Implementing feedback in creative systems : a workshop approach

One particular challenge in AI is the computational modelling and simulation of creativity. Feedback and learning from experience are key aspects of the creative process. Here we investigate how we could implement feedback in creative systems using a social model. From the field of creative writing we borrow the concept of a Writers Workshop as a model for learning through feedback. The Writers Workshop encourages examination, discussion and debates of a piece of creative work using a prescribed format of activities. We propose a computational model of the Writers Workshop as a roadmap for incorporation of feedback in artificial creativity systems. We argue that the Writers Workshop setting describes the anatomy of the creative process. We support our claim with a case study that describes how to implement the Writers Workshop model in a computational creativity system. We present this work using patterns other people can follow to implement similar designs in their own systems. We conclude by discussing the broader relevance of this model to other aspects of AI

X575: writing rengas with web services

Our software system simulates the classical collaborative Japanese poetry form, renga, made of linked haikus. We used NLP methods wrapped up as web services. Our experiments were only a partial success, since results fail to satisfy classical constraints. To gather ideas for future work, we examine related research in semiotics, linguistics, and computing.Comment: 4 pages; submitted to CC-NLG - Computational Creativity in Natural Language Generatio

GravPad

GravPad is the next major step in the evolution of the EtherPad, a real-time collaborative editor that was first developed at AppJet, Inc. (http://appjet.com/) and recently open-sourced when AppJet was acquired by Google. EtherPad's developer community, headed up by Egil Möller and John McLear, has made a plugin engine and added standard wiki features to the editor (http://github.com/ether/pad). My GravPad demonstration will show a hacked EtherPad running in a "sidewiki" format -- the basis of a platform for live web annotation and content discovery

Peer Produced Peer Learning: A Mathematics Case Study

This research project develops around a technological intervention intended to transform a peer produced reference resource into a peer produced learning environment. Through the work described in this thesis, PlanetMath.org, an early online community devoted to mathematics, has now become a mathematical practicum, and a laboratory for learning science. A new theory that describes the nexus of peer production and peer learning is foundational for the research programme. The candidate theory was initially developed during a pilot study based on online field work at the Peer-2-Peer University. The new theory -- which is given the name "paragogy" -- has implications for designers, researchers, educators, and others whose work relies on peer learning and peer production. Further research and development work in the PlanetMath context helped to refine the theory, and applied it along with a range of mixed methods to develop an anthropologically-inspired study of modern mathematics. A quantitative approach was employed to detect the factors of interaction that influence learning outcomes, using legacy data from PlanetMath. A qualitative, interview-based approach was employed, to understand the desiderata of potential users of a new system emphasizing peer learning. The new software system was implemented, informed by paragogy and these stakeholder perspectives, using Drupal and other open source components. Field work with PlanetMath users after the launch of the new system employed an emergent design process to elaborate the theory and develop a viable approach to ongoing development and codesign

Double bubbles in the 3-torus

We present a conjecture, based on computational results, on the area minimizing way to enclose and separate two arbitrary volumes in the flat cubic 3-torus. For comparable small volumes, we prove that an area minimizing double bubble in the 3-torus is the standard double bubble from R^3.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. Prepared on behalf of the participants in the Clay Mathematics Institute Summer School on the Global Theory of Minimal Surfaces, held at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, California, Summer 200

Crowdsourcing education on the Web: a role-based analysis of online learning communities

Learning online has significantly evolved over the past decade due to the emergence of Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies that facilitate social learning in adaptive online environments. The open content movement and the associated techniques of crowdsourcing (i.e. assimilating several small contributions into resources of high quality) have further influenced education on the Web. This chapter investigates the concept of crowdsourcing in education through an analysis of case studies dealing with two open online learning communities, Peer 2 Peer University, and PlanetMath.org. The case studies proceed via an analysis of the various roles played by the individuals involved in each organization. The outcomes of this analysis are used to extract general recommendations for building online communities and applying crowdsourcing techniques in educational contexts