Authentic social experience is beyond the web.In On the Internet by Hubert Dreyfus, a UC-Berkeley philosophy professor, provides a truely unique philosophical perspective on the internet. Dreyfus seriously challenges a number of widely held assumptions such as the usefulness of search engines, the effectiveness of distance learning and the possibility of meaningful virtual relationships.

Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK

A tool which leverages the collective intelligence of web users to fight SPAM

I am evaluating an innovative anti-spam product Cloudmark which aims to adopt an automated collaborative approach between its users to identify SPAM flitered through a weighted assessment of each users reputation in correctly spotting and reporting SPAM..Cloudmark works like this:

The Delphi Technique is a proven way to harness collaborative group intelligence (popularly known as the wisdom of crowds) in a wide range of applications. Delphi has been around since the 1950’s with a large body of support material, case studies and tools on the web and should be part of any virtual team, community or network leader's toolset.

SearchCIO.com, 2 Feb, reports on the emergence of sophisticated speech recognition software which can highlight words that can indicate trouble on the line such as ‘confused’ and ‘cancel’. The software can also monitor in real-time telltale changes in the pitch, volume and timbre of a customer's voice which indicate hostility or rising anger.