Technology Information: End of GOOG-411, Google's "phoneme harvesting operation" - via Pogue's Posts

End of GOOG-411, Google's "phoneme harvesting operation" - via Pogue's Posts

End of GOOG-411, Google's "phoneme harvesting operation" - via Pogue's Posts


End of GOOG-411, Google's "phoneme harvesting operation" - via Pogue's Posts

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 06:20 PM PDT

Here's a quick link to a recent "Pogue's Post":


Farewell, GOOG-411
NYT 10/14/10


Google:  In Service of Data


"On Nov. 12, Google will turn of 800-GOOG-411 forever...It was one of the best, juiciest, most useful services in all phonedom...In case you missed it, GOOG-411 is a free, voice-activated directory assistance service..."


Pogue goes on to quote Google's Marissa Mayer, from a 2007 InfoWorld presentation:
"If you want us to build a really robust speech model, we need a lot of phonemes, which is a syllable as spoken by a particular voice with a particular intonation.  So we need a lot of people talking, saying things so we can ultimately train off of that.  So 1-800-GOOG-411 is about that:  Getting a bunch of different speech samples."




RELATED
Comments to Pogue's Post, Farewell, GOOG-411


Schalkwyk, J., Beeferman, D. Beaufays, F., Byrne B., Chelba, C., Cohen, M., Garret, M., Strope, B. (Google, Inc.)  Google Search by Voice: A case study (pdf)




Google Shuts Down GOOG-411
Google Operating System Blog


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Android phones are secretly collecting private user data
Andrew Wozny, Canada Social Media Examiner


Some Android apps caught covertly sending GPS data to advertisers
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Best Practices for Handling Android User Data
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Why Google keeps your data forever, tracks you with ads
Nate Anderson, Ars Technica


Google's Eric Schmidt: You can trust us with your data
Shane Richman, Telegraph UK 7/10/10





"Out My Window", a web-based, interactive 360-degree panorama, multimedia storytelling/documentary creation, directed by Katerina Cizek, of the National Film Board of Canada

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 03:56 PM PDT

Innovative Interactivity (II): Latest post
National Film Board of Canada's "Out My Window",  part of the Highrise Project. 


Tracey Boyer, founder and managing editor of the Innovative Interactivity blog, recently posted about "Out My Window", a web-based interactive documentary filmed in 360-degree panoramic video, directed by Katerina Cizek,  a participant of the National Film Board of Canada's Filmmaker-in-Residence (FIR) project.


After I read Tracy's blog post and explored her link to Out My Window,  I felt that it was worth sharing it on this blog.  Tracy's post provides a good description of the project, which represents a collaboration of over 100 people from around the world:  Multimedia must-see:  NFB's interactive 360 panorama documentary, "Out my window"


The opening page/view/scene of Out My Window provides the following description to the viewers/participants:


"You see them all over the world.
Concrete residential highrise buildings are the most commonly built form of the last century.
On the outside, they all look the same.  But inside these towers, people create community, art, and meaning.  Explore."


For the best experience, I recommend that you take the time to find a nice large touch-screen display or IWB to participate in the documentary - and maybe with a friend or colleague. (Some of the content is in French.)  I also recommend that you take Tracy Boyer's advice and make sure you experience the interactive documentary with a good speaker system.  The soundtrack is awesome! 


HIGHRISE Trailer



The NFB's Highrise project unveils its new interactive web documentary, Out My Window
Julie Matlin, NFB.ca Blog, 10/15/10


About HIGHRISE and Director Katerina Cizek (From the Highrise website)

"HIGHRISE is a multi-year, multi-media, collaborative documentary project about the human experience in global vertical suburbs. Under the direction of documentary-maker Katerina Cizek, the HIGHRISE team will be making lots of things. Web-documentaries, live presentations, installations, mobile projects and yes, documentary films. We will use the acclaimed interventionist and participatory approaches of the award-winning National Film Board of Canada's Filmmaker-in-Residence (FIR) project. Our scale will be global, but rooted firmly in the FIR philosophy — putting people, process, creativity, collaboration, and innovation first.

In the first Filmmaker-in-Residence project, we worked at a major inner-city teaching hospital with doctors, nurses, researchers, and patients, challenging the conventional notions of "documentary" and academic research — and did more than just observe and record. We produced dozens of documentaries — and photo exhibits, participatory media workshops, and a feature-length web documentary.


How can the same approach be applied to urbanism? How can documentary help re-invent our cities at their edges? By going global and local at the same time, HIGHRISE is based in intensive community collaboration, married to an international vision for what documentary can be."



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Yellowbird 360 Video:
"See the world like never before with 360 video.  Can you imagine?  People like to look at 360 photos of the streets they live on, or discover their next holiday destination.  How exciting, if it was a full-motion 360 video instead of a still image?  With 360 video you can create ultimate online expereince for your clients. Share  real-life settings of the environments or events...Press play and look anywhere you want to by clicking and dragging your mouse."


Interactive 360-degree video demo-reel from Yellowbird
Yellowbird 6-lens 360 degree video camera creates web-based, interactive 3D videos

Information Visualization for the People: The End of Swivel & Lessons Learned - a great post by Robert Kosara (Eager Eyes)

Posted: 19 Oct 2010 02:53 PM PDT

The following post is worth reading:

The Rise and Fall of Swivel.com
Robert Kosara,  Eager Eyes 10/12/10


Swivel.com is (was) a web-based information visualization company that incorporated the concept of "social visualization" by providing a means for people to explore and interact with large data sets, and then share their insights with others.  Robert Kosara's recent blog post about the demise of the company sheds some light on how a company with a great concept withered away.


RELATED
Why Swivel Shut Down 
Nathan Yau, Flowing Data 10/19/10


Swivel vs. Many Eyes
(Image taken from Robert Kosara's Eager Eyes blog)


Review:  Swivel vs. Many Eyes (Robert Kosara, 2/18/07, Eager Eyes)

Many Eyes 
"The site will be down from 10 a.m. EST until the move is complete, which should take a day or two if all goes well. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this causes, but it will ensure a more reliable service in the long run."  10/19/10-Many Eyes Blog


About Robert Kosara - from eagereyes.org

"Robert Kosara is Assistant Professor of Computer Science at UNC Charlotte. His main research interests are information visualization for visual communication and theoretical foundations of visualization. Robert received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Vienna University of Technology (Vienna, Austria). His list of publications can be found online on his vanity website.
Robert can be found on TwitterFacebookLinkedIn, and Xing. You can use this site's contact form to send him an email."

About Nathan Yau & Flowing Data - from flowingdata.com
"FlowingData explores how designers, statisticians, and computer scientists are using data to understand ourselves better - mainly through data visualization. Money spent, reps at the gym, time you waste, and personal information you enter online are all forms of data. How can we understand these data flows? Data visualization lets non-experts make sense of it all...As for me, I'm a PhD candidate in statistics. I live and breathe data. I also have a background in computer science and design. I do some freelancing from time to time, but mostly I'm just trying to work on my dissertation. You can find more about me here."
"

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