A few weeks ago, two students in Vermont took their own lives. We don't know why. The news was on television, and my heart went out to the schools, the parents, the community, the whole state. One part of being an adult means working towards creating a world for a younger generation to prosper, to not forget that this whole experience "of living" is newer to them than it is to us. Somewhere we all missed a beat when we let these two slide away.
As I sat in front of my computer, writing emails to my best friend in Montreal, my mind wandered towards bullying, and specifically cyber-bullying. We're these kids being bullied online by someone? Was someone saying hurtful things to them? That's when I noticed that my gmail account had picked up that I was talking about Montreal and was advertising Montreal hotels in the side bar.
I have always had great faith in google. They are run by mathematicians, and I believe in numbers.
The AdSense Ads know what I want. Then there must be a way for them to know what I don't want, or more specifically, to be able to read a combination of words that would detect bullying.
I put myself in the role of a parent, or a guidance counselor: if the student has an school email address, and if they are under the age of 18, wouldn't it be possible to subscribe them to a No-Bullying AdSense that would notice a combination of "bullying words" and notify the parent/guidance counselor?
I think about the rights to privacy and all, but then I also think that if I was a parent, and someone was sending hate mail to my kid, I would want to know. What could I do with this knowledge? I don't know....I'm just thinking, wouldn't knowing be a good place to start?
Friday, February 4, 2011
360 Degree Computer Cameras
It's where the good ideas come from: you find yourself in a situation that could be better, and then you realize what could be better.
It all started yesterday, the day after the groundhog was suppose to see his shadow and the day after Vermont was hit with a massive snow storm. The roads were horrible, it took twice as long to get anywhere in your car, and one staff member couldn't even get his car out of his driveway. Understandable he couldn't be at the 9:00AM meeting physically, but with the grace of technology he could.
We had skyped in staff members before to meetings, and there was always the same issue: where do you point the camera? We would start the meeting with the camera pointed at the director, and then move it when the next person would speak, and then back, oh wait who's commenting, turn the camera right, left, ooops, bad view, till finally...
"Jacqueline, just leave the camera where it is. I can hear."
Hear, yes, but how is it that we can't have skyped in staff members feel like they are 100% at the meetings. This is the future, isn't it? We can figure this out!
And then I realized, that's what we needed. A camera that would have a 360 degree vision, and then could recreate a view that a human would normally have if he was sitting in the room.
Does this camera exist? I don't know. But we should popularize this camera if it does exist. Let's make meetings better, friends, by making sure that we're all there, even if it's only virtually.
360 degree cameras. What a good idea.
It all started yesterday, the day after the groundhog was suppose to see his shadow and the day after Vermont was hit with a massive snow storm. The roads were horrible, it took twice as long to get anywhere in your car, and one staff member couldn't even get his car out of his driveway. Understandable he couldn't be at the 9:00AM meeting physically, but with the grace of technology he could.
We had skyped in staff members before to meetings, and there was always the same issue: where do you point the camera? We would start the meeting with the camera pointed at the director, and then move it when the next person would speak, and then back, oh wait who's commenting, turn the camera right, left, ooops, bad view, till finally...
"Jacqueline, just leave the camera where it is. I can hear."
Hear, yes, but how is it that we can't have skyped in staff members feel like they are 100% at the meetings. This is the future, isn't it? We can figure this out!
And then I realized, that's what we needed. A camera that would have a 360 degree vision, and then could recreate a view that a human would normally have if he was sitting in the room.
Does this camera exist? I don't know. But we should popularize this camera if it does exist. Let's make meetings better, friends, by making sure that we're all there, even if it's only virtually.
360 degree cameras. What a good idea.
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