>"Dr Wolfram said he expected that about 1,000 people would be needed to keep its databases updated with the latest discoveries and information."
I'm sure Wolfram could partner with Amazon to crowdsource some of this data gathering through Mechanical Turk. For example, collecting data on celebrities (e.g. height, birth date, family relations). Turk users would fill out forms and cite where they got the data from.
In the Q&A after his Harvard presentation last month Stephen said he would not crowdsource Wolfram Alpha. In short the reason he gave is that crowdsourcing is unreliable. Stephen used as an example the problems of Wikipedia where rogue interests and non-experts manipulate results. He only wants great curators of knowledge to sign off on the inputs. That way when you search for something on Wolfram Alpha you can expect near certainty in the results.
The ontology of Wolfram Alpha is involved. Those professional researchers in Champaign who understand how to talk to Wolfram Alpha are not getting their data from simple Google searches and then citing their sources. This is a complex process even for simple data points. If Wolfram Alpha has a need for Mechanical Turk it would be to catch mistakes or maybe do information triage - but Stephen made clear he doesn't want quasi experts going anywhere near the research department.
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>"Dr Wolfram said he expected that about 1,000 people would be needed to keep its databases updated with the latest discoveries and information."
I'm sure Wolfram could partner with Amazon to crowdsource some of this data gathering through Mechanical Turk. For example, collecting data on celebrities (e.g. height, birth date, family relations). Turk users would fill out forms and cite where they got the data from.
This is actually a really good idea and I wonder if Wolfram and Co. have considered this.
Additional note: I get super pumped when I read something on HN and I think to myself "Damn! That is a fine idea." It always makes me grin.
In the Q&A after his Harvard presentation last month Stephen said he would not crowdsource Wolfram Alpha. In short the reason he gave is that crowdsourcing is unreliable. Stephen used as an example the problems of Wikipedia where rogue interests and non-experts manipulate results. He only wants great curators of knowledge to sign off on the inputs. That way when you search for something on Wolfram Alpha you can expect near certainty in the results.
The ontology of Wolfram Alpha is involved. Those professional researchers in Champaign who understand how to talk to Wolfram Alpha are not getting their data from simple Google searches and then citing their sources. This is a complex process even for simple data points. If Wolfram Alpha has a need for Mechanical Turk it would be to catch mistakes or maybe do information triage - but Stephen made clear he doesn't want quasi experts going anywhere near the research department.