This is a slightly revised and cleaned up version of the video that was featured on YouTube in February 2007.
I considered releasing it as an “eternal beta” in true Web 2.0 style, but decided to let it stand as is and start working on future projects. Many of my future videos will address the last 30 seconds of this video (the “rethink …” part).
Thank you all for the helpful comments on the earlier draft. It has been a great experience to connect with so many people interested in
similar issues.
Once again, there are higher quality versions available for download:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. So you are welcome to download it, share it, even change it, just as long as you give me some credit and you don’t sell it or use it to sell anything. I received many more positive comments than negative about the song choice (great work Deus!), but if you are one of those who does not like the song just download the video and change the audio track to your liking.
The video was created by me (Michael Wesch), working alone from my house in St. George, Kansas. I used CamStudio for the screen captures and Sony Vegas for the panning/cropping/zooming animations. Someday I might make a video tutorial for those who are interested.
Google TechTalks examins human computation and how to achieve a better search engine by exploiting people to work for free through online video game addictions and technology.
Google TechTalks July 26, 2006
Luis von Ahn is an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, where he also received his Ph.D. in 2005. Previously, Luis obtained a B.S. in mathematics from Duke University in 2000. He is the recipient of a Microsoft Research Fellowship.
ABSTRACT Tasks like image recognition are trivial for humans, but continue to challenge even the most sophisticated computer programs. This talk introduces a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve problems that computers cannot yet solve. Traditional approaches to solving such problems focus on improving software. I advocate a novel approach: constructively channel human brainpower using computer games. For example, the ESP Game, described in this talk, is an enjoyable online game — many people play over 40 hours a week — and when people play, they help label images on the Web with descriptive keywords. These keywords can be used to significantly improve the accuracy of image search. People play the game not because they want to help, but because they enjoy it.
I describe other examples of “games with a purpose”: Peekaboom, which helps determine the location of objects in images, and Verbosity, which collects common-sense knowledge. I also explain a general approach for constructing games with a purpose.
Marks Pesce talks about internet, media, bittorrent, wikipedia, ipod, web 2.0 and other technological viral social networking swarm innovations in this lecture at Mind States ‘05 in such a way that it’s actually really trippy to listen to regardless of the trippy visuals in the video.
“hyperpeople” @ MINDSTATES 2005
Spoken word/Music/Video Art from MINDSTATES 2005
Visuals by Chris Barnaby Music by Kevin Whitesides Modulated Throat Sounds by Mark Pesce
Avis, a car renting company says they will be offering a Wi-Fi connection for motorist in their cars by March. For a Whoppin’ $10.95 a day and plus a service fee of $49.00 a month, who wouldn’t want to surf the net while driving?
Check out this very interactive Periodic Table of the Elements. This flash based educational tool has and image representation for each element but also displays information for each element when clicked. View the table of elements here: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/periodictable/
Check out this very interactive Periodic Table of the Elements. This flash based educational tool has and image representation for each element but also displays information for each element when clicked. View the table of elements here: 