(no subject)
Newly released into the internet wilds is Booklamp.org, a project that's doing for books what pandora.com did for music. Pandora.com, for those of you not familiar with it, is now closed this side of the pond, so bad luck (Although if you can be bothered to search out a decent, working IP anonymiser, I'd say get your head out from underneath that rock, welcome to web 2.0, and what took you so bloody long?)
Anyhoo I digress. Pandora: simple idea, brilliantly done. Put in a tune you like, Pandora will find others you like based on it's technical properties, tempo, stlye etc. Booklamp does the same, except it divides the book up into scenes and bases comparisons on Density, Action, Dialogue, Description, and Pacing levels.
EDIT: watch this video, it's much more interesting
*Facebook readers ignore the nonsense above and make with the clicky here*
So far so logical.
There's a couple of problems just now though, Booklamp's only in Beta testing just now, I believe they're looking for funding from Google, and if they get it I don't doubt it could go far, what with Amazon tie-ins n all, but more of that later.
First off, the program they've written (and kudos for doing such a thing - far beyond me) only analyses the writing style based on the six parameters described in the video, which I just can't picture being enough for me to decide I like a book on. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe they'll release a subtler, more sophisticated version of the program at a later date. I like the idea, I got alot of good tunes from Pandora whilst I still could, but books? I dunno, they may be aiming a little high. Tunes you can listen to and forget about, but buy a book off the back of an automated review? A step beyond.
They say that they've got the Plot/Storyline and Character thing covered with recommendations and star ratings from Amazon listings, which opens up a lovely tie-in opportunity with the potential to sell many, many books. Then again Amazon ratings are hardly the final word in book reviews, but I guess we'll work with what we've got.
The second problem, and I'm sure it's only a problem for the moment, is that it's in Beta release, and the creators have only been able to put a limited amount of time and effort into it, and as such they've chosen their favourite books to start with.
Ah
This ain't the kind of thing that your average English student puts together in their spare time, so yes the books that you're guessing are exactly the ones that are on the fairly limited list just now. In some cases they're worse. But there is hope for the future: already other books are appearing; 1984 is on the list, along with Perdido Street Station and a few other gems amongst the John Ringos and David Drakes rough on the list. The one way you, yes you can improve this list is by participating, after all isn't this what all this web 2.0 malarkey is about isn't it?
The way you can help this project is to register (free of course), have a go, see what books they recommend, but most of all suggest some favourites of your own to be added to the list. I figure the higher the caliber of books what have been analysed, the better the books you get out of the other end; user created content is a go.
Plus this way, I figure you can all be the ones to test out the system by buying recommended books to test Booklamp so I don't have to. Prove me wrong people, I dare you
That is all
NB. For those still looking for instant replay of tunes online, I heartily recommend www.songerize.com as a way to look up individual songs
Anyhoo I digress. Pandora: simple idea, brilliantly done. Put in a tune you like, Pandora will find others you like based on it's technical properties, tempo, stlye etc. Booklamp does the same, except it divides the book up into scenes and bases comparisons on Density, Action, Dialogue, Description, and Pacing levels.
EDIT: watch this video, it's much more interesting
*Facebook readers ignore the nonsense above and make with the clicky here*
So far so logical.
There's a couple of problems just now though, Booklamp's only in Beta testing just now, I believe they're looking for funding from Google, and if they get it I don't doubt it could go far, what with Amazon tie-ins n all, but more of that later.
First off, the program they've written (and kudos for doing such a thing - far beyond me) only analyses the writing style based on the six parameters described in the video, which I just can't picture being enough for me to decide I like a book on. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe they'll release a subtler, more sophisticated version of the program at a later date. I like the idea, I got alot of good tunes from Pandora whilst I still could, but books? I dunno, they may be aiming a little high. Tunes you can listen to and forget about, but buy a book off the back of an automated review? A step beyond.
They say that they've got the Plot/Storyline and Character thing covered with recommendations and star ratings from Amazon listings, which opens up a lovely tie-in opportunity with the potential to sell many, many books. Then again Amazon ratings are hardly the final word in book reviews, but I guess we'll work with what we've got.
The second problem, and I'm sure it's only a problem for the moment, is that it's in Beta release, and the creators have only been able to put a limited amount of time and effort into it, and as such they've chosen their favourite books to start with.
Ah
This ain't the kind of thing that your average English student puts together in their spare time, so yes the books that you're guessing are exactly the ones that are on the fairly limited list just now. In some cases they're worse. But there is hope for the future: already other books are appearing; 1984 is on the list, along with Perdido Street Station and a few other gems amongst the John Ringos and David Drakes rough on the list. The one way you, yes you can improve this list is by participating, after all isn't this what all this web 2.0 malarkey is about isn't it?
The way you can help this project is to register (free of course), have a go, see what books they recommend, but most of all suggest some favourites of your own to be added to the list. I figure the higher the caliber of books what have been analysed, the better the books you get out of the other end; user created content is a go.
Plus this way, I figure you can all be the ones to test out the system by buying recommended books to test Booklamp so I don't have to. Prove me wrong people, I dare you
That is all
NB. For those still looking for instant replay of tunes online, I heartily recommend www.songerize.com as a way to look up individual songs