Analysing the web: Scouring blogs for useful information
Posted in: Internet Use/New Technologies at 14/03/2010 07:13
"I noticed that the doormat was at a slightly crooked angle. I reached down and moved the mat back into its correct place." Thus began a recent entry on The dullest blog in the world. Although this publication is something of a satire on the internet's inane blogs, scientists are finding -- to their surprise -- that useful information can actually be mined from the tedium of the blogosphere.
Andrew Gordon and his colleagues at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies in Los Angeles have been trying to teach computers about cause and effect. Computers are not good at dealing with causality. They can identify particular events but working out relationships is more difficult. This is particularly true when it comes to using computers to analyse the human experience.
http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15660874