Existing initiatives

May 7th, 2006

I have not given any attention to Iuron for a very long time. In fact, all the rigour was put into setting up the site and writing the proposal. This was done in a matter of just days (back in October) and remained a project to catch up with in the future. When I complete my Ph.D., I hope to work on Iuron; Full time! Meanwhile, I have come across an intersting quote from Bill Gates. It was published just a couple of days ago:

'Search is pathetic' - Bill Gates

 Question: So how far are you behind Google?

 Gates: We'll look back on this time
 and realize that search is pathetic.
 If I ask for something, I should get
 it, not a list of things to click on...
 It's great for where it is, but
 it will get so much better. There's no way
 to qualify results... by trusted sources.
 Sources I trust, that is.

Source: http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/card/archives/015231.html

While I am not fond of Bill Gates (to say the very least), he confirms the opinions and views which have been expressed in the Iuron manifesto last year.

Google Answers and Google Print

October 2005

I am reminded of Google Answers where a database of Q&A is built already. This morning I read a popular and recent article about Google's book scanning initiative...

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dyson05/dyson05_index.html

Within this article:

 "We are not scanning all those books to be read by people," explained
 one of my  hosts after my talk. "We are scanning them to be read by an AI."

To me, it sure sounds like Google have thought about machine learning that feeds on peer-reviewed literature already. Then again, I might be over-presumptuous and mistaken altogether.

Answers.com

October 2005

It has come to my attention that answers.com use Wikipedia to answer users' questions. This engine appears to be indexed-based and the results are quite poor from what I can gather.

DAML

October 2005

It is worth pointing out an effort or initiative which is known as DAML:

http://www.daml.org/

DAML is a step towards the formation of a semantic Web where ambiguities are resolved in a variety of ways. Work in the field has been initiated by Ian Horrocks among others, so communication with such relevant figures is worthwhile.