Tag Archives: David Hasselhoff


Rate me baby one more time: crowdsourcing the perfect song

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Ville Miettinen

… a powerful thing. It can make you laugh or cry, and even tear down the Berlin Wall (according to David Hasselhoff, anyway). The same song can mean different things to different people, with infectious tracks like Britney Spears’ ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ managing to be both the all-time most requested song on US radio as well as an instrument of torture used at Guantanamo Bay (along with ‘I Love You,’ the theme from Barney the Dinosaur, which would make me crack within …

Tags: Berlin Wall Britney Spears crowdsourcing DarwinTunes David Hasselhoff Imperial College Imperial College London ITunes microtask Natural selection

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Crowdfunding donations: Is giving me your money a good idea?

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Tommaso De Benetti

When people ask me “What’s your dream holiday?” I usually lie to them. I say some exotic holiday destination that makes me sound normal. I don’t say space or the moon or the bottom of the sea, because I’m nervous it might make me sound like a dreamer or full of myself. Which I am (not).

But the truth is I am a lot like Richard Branson, Ashton Kutcher and James …

Tags: Berlin Wall Britney Spears crowdsourcing DarwinTunes David Hasselhoff Imperial College Imperial College London ITunes microtask Natural selection

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MOG: the day the music gamified

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Ville Miettinen

… and exploring MOG”. The more you engage/play with MOG, the more music you get. MOG CEO David Hyman claims that the tank’s “sophisticated game mechanics” should mean that users never have to pay for music.

Master motivators

So, will people who won’t spend $5 per month on music be prepared to spend time watching promos and sharing playlists? Well, maybe. After all, millions of people already share music – this is just a way of rewarding and encouraging them. I guess …

Tags: crowd crowdsourcing David Hyman Enya Facebook Free music Grooveshark microwork MOG Rdio Spotify

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My Wife, the Computer

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Ville Miettinen

… if you’re smart, provide chocolate biscuits at afternoon tea.

This question is the focus of David Alan Grier’s book When Computers Were Human which outlines the pre-information age story of “human computers” doing calculations by hand – not just the straightforward office-worker’s calculation of how many days left until Friday; but complicated, multifaceted problems such as those required for astronomy, cartography, navigation, and (unsurprisingly) warfare. This required …

Tags: computer David Alan Grier human computation Manhattan Project mass collaboration Richard Feynman

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Confidence tricks: can crowdsourcing keep our feet on the ground?

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Ville Miettinen

… with valuable knowledge in the background? Research from social psychologists Justin Kruger and David Dunning may explain why we get it wrong so often.

Their experiments revealed that people generally overestimate their ability in areas they understand poorly, and underestimate their ability where their understanding is good. This is known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and is one of many cognitive biases that affect us all.

Only the lonely

In a world where we’re told to think big …

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