Tag Archive
Yootles Postmortem
I introduced the social currency (or scrip) Yootles in 2006 with the (needless to say, quixotic) goal of changing the social norms about money. We had two specific reasons for an alternative currency: We wanted to run prediction markets and needed a way around anti-gambling laws in the US Many people find the idea of using money... »
CentMail: Do Good, Fight Spam
Our anti-spam project, Centmail, has gotten some press this week. (New Scientist, ABC News, Wired, Slashdot, Hacker News.) In a nutshell, you donate a penny to a charity of your choice for every email you send, with the donation showing up as a "stamp" in your email signature.... »
The Perfect Bracket
Last week I wrote about a "wisdom of crowds" strategy for picking my March Madness basketball bracket. Down to the Final Four, I'm doing pretty well: tied for 2nd in my office pool, and in the 94th percentile of all 2 million brackets submitted on Yahoo! Sports. But doing well still means... »
The Oracle of Brackets
It's March and you know what that means: Time for a little madness at the big dance! OK, so I don't know anything about basketball, but a minor point like that isn't going to stop me from entering a bracket in the office pool. Just so we're all on the same page, the NCAA College... »
The Future is Yesterday
Independent teams from Yahoo and Google recently demonstrated that search volume for flu-related terms strongly correlates with CDC reported influenza levels, suggesting that search logs could be used to monitor public health. It is certainly tantalizing to think the same technology that shows Isaiah Thomas is "on fire" today ( »
