Sunday, February 20, 2005

Why chattering classes have nothing to say

Now it all makes sense... People are longing for real conversation but, that happens only through telephones or other media.

The Observer | UK News | Why chattering classes have nothing to say: The art of conversation is dead but the artistry of chatter is thriving, with Britons overwhelmingly admitting they rarely talk about anything more serious than traffic and television.

According to a survey of more than 2,000 adults, almost two-thirds of us admit to indulging in shallow chit-chat at the expense of weighty dialogue - even though we secretly long for more meaningful exchanges.

...

"The survey also found that more than two -thirds of people believe the telephone is the best way to have intelligent conversations, although Ned Sherrin, presenter of Loose Ends , the Radio 4 comedy show, a lexicographer and author of 20 books, admits hating the telephone. 'I would rather see the contours of their face, the clouds and the flicker of their tears. I find the telephone irritating and unsatisfactory, and like to get them over with as quickly as possible,' he said."

Monday, February 07, 2005

Cindy Adams of PageSix: Natural Language Dialogue

There is a lof of NLP research dealing with modelling and simulation of human-dialogues. I would love to see the following as one of their test cases.

Yahoo! Movies: Entertainment News & Gossip: "LAGUARDIA Airport ladies room. A voice from another stall says, 'Hi, how are you?' The other lady, not one to chat up restroom strangers, sputters, 'Oh . . . fine . . . .' The Voice: 'So what're you up to?' The Embarrassed Sputterer, 'Ohhh, just traveling . . . .' The Voice: 'Can I come over?' Not quite knowing how to handle this bizarre turn, the Embarrassed Sputterer sputters: 'N-n-n-no. I'm a little busy right now.' The next sound is The Voice saying nervously: 'Listen, I'll have to call you back. There's an idiot in the other stall who keeps answering all my questions.'"

Friday, February 04, 2005

Slashdot | DARPA Contracts For AI Technology

Slashdot | DARPA Contracts For AI Technology: "DARPA has contracted two professors from RPI to develop artificial intelligences that can learn by reading and understanding natural language."

2B enhances Factiva's reputation

2B enhances Factiva's reputation - Computeractive: "Factiva has acquired the business and assets of 2B Reputation Intelligence, but details of the deal were not disclosed. 2B provide media and reputation monitoring software, as well as consulting services. Clare Hart, president and CEO of Factiva said the two companies have been working together for over a year and described 2B as a 'critical piece for an effective reputation management solution'.

'Whilst we were re-assessing the market this looked like the best way to accelerate our re-entry into the market,' Hart said of the decision to acquire 2B after dropping IBM.

Factiva announced in December 2004 that the IBM WebFountain web analysis platform was being dropped as the core technology for Factiva Insight for Reputation. WebFountain failed to provide timely content for analysis according to Factiva insiders. Hart denied that the IBM chapter had put Factiva behind in its reputation management plans."

Corpora launches 'language-savvy' knowledge discovery tool

.:: SourceWire :: ::.: "'Language-savvy' Jump! tackles the assault of information overload and simplifies working life by enabling people to interrogate large electronic documents for relevant details quickly and easily. Launched by knowledge management company, Corpora plc, the new tool 'speed-reads' material to create a map of contents that accelerates understanding and improves efficiency. "