Outsource Content to Your Computer?

Is this the next generation in "content creation"?

The new reporter on the US media scene takes no coffee breaks, churns out articles at lightning speed, and has no pension plan.

That's because the reporter is not a person, but a computer algorithm, honed to translate raw data such as corporate earnings reports and previews or sports statistics into readable prose.

Algorithms are producing a growing number of articles for newspapers and websites, such as this one produced by Narrative Science:

"Wall Street is high on Wells Fargo, expecting it to report earnings that are up 15.7 percent from a year ago when it reports its second quarter earnings on Friday, July 13, 2012," said the article on Forbes.com.

While computers cannot parse the subtleties of each story, they can take vast amounts of raw data and turn it into what passes for news, analysts say.

"This can work for anything that is basic and formulaic," says Ken Doctor, an analyst with the media research firm Outsell.

And with media companies under intense financial pressure, the move to automate some news production "does speak directly to the rebuilding of the cost economics of journalism," said Doctor.

Stephen Doig, a journalism professor at Arizona State University who has used computer systems to sift through data which is then provided to reporters, said the new computer-generated writing is a logical next step.

"I don't have a philosophical objection to that kind of writing being outsourced to a computer, if the reporter who would have been writing it could use the time for something more interesting," Doig said.

Scott Frederick, chief operating officer of Automated Insights, another firm in the sector, said he sees this as "the next generation of content creation."  read more

OpenCourseware: Get a Free Education Online

Unfortunately, there's no college credit for these classes. Well, actually, there are ways to get credit, but that's the subject of a later post.

While most people know about online college classes, few know that there are real  classes from major universities and colleges that you can sit in on absolutely free. You see, most colleges and universities these days actually upload many of their classes to the web for the entire world to view. This fact is not commonly known, but you can find tons of these free classes online and you can take full advantage of the free knowledge provided.

So how do you find these classes? You simply google "opencourseware" to see what's available. Here, let me google that for you.

Oh, and if after you've sat in on a few classes, you'll probably wonder how you can actually gain college credit by taking these online courses for college credit for free That site will explain in more detail, but basically, you need to take an exam to prove your knowledge of the subject. If you [pass, you'll get full college credit for knowledge gained in the real world. By taking these classes for free, you gain that real world knowledge. Understand?

83% of Doctors Consider Quitting Over Obamacare

Thanks to the Democrat nightmare that is Obamacare, 83% of America’s doctors are thinking about quiting.

 The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.

Even if doctors do not quit their jobs over the ruling, America will face a shortage of at least 90,000 doctors by 2020. The new health care law increases demand for physicians by expanding insurance coverage. This change will exacerbate the current shortage as more Americans live past 65.

By 2025 the shortage will balloon to over 130,000, Len Marquez, the director of government relations at the American Association of Medical Colleges, told The Daily Caller.

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