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June 15, 2006
Mary Poppins goes online "in the most delightful way"
If Mary Poppins were alive today, she would probably do graduate work at my Stanford Lab. She might even get a scholarship, because -- if you'll recall -- Ms. Poppins was a master of persuasion. (How else could she get those two naughty kids to behave?)
Yes, Mary Poppins knew something: When you turn a boring task into a game, work then becomes play. Her "spoonful of sugar" principle helped tame two children, focusing their energy on productive tasks. Today, the clever use of Poppins' sugar principle makes me admire Luis von Ahn, who is focusing human energy in ways Mary Poppins never imagined.
[Howdy, Luis]
While a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon, Luis created the ESP Game, an online challenge that motivated thousands to assign labels to images. Last week I was reading the latest CHI program, and I was happy to see Luis has continued down this path. In the venerable tradition of Mary Poppins, Tom Sawyer, and Microsoft internships, Luis knows how to motivate people to do tedius work and enjoy it.
Here's the CHI06 lineup from Luis and his team:
Luis von Ahn, Ruoran Liu and Manuel Blum
Peekaboom: A Game for Locating Objects in ImagesLuis von Ahn, S. Ginosar, M. Kedia, R. Liu and M. Blum
Improving Accessibility of the Web with a Computer
Game.Luis von Ahn, Mihir Kedia and Manuel Blum
Verbosity: A Game for Collecting Common-Sense Facts
Luis' original game has successfully motivated people to label over 10 million images. And according to Luis, some people spend up to 40 hours each week playing his game. Of course, Mary Poppins would frown on such excessive online behavior (in fact, to emphasize her point, she might even launch into song and dance). But one thing is sure: Both Mary and I would agree that Luis von Ahn is a clever genius.
Take it away, Ms. Poppins . . .
[Spoken]
In ev'ry job that must be done
There is an element of fun
You find the fun and snap!
The job's a game[Sung]
And ev'ry task you undertake
Becomes a piece of cake
A lark! A spree! It's very clear to see thatA Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
The medicine go down-wown . . .
. . . in the most delightful way
-- BJ Fogg
Posted by BJ Fogg at June 15, 2006 06:57 AM