reCAPTCHA: tiny acts towards big social impact
May 1, 2011 § Leave a Comment
If you’ve ever purchased or subscribed to something online, chances are you’ve come across CAPTCHA: A series of graphically distorted letters that you need to type into a box to prove you’re not a spambot. A necessary nuisance, but a nuisance nonetheless.
Enter Luis von Ahn, one of the minds behind the original CAPTCHA. After finding out that approximately 200 million CAPTCHAs are typed in every day, with about 10 seconds used per entry, meaning humanity as a whole is generally wasting 500 thousand hours every day on filling out CAPTCHAs, Luis decided to do something about it. He created reCAPTCHA.
The significance of reCAPTCHA is that leverages the authentication process people are already completing to help digitize books one word at a time. Many online vendors and companies have switched to using reCAPTCHA in the last few years, so much so that as many as 100 million words are being digitized daily by you and I. How’s that for a tiny contribution towards big social impact? Pretty impressive.
But Luis himself speaks to all of this far better than I. Watch his TEDx talk on reCAPTCHA in the video below.
Table for Two
February 23, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I said “see you soon” to a dear friend today. The prospect of the future feels full of hope and potential, but I can’t help but also feel the pull of a past flooded with good memory and friendship.
I thought this picture was the perfect representation of both.
The small things
January 26, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Plastic shadows. A plastic bag on the counter. (Photo credits: Vivian Chan)
I’ve been thinking about the concept of balance lately and living a full life. Most of us are all too familiar with the old adage to remember to “stop and smell the flowers” once in a while. It may be cliché and obvious, but I really do believe it’s as simple as that. Finding balance and happiness is in the moment, and yet, it’s a life-long commitment of collecting strings of those moments. Amazing things happen when we take the time to observe, notice, and fully experience the smaller things in life, throughout our lives – and it does require a commitment.
It’s surprisingly easy to get caught up in the harried pace of relationships, work, family, and other commitments. Worse still, we fall prey to a later-when mentality, where we think we will do something we want or find happiness later, when _______. Later, when I buy a house, land a job, get a raise, find a boyfriend or girlfriend, buy those shoes, then, I will (fill in the blank). But why not now?
The best part is that living in the moment doesn’t have to involve some major life altering event. It can be so simple and done right where you are, where ever you are.
For myself, I’ve been trying to capture those moments in photography. Below are a few of my moments. « Read the rest of this entry »
To be alone…
November 28, 2010 § Leave a Comment
I loved this short poem and film. It’s a beautiful perspective on being alone and discovering a certain comfort in being able to be alone.
It gets better
October 23, 2010 § Leave a Comment
On October 12th, City Councilman Joel Burns, addressed the Fort Worth City Council, and any parents and youth that might be watching the broadcast with a message that was close to his heart: to the young people who may be facing bullying because they are different, hang in there, “it gets better”.
He began his address with a review of the recent spate of suicides that have been a result of bullying of teens who were perceived to be gay or lesbian. One by one, the Council heard the stories young teens who have taken their lives recently because of bullying: Asher Brown (13 years old), Billy Lucas (15 years old), Justin Aaberg (15 years old), Seth Walsh (13 years old), and finally Zach Harrington (19 years old), who hung himself after attending a City Council meeting. Already, the passionate words of the Councilman were moving to hear in highlighting the important issue of bullying that needs to be addressed. Then in a courageous move, he started to share his own personal story of bullying and coming to terms with his sexual orientation. The speech he gave to the City Council would be the first time he had ever spoken of certain events and reflections of his life, and in those tearful moments, he held captive all who were listening… and all who would come to listen to his address. « Read the rest of this entry »
Message in a Bottle
September 29, 2010 § 1 Comment
Sometimes the best, most inspiring of things are the simplest things. This short stop-motion animation by Kirsten Lepore is a great example of that.
Beautiful in its simplicity, it is heart-felt, and speaks volumes with so little.
From transactional to transformational
August 23, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Dr. Cleve W. Stevens (Photo credit CSRwire Talkback)
Late last week, I came across a blog post by Dr. Cleve W. Stevens, the founder and President of Owl Sight Intentions, Inc., giving his perspective on BP’s management of the Gulf oil spill earlier this year.
He talks about the differentiation between a transactional approach to operations, problem-solving, and leadership, compared with a transformational approach. My own personal interpretation is that much of the world still operates within a transactional paradigm, driven by the short-term motivation of economic profits. A transformational way of being occurs when a greater vision is taken on that strives towards enabling the personal growth and holistic well-being and betterment of other people and a community alongside a person or organization’s development. It is a long-term motivation driven by mutual benefit and sustainability. Dr. Stevens uses BP as an excellent example highlighting not only the difference between the two approaches, but also the magnitude of the outcomes: both potential and actual.
The original post can be found at CSRwire’s Talkback blog and I have also included it here below. I highly recommend reading it. It’s not only a great read, but offers compelling insight into the way companies and individuals carry themselves. If nothing else, it presents interesting food for thought.
At the end of the day, only you can decide what kind of leader or company you want to be.
Look up. Feel better.
August 18, 2010 § Leave a Comment
To say it’s been a hectic few weeks… and months would be a slight understatement. Yet, in saying that, I know I’m not alone. Judging by how focused, introspective, and rushed my fellow Torontonians seem to be… brushing by me on the street, on and off transit, and in and out of stores – it’s quite apparent that I’m not the only one. <Insert collective sigh here.>
In one such typical moment of rush – waiting for the Toronto Queen streetcar to arrive to whisk me off to work – I happened to look up. « Read the rest of this entry »
One Laptop per Child
August 11, 2010 § 2 Comments
One man’s dream and vision is now a reality and having global implications and impact. At the Techonomy conference in San Francisco last week, Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of MIT’s Media Lab and the One Laptop per Child foundation, about the program he grew into an international phenomenon.
Perhaps one of the most notable comments Negroponte made about the recent success of One Laptop per Child was that fifty per cent of the children in Peru who use One Laptop Per Child have been observed to be teaching their parents how to read and write. The program is not perfect, with many children still lacking access to the internet, an issue that is still being worked on; however, the latest results are still worth applauding.
A video clip of Negroponte’s talk is below.
From Russia with Love: Reinventing an icon
August 2, 2010 § 2 Comments
My boyfriend’s brother just returned from Moscow, bearing dolls. Matryoshka dolls, or Russian nesting dolls, to be exact. I don’t know what it is about these small wooden dolls. The concept is so simple, and so universally known, but equally delightful no matter how old you are, and how often you have opened the dolls to reveal the smaller one within.
But far better than the iconic traditional Russian dolls were a second red, white and blue doll-set bearing a smiling Obama and Medvedev on the largest doll. Within each one was a smaller doll, with the faces of the American Presidents of the past painted on each one… a small refresher in America’s recent political history. It was delightful. Despite knowing who they were, it was sheer, childish joy anticipating then revealing the painted faces of each President. Amazing.
It just goes to show. It doesn’t matter if an idea’s been done: it’s all in the execution… or the reinvention.
