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What is BookLamp.org?
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BookLamp is a book recommendation system that uses the full text of a book to match it to other books based on scene-by-scene measurements of elements such as pacing, density, action, dialog, description, perspective, and genre, among others. In other words, BookLamp.org is a Pandora.com for books, based on an author's writing style. If you match against multiple books, the self-learning system adjusts your formulas to make the match specific to your tastes. As the system moves out of beta, it will also incorporate human feedback into the recommendation systems, blending the strengths of social networks with the strengths of computer analysis. Ultimately, we want users to be able to create and share their own formulas, creating a community of book lovers that have tools to discover and share books in a way never before possible.
Because the system matches books through objective data from the text itself instead of relying solely on social networks to generate recommendations, the recommendations are impervious to outside influences such as advertising or author marketing. It also allows you to match to a far greater detail than alternative systems. With BookLamp, you can request a book similar to Stephen King's The Stand, but half the length, first person, literary mainstream fiction, with slightly more dialog, less description, and a rising action level across the first 10 scenes. If that's what you're looking for.
For a video describing the details of how BookLamp determines this information, return to BookLamp.org and watch the video on the front page. |
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How is BookLamp connected to CanGoogleHearMe.com?
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CanGoogleHearMe.com is the website that Aaron Stanton founded to document his attempts to get Google to hear out the concept behind BookLamp.org. The first attempt to get Google's attention was to fly to California uninvited and to sit in Google's lobby until they either threw him out, or heard him out. The site received international attention - including being covered by news agencies like the BBC, ABC, PBS, Wired, PCWorld Magazine, City News International, and others, reaching as far as the front page of the largest newspaper in Australia.
Through CanGoogleHearMe.com, Aaron met programmers that volunteered to help build the idea into reality, which resulted in BookLamp.org. BookLamp is the primary aspect of the idea Aaron wanted to share with Google. The blog is still maintained at http://www.cangooglehearme.com.
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| Is BookLamp.org run by Google/Amazon/Yahoo/etc.? |
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BookLamp.org is not currently connected to any third party companies. The project is managed by a development team of five guys, two of us - Aaron and Paul - working full time. Three of us - Aaron Stanton, Paul Kreiner, and Brandon Zehm - live in Boise, Idaho. Matt Davenport is based out of Manchester, England, and Evan White lives in L.A. No one in the Boise team had met either Evan or Matt in person until early Feb. 2008, when we met up for a trip to Mountain View, California. Though we've certainly had communications with companies like Google, Amazon, and Yahoo - some of which are still ongoing - none of these companies currently have a direct hand in BookLamp's operations.
However, we're short of a book database at the moment, and are actively looking for one. |
| Is BookLamp violating copyrights? |
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Fundamentally, BookLamp is a review system that uses an objective algorithm to score a book as opposed to human reviewers. We never publish or make publicly accessible, for free or for money, any copyrighted material that is used in the creation of a book's scores. The data we do publish are transformative works - graphs and similar data - in the same way that a mathematical analysis of how the Mona Lisa is painted is transformative. After a text is analyzed, the full-text of the book is separated from the resulting review, so the system at no point incorporates a book's full text as part of the live system - even if the system were somehow hacked or compromised, copyrighted material would never be exposed. No amount of copyrighted material is ever published or distributed without permission, and at no point does the analysis of a book degrade the ability of the copyright holder to sell, distribute, or control the distribution of a copyrighted work - at least no more so than a positive or negative book review in a literary journal can impact the ability of the copyright holder to profit from their copyright.
Fair Use laws exist specifically for the purpose of protecting the use of copyrighted material for the purpose of criticism, commentary, news reporting, parody, and transformative use. |
| Is BookLamp free? And if so, how do you plan on supporting the site? |
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We have every intention to keep the recommendation side of BookLamp.org free.
There are a number of ways that BookLamp can operate as a free service, including advertising, direct book sales, and the application of the technology to other areas that are not well suited for free services (search engine optimization, etc.) |
| Can I donate to BookLamp? |
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While we appreciate your willingness to support the project, we've never felt comfortable accepting donations from people. It's one thing to put our own time, energy, and money into this project; quite another to put other people's time, energy, and money into it. It's possible that this might change once we have a better idea of how this company is going to move forward. But for now, the best support you can give us is to send us an e-mail wishing us luck, and to let us know that you think the project is worth following through.
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| Can I invest in BookLamp? |
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We've had several people contact us in regards to private investment in BookLamp.org. This is a slightly different issue than accepting donations. Now that we've reached a public stage and are considering raising VC and other funding to start building a book database, there is a possibility that we'll consider private investment. We're not currently accepting private investment, but it'll be one of the options that we consider in the future as we decide what the next move in this project is. So, if you're interested in the possibility of private investing, drop us an e-mail and at least introduce yourself. It doesn't hurt. |
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Questions about the BookLamp System:
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| Does BookLamp Work? Can I use it right now to find a book to read? |
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The simple answer to this question is that while BookLamp works, it doesn't have enough books in the database to work well. While the technology behind the system is capable of finding you books to read right now, BookLamp will remain a technology demonstration until we have a large enough database of books to give the system enough data to make realistic recommendations. Without more books, not only will most users have a hard time finding a book to match against, but the system will have a limited number of books that are capable of being matches. In other words, if we don't have a book in the database that matches, we won't be able to recommend a book for you. Additionally, with so few books in the database, we're not able to match against all the metrics that we would like. In order to be the most effective, BookLamp needs to match against 7 to 8 metrics; with less than 300 books in the database, we're having to make recommendations after matching against only 3 or 4 metrics. To get any matches at all, we've had to turn down the sensitivity of the measures (see the next question) a bit already.
We estimate that it will take a database of at least 10,000 books to make BookLamp a usable system. The more, the better. |
| So you're saying that I shouldn't rely on BookLamp's results, yet? |
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Basically, yes. We'd recommend that you take the results with a grain of salt until we're able to populate the database with more books. The technology itself is fully capable of providing strong recommendations, but without a larger book database, the recommendations are of limited use. For example, the system is designed to be applied to anywhere from 10,000 to 1,000,000 books. In order to have it return any matches at all for a database of 200 to 300 books, like that used in the technology demo, we had to turn down the sensitivity of what is considered a "match". A book that currently matches in the system at 82% will most likely no longer match once more books are added, and the sensitivity of the system is returned to normal.
So, don't be surprised if you match a book only to find the returned match is less than perfect. This is a fault in our database size, and we're working on tracking down more books as we speak. |
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Why do you only have Science Fiction or Fantasy books? Why are you missing XYZ author or XYZ book?
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No, we don't hate other genres, and we're not planning on making BookLamp a service exclusively for finding science fiction and fantasy titles. The simple answer is that when we sat down and started looking for databases to test against, science fiction and fantasy were available and other genres were harder to find. Our intention is to add more genres to the database as quickly as possible, just as we intend to add more books in general. If you can't find a book that you've read in the database, fear not. We're working on that.
The same is true if you can't find an author that you really enjoy. If you're still concerned that we might miss someone as we move forward with adding books, I'd encourage you to sign in and use the Request a Book form to request a specific title.
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Are you going to include the ability to filter by genre? Author? Keywords?
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Yes. The only reason you can't currently filter by genre and similar criteria (i.e. find me X matching books that are Mystery) is because the database is too small, and specific to a single genre (mainly Science Fiction). The system is fully designed to filter by genre, but it's not implemented in the current live interface. As the database expands, an array of new features and functionality will come into play.
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Are you going to include non-fiction?
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Probably. Our current focus is on fiction, but we'll most likely be exploring nonfiction, as well. Generally speaking, fiction novels are underserved by full text search systems. Current full text systems tend to rely on keyword search terms, which is great for searching non-fiction, but not so great for finding a new novel to read. After all, if you wanted to find Stephen King's It, what keyword would you search for? Horror? Monsters? These are already genre categories, and don't need the full text of a book in order to be matched. Consequently, nonfiction is easier to search meaningfully with keywords than fiction. That leaves fiction in greater need of a full text solution.
However, that doesn't mean that non-fiction isn't going to make it into the system, or that we don't have something to offer nonfiction readers. For example, creative non-fiction will probably be included earlier than not (as opposed to say, a book on programming). However, even for more subject driven works writing style can be very important. We certainly see it as useful to be able to search for a book on learning PHP programming that uses the simplest, least complex sentences, for example, or the most personal references.
To put it shortly, our order of fiction/nonfiction priority goes like this:
1. Fiction
2. Creative Nonfiction
3. (Most likely) Technical Nonfiction
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Do you plan to include short stories/articles/school papers?
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Including items beyond books is certainly on our radar, but not our immediate focus. We'll see.
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Writing style isn't the only thing in a book. What about plot, storylines, characters, emotional content, setting? Do you account for any of these?
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In general, a reader judges a book on three key elements - Storyline and Plot, Characters, and Writing Style. Emotional content, setting, time period, difficulty level, and other similar elements can all fit under one of these three groups. And the simple answer is that, yes, BookLamp's design goals are to be able to offer a recommendation service that takes into account all three aspects of how a reader finds books, not just one or two.
You'll be hard pressed to convince me that any one of the elements is more important than the rest in total - if you don't care about the storyline, you won't read the book. If you find the characters annoying or stupid, you probably won't read the book. If you hate the way the book is written, you'll probably never make it far enough in to discover the interesting plot and characters. The most significant examples of writing style hindering otherwise good storyline would be Romeo and Juliet, or Moby Dick. These are classic stories with themes that are being retold to this day, but most people don't go to the library to read Romeo and Juliet for an hour before going to bed, at their own loss.
Of course, if you do like reading Shakespeare for fun, it's probably in large part because you appreciate the poetic style of writing, as well as the dramatic themes. The point being, a book recommendation system has to be able to account for all the elements that impact books, not just one or two. BookLamp's most significant advancement is that it can accurately and objectively compare books based on the third element, writing style, for the first time in history. To date, writing styles have been generally overlooked in review systems, since human reviewers have to be trained to code writing style, and human readers need to be trained to understand it. BookLamp's strength is in its ability to compare books without requiring the user to ever know anything about the writing style they like - all they have to do is select books they know they've enjoyed, and BookLamp handles the rest. We can analyze text to a detail that allows our formulas to match users on a scene-by-scene basis with great accuracy.
Once you've done that, reintroducing more traditional elements like social networks to help judge the remaining aspects such as storyline, characters, and plot is fairly easy. Our goal is to combine the strengths of objective analysis - fast, accurate, detailed, and objective comparison across millions of books - with the strengths of social networks to create the most comprehensive system in existence.
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Is it really useful to find books that are the same? Wouldn't I want to find something different than I've read before?
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This question actually comes from not understanding how the system works, exactly. The answer is both yes and no, and has the issue of matching books for reading has been discussed in the forums. On the simple Yes side, people already seek out books that are similar in style - you can see this whenever a you find an author you like, and then proceed to read every book they've ever written. All these books likely have a similar style, but are diverse enough in storylines and plots to stay interesting. BookLamp's goal is to allow you to strike upon a similar style in the same way that you find a new author, so that you can try many authors and still have confidence that you'll like the way a story is told; our goal is to lower the barriers between you and trying a new author.
That said, the system is more deep than simply finding a book that's the same. You see, the self learning aspect of the system looks at what you've read not just to find out specific levels that you like, but also specific ranges. Perhaps what you like is a book that varies greatly in style from beginning to end, or stays constant over time. The idea is that the system takes into account whether or not you want a book that's "the same" or one that's "similar to" or "very different". Certainly, the system can find exact matches, but that's not the only thing it's designed to do (see the next question).
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Will BookLamp tell me if a book is good or bad?
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This is a subtle but important point - BookLamp will never attempt to tell you if a book is good or bad. This seems counter-intuitive, but it's not. Our goal is not to decide if a book is good or bad; by design, we do not judge books, we simply tell you how well it matches your criteria for what you consider to be good or bad. In other words, we have no internal formula for judging quality until you come to the system and tell us what you think is good or bad. Those elements are not determined by us, but instead by looking at the patterns in the books you've labeled as good or bad within the system. After all, your idea of good or bad will almost certainly be different than ours, and BookLamp always takes your word on the matter. In other words, the system has no internal bias in the sense of quality.
BookLamp is not a system for passing judgment. That's still the reader's job. But after you've passed judgement, we can try to go out and find you additional books with similar characteristics.
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Can I have BookLamp find me books that are different than a certain book, if I want to?
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Yes. The advantage of having a great deal of data about a book is that you can use that data to match any criteria you like. This means you could select a book and have the system find you an anti-match. One of the features that is planned is what we internally call, "Press my limits." The idea is that, after the system has determined what your preferred range is, it can go to the edge of that range and select a new title. The goal is to find you a new book that you probably wouldn't read on your own, but is not so far outside your preference that you'll never make it through. Reward exploration. :) You can then adjust how far outside your preferred range you care to stray - mildly different, or total radical?
It's also important to keep in mind that staying within a single frame of writing style does not mean you will not encounter new ideas or stories. But if you like Michael Crichton as an author, finding other people writing different stories, but in a similar style can be valuable.
The Jurrassic Park graph used in the introduction video is a good example of using the same data to find different results. Jurrassic Park has a low action beginning, but then rises to a high level of action throughout the last 2/3rds of the book. For some people, they liked Jurassic Park because of that slow beginning. For others, they liked Jurassic Park despite of the slow beginning. Once you know where that transition point is in the book, you can use that information to help both types find new books to read.
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Is BookLamp going to lead to a dark world of computer controlled book reading/writing/judging? Could it lead to people writing less creative books and trying to write to a formula?
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The question is, by knowing all this information about a book and the book market, will people only read "safe" books and not explore new books? The other concern is that publishers will use the data to only publish books by the correct "formula" and cause stagnation in the publishing industry.
Instead of exploring this in the FAQ, I'm going to point you to the ongoing discussions about the impact of a Pandora.com for books in the forums here and here, among others. There are some long posts I've made on the subject. But I will say this here:
The exact same concern can and does exist with Pandora.com. Yet I've listened to, and then purchased, more music from artists I had never heard of because of Pandora.com than ever before. Pandora has expanded my horizons in terms of music, and introduced me to new performers, and I expect BookLamp will do the same for you in terms of books.
There's an argument to be made that the publishing industry is already facing stagnation, only instead of being tied to style, it's tied to an author's name, and a marketing campaign. Being "Stephen King" is far more valuable than "writing as well as Stephen King", for example, because marketing and other factors have made his books sell very well. Case and point - Stephen King wrote as Richard Bachman for years. As Richard Bachman, who wrote just as well as Stephen King, King didn't sell many books. When it came out that Bachman was King, the sales went through the roof.
It strikes me that being able to write well and sell more books because of that writing, not because your name is well promoted, is a step up in the current way of doing things. As it is, writing well is less important than an author's marketability, which leads to its own stagnation.
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How long will it take to get more books in the database? I want to start using this RIGHT NOW!
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This is a difficult question. If things go one way, it could be a matter of a month or so. If things go another way, it could be longer. We're actively working on this front.
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This seems great for teachers and librarians. Any plans?
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We get a fair amount of e-mail from teachers and librarians expressing their enthusiasm for the project, and asking when we think the system will be ready to help them recommend books to their students and patrons. Librarians tend to want the system to help them point their readers in the right direction, and teachers want it to help their kids find books to explore in the reading landscape.
If I get my way, one of the items on the list will be sub-sites specifically for these groups, such as teachers.booklamp.org. These sites might have different focus, tools for helping teachers find age-appropriate material based on past books read, or more full-featured, non-saving accounts that allow library patrons to use the site's deeper matching formulas without an account.
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Does 1984 really match the U.S. Patriot Act?
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No, that is an easter-egg. A bit of a joke on our part.
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What is People in the Dark by Aaron Stanton?
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People in the Dark by Aaron Stanton is an unpublished, completed Science Fiction book that I wrote, influenced by authors like Michael Crichton. I included it in the system because I was deeply curious to see how my own work compared against others in the database. And no, People in the Dark has never been submitted to a publisher, and as of the time of this writing has only been read by one person. I do have intentions to attempt to publish it once it's finished being edited, but that's taken a bit of a back seat to getting BookLamp off the ground. Maybe by the time this project is done I'll know enough people in the publishing industry that I'll know who to talk to when I get to that point. :)
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I have a great idea I want to run by you! How do I contact you?
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I'm always open to getting e-mails, though I get a fair amount of them now days and so it can take me a while to respond. Anyone familiar with the CanGoogleHearMe story knows that much of our original motivation for this project came from the thousands of good luck e-mails that people have sent to us.
Feel free to send me an e-mail at aaron@cangooglehearme.com, either because you have something interesting to throw our way, or you just want to wish us luck. Either way, we like hearing from you.
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This FAQ is still in progress... more to come...
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