Talk: Michael Fink, Google Israel
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009At the INSEMTIVES project meeting, we were happy to welcome Michael Fink from Google Israel. We are now looking forward to his talk on YouTube’s Collaborative Annotations.
Abstract: YouTube’s Collaborative Annotations
More and more YouTube videos no longer provide a passive viewing experience, but rather entice the viewer to interact with
the video by clicking on objects with embedded links. These links are part of YouTube’s Annotations system, which enables content owners to add active overlays on top of their videos. YouTube Annotation overlays also enable adding dynamic speech bubbles and pop-ups which can function as an ever-changing layer of supplementary information and entertainment, augmenting the video experience. This paper addresses the question of whether the ability to add annotation overlays on a given video should be opened to the YouTube public. The basic dilemma in opening a video to collaborative annotations is derived from the tension between the benefits of collaboration and the risks of visual clutter and spam. We term the degree to which a video is open to external contributions as the collaboration spectrum, and describe several models that let content owners to explore this spectrum in order to find the optimal way to harness the power of the masses.
Biographie:
Michael Fink’s work bridges media research, machine learning and cognitive science. Michael initiated the YouTube interactive video annotations project, which in the last year became a major driving force in making YouTube videos truly interactive. Previously, Michael worked at Google Research, focusing on image and audio fingerprinting for applications such as the “mass personalization” of broadcast television. His PhD research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem focuses on large scale object recognition in humans and machines, generating publications ranging from machine learning, computer vision and artificial intelligence to cognitive science, justice and economics. Recently, Michael has initiated an “innovation studies program” in a joint collaboration with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Bezalel Design Academy.

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