GeekWire Radio: The data science behind that amazing U.S. dialect quiz

Have you ever taken the U.S. dialect quiz, the one printed by the New York Occasions a pair weeks in the past? It was the excitement of many vacation gatherings, impressing individuals with its skill to foretell the place they’re from primarily based on the phrases they use.

This week on the GeekWire radio present, we get the within story of the analysis that supplied the inspiration for the quiz. Our visitor is Scott Golder, a knowledge scientist at Context Related in Seattle who labored on the Harvard Dialect Challenge as an undergrad a decade in the past with professor Bert Vaux.

Golder tells us in regards to the authentic efforts to gather the info, and shares his ideas on the challenge resurfacing by the New York Occasions function. And he explains how this demonstrates the power of information to shed new mild on ourselves and the world round us.

Take heed to the present by way of the audio participant beneath or this MP3 file. The dialog with Golder begins within the second phase, beginning at 6:45. Additionally see John’s story about Golder from earlier this week.

Within the first phase, we give a rundown of the highest tech shares from the Seattle area from 2013. (Are you able to guess which one carried out the very best?)

We additionally preview the massive occasion forward — the annual CES tech megashow in Las Vegas, the place I’m headed with our colleague Taylor Soper to cowl the information.

Title that Tech Tune: Right here is that this week’s tune. Have you learnt what that’s? Ship your reply to [email protected]. From the pool of right solutions, we’ll choose one particular person at random to win Robotic Turtles, “The Board Sport For Little Programmers,” courtesy of the sport’s creator, Seattle entrepreneur Dan Shapiro.

App of the Week: Objective-tracking app Raise provides you with a greater probability of sticking to your New 12 months’s resolutions.