Communicating About Ideas for Innovation in Meteorology: The Harry Otten Prize

<p>The Harry Otten Prize for Innovation in Meteorology is awarded every two years at the Annual Meeting of the European Meteorological Society.  This prize, financed by an endowment created by Harry Otten, the founder of MeteoGroup, is oriented towards supporting individuals and small teams that might otherwise find it difficult to secure funding that can help them move their innovative, practical concept on a path towards implementation.  The process of running the competition for the prize, and of selecting the finalists and the ultimate winner, utilizes a variety of communication methods.  This presentation will provide a summary of the process for the Harry Otten Prize competition, focusing in particular on associated aspects of communication.</p>

Geneva, natural history and the art of observing

According to the naturalist Charles Bonnet (1720–1793), an “art of observing” was sorely needed to stimulate further progress in natural history. Although he never published on the subject, Bonnet proposed a prize competition on the “art of observing” to Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (the Dutch Society of Sciences) in Haarlem of which he was a member. Jean Senebier, a pastor and librarian who later became a skilled scientific observer in his own right, took part in this competition (1768) with an essay on the art of observing that influenced, embodied and codified the advanced scientific observational practices of the Genevan naturalists in the eighteenth century.

How to Create a Bot

In 1991, American inventor and philanthropist Hugh Loebner funded the launch of a competition aimed at recreating the conditions of the Turing test to assess the success of conversational programs in passing as human. The Loebner Prize competition has been conducted every year since then. This chapter looks at the history of this competition in order to argue that it has functioned as a proving ground for AI’s ability to deceive humans and as a form of spectacle highlighting the potential of computing technologies. The staged confrontations between computers and humans provide a context where humans’ liability for deception and its implications for natural language programs were systematically put to test in a competitive framework. This encouraged programmers to develop strategies and tricks that are reemerging today in communicative AI technologies. Thus, the case of the Loebner Prize helps one better understand Alexa, Siri, and other AI voice assistants that are becoming increasingly widespread in contemporary societies.

JONATHAN PITKIN (b. 1978)Feather-Small and Still (2010)

This chapter addresses Jonathan Pitkin’s Feather-Small and Still (2010). Pitkin was commissioned to make a setting of this evocative poem by Sophie Stephenson-Wright, following its commendation in a prize competition for young poets. Its subject is that mysterious bird, the nightjar. The composer has succeeded admirably in capturing the text’s intriguing, distinctive flavour, responding to its nature imagery and heightened language with great sensitivity. Vocal lines are tellingly clear and simple, and it is left to the piano to amplify and illustrate the words to haunting effect, with solo passages bridging the gaps between vocal fragments, always colouring and enriching the sound world. The poem is a villanelle, a classic form in which repetitions of the first and third lines recur throughout. The composer has not adhered strictly to the format in his music, but, by subtle brush-strokes, he manages to preserve traces of reverberation, and his fluent, cohesive musical style enables him to expand and contract textures, often leading off into fresh territory. Though tightly constructed, the piece flows naturally and should prove enjoyable to perform. The voice part is especially suitable for a young singer, and not at all taxing.