This is fascinating

How do you feel? Computer scientist and artist Jonathan Harris wants to know. Intent on peering into the soul of the web, his programs collects stories that have been posted online. In this presentation he talks about three of his projects which engage in data mining of the internet. One of these projects is entitled We Feel Fine. It collects the world's feelings via passive observation of the world's blogs. The algorithms he uses and the results he gets are fascinating. For instance, he can show metrics which tell you how "used" the world is feeling at this time. Given the present economic situation the result is not surprising.

He also talks about two other projects, Time Capsule and Universe which are equally interesting. Perhaps this blog will make it into his We Feel Fine project if it picks up the following sentence. I feel quite impressed by the scope of Jonathan Miller's research, ideas and presentation. I find his work interesting and feel that it will ultimately benefit the world as a whole.