Now that IBM is finished showing off Watson’s ability to the world, and perhaps scaring some of us who grew up watching the Terminator movies, Watson’s celebrity will not be used in vain.  Clearly, making a Kardashian-esqe computer — that is, famous for being famous, but overall usefulness is negligble — was not IBM’s goal as plans for Watson’s capabilities have been made public.

Instead of keeping Watson on the game-show circuit, IBM’s new superstar will be joining forces with Nuance Healthcare’s speech-recognition solution in order to make the life of physicians an easier undertaking.  Combining these language-comprehension technologies will assist the diagnosis process, if, for nothing else, by making research process faster.

Watson’s considerable reaction-time will clearly come into play here.  TechNewsWorld has more:

For those of you who are concerned Watson might “replace” the human element of the medical industry, or if Watson makes a mistake, something it did during the Jeopardy run, these fears appear to be unfounded, at least for now.  TNW makes the point that ego possessed by doctors will make overruling Watson’s recommendations an easy thing.

One does wonder, however, if a dependence on Watson’s vast computational power will form. Considering the potential workload being reduced, giving in to the seduction would be tempting. 

Of course, another issue of concern is propagation of the Watson technology.  How many hospitals/doctors will have access to it?  Will the computing power needed to make Watson work, a large mainframe, hinder its introduction even before it begins? 

Not so fast says the Nuance VP:

Just don’t ask Watson anything about airports that sprung up in the World War II era.

Now that IBM is finished showing off Watson’s ability to the world, and perhaps scaring some of us who grew up watching the Terminator movies, Watson’s celebrity will not be used in vain.  Clearly, making a Kardashian-esqe computer — that is, famous for being famous, but overall usefulness is negligble — was not IBM’s goal as plans for Watson’s capabilities have been made public.

Instead of keeping Watson on the game-show circuit, IBM’s new superstar will be joining forces with Nuance Healthcare’s speech-recognition solution in order to make the life of physicians an easier undertaking.  Combining these language-comprehension technologies will assist the diagnosis process, if, for nothing else, by making research process faster.

Watson’s considerable reaction-time will clearly come into play here.  TechNewsWorld has more:

For those of you who are concerned Watson might “replace” the human element of the medical industry, or if Watson makes a mistake, something it did during the Jeopardy run, these fears appear to be unfounded, at least for now.  TNW makes the point that ego possessed by doctors will make overruling Watson’s recommendations an easy thing.

One does wonder, however, if a dependence on Watson’s vast computational power will form. Considering the potential workload being reduced, giving in to the seduction would be tempting. 

Of course, another issue of concern is propagation of the Watson technology.  How many hospitals/doctors will have access to it?  Will the computing power needed to make Watson work, a large mainframe, hinder its introduction even before it begins? 

Not so fast says the Nuance VP:

Just don’t ask Watson anything about airports that sprung up in the World War II era.

Now that IBM is finished showing off Watson’s ability to the world, and perhaps scaring some of us who grew up watching the Terminator movies, Watson’s celebrity will not be used in vain.  Clearly, making a Kardashian-esqe computer — that is, famous for being famous, but overall usefulness is negligble — was not IBM’s goal as plans for Watson’s capabilities have been made public.

Instead of keeping Watson on the game-show circuit, IBM’s new superstar will be joining forces with Nuance Healthcare’s speech-recognition solution in order to make the life of physicians an easier undertaking.  Combining these language-comprehension technologies will assist the diagnosis process, if, for nothing else, by making research process faster.

Watson’s considerable reaction-time will clearly come into play here.  TechNewsWorld has more:

For those of you who are concerned Watson might “replace” the human element of the medical industry, or if Watson makes a mistake, something it did during the Jeopardy run, these fears appear to be unfounded, at least for now.  TNW makes the point that ego possessed by doctors will make overruling Watson’s recommendations an easy thing.

One does wonder, however, if a dependence on Watson’s vast computational power will form. Considering the potential workload being reduced, giving in to the seduction would be tempting. 

Of course, another issue of concern is propagation of the Watson technology.  How many hospitals/doctors will have access to it?  Will the computing power needed to make Watson work, a large mainframe, hinder its introduction even before it begins? 

Not so fast says the Nuance VP:

Just don’t ask Watson anything about airports that sprung up in the World War II era.

Pogue’s opinion of, as he calls it, the big six conglomerates is very obvious, he sides with his fellow WGA members. 

The writer’s strike, no not the one back in 1988 but the one that started on November 5^th, 2007 continues to draw national attention.  Even big name actors joined in this week to bring more attention to the strike.

So if you’ve happened to be stuck in a hole for the past two weeks, here is what’s going on in California and New York. The Writers Guild of America decided to strike against the production companies and studios until negotiations are made between them.

What negotiations? The writers want a percentage of the profits made from the Internet, as well as a higher residual percentage of DVD’s sold.  They now receive .04% and are asking for .08%.  Yet that’s not all the writers’ want. They are asking to receive some kind of compensation from Internet sales and downloads.

“Our side is right. People are really invested in television, despite declining ratings, and they are pissed off.  They’re f***in pissed off and I think they should be,” said writer and blogger of plaintivewail.com, Stephen Falk.

When I interviewed Falk, he was actually walking the picketing lines. I had a hard time hearing him, but I could definitely hear all of the cars honking in the background in support of the WGA.

Besides his obvious anger towards the “big six,” Falk and Pogue urged television watchers to stop doing just that. They asked for the viewers to stop viewing and downloading shows on the Internet. 

We also talked with the press representative for the WGA East, Sherry Goldman of the Goldman Communications Group in New York City.  She told us basically what every other writer is saying.  She wasn’t sure when the strike would end, but hoped that the major companies would see the wrong in their doing and agree to meet again for negotiations.

So when will the two sides meet to talk things over? That is left up to the heads of both sides, and according to the majority of people we talked with; it could be quite awhile before that happens. 

Until the WGA and the “Big 6” meet again, you can say goodbye to new episodes of your favorite shows, including 24, and the shows related to current events like “The Late Show with David Letterman” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

So until reality shows start bombing and there is a huge outcry to get “Grey’s Anatomy” back, you can kiss your shows goodbye for now.

For more details of the strike and for the exclusive interview with Charles Pogue, Sherry Goldman, and Stephen Falk, you can watch the video right here on WebProNews.

Sure, 25 grand isn’t a life-changing sum – only someone who was already on the verge of retirement could quit their job after earning that much – but no one’s going to say “no” to it.  Indeed, according to a press release, Seaman “was extremely shocked and speechless,” and “[w]hen asked what she’ll do with her winnings, she replied, ‘Part of the money will be used towards a purchase of a new car, and the rest will be placed into my kids’ savings account for their future.’”

The contest’s other beneficiaries include Janice Johnston, who won $10,000, and Arthur Davis, who received $5,000.  For a little background on the whole thing, you can see our previous coverage, but the Jeopardy Google Daily Challenge was basically an online, Jeopardy-style sweepstakes that ran from early June to mid-July.

Google seems to enjoy participating in these contests – after The Da Vinci Code Quest on Google, there was a tie-in to the third Bourne movie.  There are also competitions involving t-shirts and Google doodles.  As noted, the prizes haven’t been that astounding, but free is free, and the company’s getting a lot of good PR as a result of these activities.

Hat tip to Promo.

According to a brand new site, “The Jeopardy! Google Daily Challenge Sweepstakes features an extra clue from one of the categories in that day’s Jeopardy! TV broadcast.  Watch Jeopardy! and then visit Jeopardy.com each weekday from June 4th to July 13th, to play a new clue and you’ll have a chance to win one of the daily $100 giveaways.  By entering every weekday, you’ll increase your chances of winning $5,000, $10,000, or the $25,000 Grand Prize!”

All right, the combination of that promotion-speak and all those exclamation marks made me wince, but the prospect of free cash still gives this game a certain appeal.  One noteworthy aspect of the whole thing is that the official site encourages users to cheat (or to do what real Jeopardy contestants cannot, anyway).

After pointing out that “you must enter the correct response for your sweepstakes entry to be valid,” the intro continues, “Not sure what it is?  That’s where the powerful Google Search engine comes in.”

There are some rules that can’t be broken, however.  If you’re under 18 or aren’t a U.S. citizen, you’re out of luck.  Yet “America’s Favorite Quiz Show” and (as the numbers would have it) America’s favorite search engine are still sure to get plenty of attention in this joint endeavor.

I spoke to Noah Bonnett (on the left, with the beautiful hostess, Rachel), the producer/founder of the one-minute trivia show. If you haven’t watched it, go check it out and then I’ll wait for you to come back.

Okay, done?

So, Noah’s background is working at a production company in LA, Endemol (they do Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Fear Factor, Deal or No Deal. His experience was on game shows. He met the host, Rachel, when she came to do a pilot for MTV that Noah shot, they stayed in touch and he reached out to Rachel to see if she would be interested in doing the same thing, but as a video podcast – a one minute game show, that turned into 88SLIDE.

If you look at the first interviews on 88SLIDE, you can see how Rachel has grown into the role. Since then, she’s gotten plenty of offers to do other things, but she’s sticking around – she’s focused on school.

Aside: At Vloggercon, Rachel and I had a long discussion about philosophy. The girl is smart. Smart and pretty. And, that’s her with me laughing at us. Or me.

It’s the one-minute interactiveness that makes 88SLIDE work – and you can plug in new people, and new ideas, and the format works. It’s like the old TV game shows – Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud – they all work in different cultures. If you want to talk about the flat world … look at the same shows with different hosts. The master dream would be the same for 88SLIDE just one of many productions. Expand to Hindi language, Spanish language, Sports oriented, Bible oriented … . The format is bullet-proof, so you can change out hosts to the best people. And, scoop, they are going to be announcing a major wireless carrier in the next few weeks, that will be carrying 88SLIDE on its network, stream to phones.

From a PR standpoint, 88SLIDE does take product / sponsorship. The 88SLIDE doors are very open for advertising and sponsorship opportunities, but not traditional methods. Noah sits down with the companies, to find the message that they want to get across, and works with them for a tailor-made message that works for everyone.

88SLIDE looks at brand integration, sponsorship, wardrobe consideration (they have a few potential sponsors), music consideration (labels put in the music). Anything that helps the show – but gives something to the sponsor AND the audience. The value-add for everyone, even beyond just the $10 gift certificate.

88SLIDE is like a hybrid of user generated content, but with the consistency of a studio. It’s because of the talent that he gained at the large production, that translates to the user generated format – keeps it classy, but keeps it real. Like Blaine (the announcer), keeps it real with his DITC T-shirt.

Being realistic, prize sponsorship is an integral part of any game shows, dating back to the 1950′s. It’s natural and organic, and the sponsors come in for that one-minute game show. It’s non-intrusive, quick and 88SLIDE works to keep the flow of the program.

As for the questions, the level of difficulty is corollary to the size of the prize. And, by sticking with the one-minute, it keeps the audience involved. The day-to-day retention is very high, and the people come back every day to see if they won, and to see what the correct answer. The 88SLIDE viewers email and text message the answers – a true interactive podcast out there. Other podcasts are comment-enabled, but you do not become part of the program. 88SLIDE is trying to make its audience part of its one-minute, fun, action-packed show.

If you have ideas for sponsorship, ping Noah at info@88slide.com. The demographics are collected from a third-party survey. The viewers are numbering in the five-figures trending towards six-figures, with the age of 18 to 34, 75 percent male, with 33 percent as college graduates and 21 percent with master’s degrees and 44 percent make $60K to $150K and close to 80 percent have listened to at least 6 episodes and 76 percent say they watch/listen everyday with 94 percent watching the whole episode. Not shabby demographics.

If you think about it, it’s viewers through YouTube, Blip.tv, iPods and iTunes, 88SLIDE and soon-to-be major wireless carrier.

Closing … on the ValleyWag Amanda Congdon rumor: Noah has set up Rock Creek Park Productions and is always looking for talented people, and would love to chat with Amanda.

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Jeremy Pepper is the CEO and founder of POP! Public Relations, a public relations firm based in Arizona, USA.

He authors the popular Musings from POP! Public Relations blog which offers Jeremy’s opinions and views – on public relations, publicity and other things.

"If you're going to threaten me, do it properly."
-- Mike Wazowski corrects Randall's pronunciation of 'cretin' in Monster's Inc.

Much is being made of the passage of the “Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005,” which was signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 5th.

Of interest is a passage cited by CNet chief political correspondent Declan McCullagh, that appears to indicate anonymous annoyance online could lead to jail time for the perpetrator.

The labyrinthine way in which Congress goes about its business must have proved too confusing for some readers of the original article (and I include myself in that group), as McCullagh published a follow-up FAQ that detailed the relevant changes to U.S. code. Here’s the new text according to McCullagh:

Organizations like the EFF will certainly have more to say about this in the near future. Determining just what constitutes annoyance to a court of law poses a number of questions, like how does this law impact First Amendment rights? That won’t be known until someone mounts a test of the law in the legal system.

As written now, corporations could use the provision against people who attempt to criticize their business practices anonymously, either from a customer or employee perspective. That would have a chilling effect on bloggers like Mini-Microsoft’s Who da’Punk, should Microsoft decide to wield this hammer.

—
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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

WorldWinner announced from the Casual Games Conference that it will create competitive versions of Sony’s popular game shows. The versions of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune will let at-home players compete against each other for prizes.

Existing versions of those two games online pit players against computer opponents. The new games will let players test their skills against human players, and possibly win cash prizes in various tournaments WorldWinner offers.

“WorldWinner is a natural fit to create and manage skill-based competitions of our two marquee brands,” Michael Arrieta, senior vice president of Digital Sales and Marketing for Sony Pictures Digital, said in a statement. “This partnership with WorldWinner further extends the Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! brands.”

The games will be available from each of the game show sites, as well as from WorldWinner’s online game site. A debut date has not yet been announced.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.