MediaBerkman

Radio Berkman 159: Spare a Cycle?

July 22nd, 2010

Listen: or download | …also in Ogg

What are you doing with your spare cycles? You know, the bits of time you spend on the web when you’re not really being productive? Maybe you’re waiting for a file to download. Maybe you’re playing a game. Maybe you’re even filling out a form.

All of these little moments could in fact be put to good use.

In some cases, they are. And you might not even know it.

For instance, when you type out a Captcha — those little squiggly words on a web form you transcribe to prove you’re human — you are in fact transcribing a word from a scanned book. A word that is illegible to a computer’s eye. Here, you’re simultaneously proving you are a human being (not a robot), and also doing a good deed (helping to transcribe text).

You can thank today’s guest for that little innovation. Luis von Ahn — professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and expert in the field of human computation — explores the little innovations on the web that are harnessing the power of millions to change the world. Not always for the good.

Reference Section:
Luis von Ahn’s recent Berkman talk here ->
von Ahn’s homepage here ->
Jonathan Zittrain’s recent Minds for Sale talk here ->
More on the ReCaptcha Project here ->
More recent thoughts from Luis on Work and the Internet here ->

CC/Public Domain Music from:
Learning Music Monthly
State Shirt – Computer
Neurowaxx – Carioca

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Entry Filed under: audio,radioberkman