Kosmix Blog

At the end of last month, the USPTO awarded patent #7197459 titled "Hybrid machine/human computing arrangement". Now you are thinking.. what a strange patent title....who would come up with something like that... well guess who those inventors were? Thats right folks.. while they were busy at Amazon, our founders Venkat Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman (with Anand Ranganathan) invented the Mechanical Turk!

In brief, Mechanical Turk is a means for humans and computers to collaborate on accomplishing tasks. Say you had some task that required human judgment and intelligence like "What is your opinion of the summaries of these 10 news articles". You would then set up a number of HITs (human intelligence task) using mechanical turk. The turk would then make these tasks available to human users who have signed up. When the humans complete the task they can upload their results and get compensation for the number of tasks they completed. You get to review their submissions and authorize payment to them.

The Turk system shields you from the details of the users and for all you know its like a giant computer accomplishing your task!! Pretty cool huh!! There you go.. yet another smart idea from our founders!!

We are happy to announce that former AOL Chairman and CEO, Jonathan Miller joined our board of directors. At AOL, Jon was primarily responsible for shifting AOL’s Internet business from the walled garden approach to giving everyone access to free features and content, a move widely hailed as a success in the industry. Our other board members include Theresia Gouw Ranzetta of Accel Partners; Ravi Mhatre of Lightspeed Venture Partners; and Kosmix’s two founders, Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan.

When asked about why Kosmix, Jon said "Kosmix has a vision that is game-changing in the Internet marketplace today. I am impressed with the powerful technology, strong team and the knowledge this company has of its customers and marketplace. Kosmix is where the world is going and I look forward to guiding and building its success.”

The arrival of the ping pong table in early March transformed our common area into a frenetic scene of ping pong mayhem. A double’s tournament was organized and play began instantaneously. It was "the ping heard round the world" with players flying in from as far as India to compete against their fellow Kosmonauts.

Several controversies crept in over the course of the tournament though they didn’t mar the overall integrity of the games. Two-star or three-star balls, does it really matter? In a word: Yes! Accusations raised of team-fixing were quickly assuaged by officials but it has been ruled that match-ups for the upcoming Summer Singles Tournament will be computer generated (Calling all programmers!).

The level of ping pong talent housed in one place is almost hard to imagine. Yan’s barefooted attire and pencil-grip was oft-imitated though never matched. The Kosmix All-Women’s team (Monika and Shweta) were unrelenting in their pursuit of the title until their demise in the third round.

Team tactics ranged from carbo-loading throughout the day, using menacing facial gestures to scare opponents and practicing hours upon hours at home with Wii’s tennis game. Ankur and Bruce demonstrated that a no-nonsense approach of consistent playing, deft handling skills and a bit of good ole’ Irish luck are enough to go the distance- Congratulations to our 2007 Doubles Champions!