Nicholas Carr’s blog directed me to Gwap, a project at Carnegie Mellon University that employs simple games to help computers become smarter. Different games are played with partners on the web, and are all based on trying to tag or label photographs or music clips. The data gathered will help computers rank photographs on likableness or more accurately describe music.
This appeals to me as a librarian for a couple of reasons. It speaks to the task of the reference librarian to help the information seeker formulate clearly what it is they are looking for. Teachers will instruct students to look for a certain piece of information or use a certain source, and those instructions will often not survive the trip to the third floor. A whole lot of interpretation is required to actually discover what the student is after.
Gwap also appeals because it is a game. And high school boys like games.
