Customized Newscasts
In 2000, I invented a database that would automate the job that TV producers perform in newsrooms. An algorithm would choose the stories a viewer would watch based on preferences and past viewing history. I prototyped the database and content with my students. I abandoned the project after realizing that Internet video was developing slower than expected and that the networks were not interested in customized newscasts because of the way advertising was structured. I was delighted in 2006 when YouTube emerged with suggested playlists for individual users, a development that is similar to what I tried to create six years earlier.