Toward effective conversational messaging

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1995.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-123).Matthew Talin Marx.M.S

Bandit: Context-Sensitive, Conversational Messaging

Bandit is a conversational messaging system which uses contextual information about the user and his correspondents to streamline and customize the interaction. Entries in the user's calendar and rolodex provide clues about current interests; thus electronic mail messages can be filtered and clustered for efficient presentation. An adaptive user model tracks the user's style of communicating with his correspondents; by consulting this model, Bandit makes contextually relevant suggestions about contacting individuals and also anticipates recognition errors. While optimizing the interaction for experienced users, Bandit also provides guidance and help for first-timers. Bandit's prioritized message presentation combined with adaptation over time and sensitivity to the context of the immediate situation deliver a conversational messaging system unequaled in efficiency and personalization

Toward Effective Conversational Messaging

The ubiquity of the telephone suggests it as an ideal messaging tool. The slow, serial output of speech, however, makes it difficult to find important messages quickly. MailCall, a telephone-based messaging system using speech recognition, takes a step toward effective conversational messaging with a combination of filtering, random access, and recognition error handling. Incoming voice and text messages are categorized and prioritized based on the user's current interests as inferred from the calendar, rolodex, etc. MailCall then updates the speech recognizer's vocabulary on the fly to support random access---so that the user can go to interesting messages directly rather than having to step through the list one message at a time. Inevitable recognition errors are handled by an interface algorithm which verifies potential mistakes and lets the user correct them quickly; further, touch-tone equivalents for several speech commands are provided. And the user can send replies to messages ..

Strategic switchbacks: Dynamic commercialization strategies for technology entrepreneurs

We present a synthetic framework in which a technology entrepreneur employs a dynamic commercialization strategy to overcome obstacles to the adoption of the firm’s ideal strategy. Whereas prior work portrays the choice of whether to license a new technology or to self-commercialize as a single, static decision, we suggest that when entrepreneurs encounter obstacles to their ideal strategy they can nevertheless achieve it by temporarily adopting a non-ideal strategy. We refer to the sequential implementation of commercialization strategies, in which the first strategy enables the second, as a switchback—reminiscent of zigzag paths that enable passage up steep mountains. We analyze conditions under which switchbacks can be effective in enabling the entrepreneur’s ideal commercialization strategy given the attending costs, risks, and likely incumbent response. Keywords: Commercialization strategy; Dynamic strategies; Technology licensin

Regional disadvantage? Employee non-compete agreements and brain drain

A growing body of research has documented the local impact of employee non-compete agreements, but their effect on interstate migration patterns remains unexplored. Exploiting an inadvertent policy reversal in Michigan as a natural experiment, we show that non-compete agreements are responsible for a “brain drain” of knowledge workers out of states that enforce such contracts to states where they are not enforceable. Importantly, this effect is felt most strongly on the margin of workers who are more collaborative and whose work is more impactful. Keywords: Non-compete agreements; Labor mobility; Regional economicsNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 0830287