his words
"An AI decision should say what we expect to improve, what evidence supports the choice and who is accountable for the result. That is where putting AI to work begins." Sten Franke
The idea behind it: Why ETHORITY maps before it advises.
The network
Specialists in data science, governance, sector research and implementation join by engagement, chosen for the question at hand. Their work follows the same evidence rules as the Good AI Prism study: every claim with a source and a date.
Good AI Prism by Sten Franke & ETHORITY®. Roots: ETHORITY.AI and STEN.AI.
How we deliver
Video. Most first conversations and reviews run remotely, in English or German.
Workshops. Decision workshops with your leaders and teams, built on the map of your topic area.
Hamburg hub, by arrangement. A European meeting point for workshops and reviews.
At your premises. On site under an agreed engagement.
Business correspondence: San Francisco. See what we offer and deliver, or start from our story since 1986.
Read and download
Media document · EN
From the AI market map to accountable execution.
Put AI to work, with evidence: Sten Franke on choosing AI, connecting investment with evidence and measuring accepted outcomes.
Version 3.4 · 1 pages
Read the document →
Global edition · EN
961 AI offerings. One map. Decide now what you will use in 2027.
The Good AI Prism helps you find useful AI and compare the evidence behind your options. For organisations already using AI, the question is moving from whether to use AI to which AI, how safely and whether it pays. This Global edition brings together 961 AI offerings across 24 topic areas, 8 data types and 6 technology layers, with sources, dates and limits to guide your next decision.
Version 2.6 · 90 pages
Open the study →YOUR NEXT STEP
Discuss your question with Sten Franke.
Bring your business question or the figures you already know. ETHORITY investigates within the agreed scope; together with Sten Franke you agree the next piece of work.