We don’t want you to know what everyone else knows. We want you to generate new knowledge.
We have created a metaphorical search engine. Our search algorithms generate results that assist people in the creation of new knowledge by returning disparate, but potentially metaphorically related information. These are the types of insights that are valuable for people working at the edges of their knowledge field. This is an immensely powerful creative tool for use by anyone who is looking to generate new ideas or see their problem or topic in a whole new light.
Yossarian is the main character of Joseph Heller’s novel “Catch-22.” Our work is highlighting the Catch-22 of current search and personalization algorithms, in that their use both simultaneously helps us through access to existing knowledge, and hurts us through the reinforcement of that same knowledge. In finding new and innovative search solutions to this problem, we declare that Yossarian Lives!
Daniel Foster-Smith, Co-Founder & CTO
Dan is our design and user experience lead at YossarianLives!. A gifted fellow of many talents, he works to keeps every part of our systems and products beautiful. His recent design work explores complex systems and complexity theory, social and societal nudge, chaos theory, randomness, and emergence. He has a background in data visualization, software development, and decision support strategies. Dan has worked as a seabed surveyor all over the world, and in data visualization and decision support & impact assessment at Envision Mapping Ltd. and as a Developer at Gavurin Ltd., designing and developing online economic applications, and tools for graphical representation of economic data. He holds an MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art, a BA with Honors in Graphic Design from Northumbria University, and has received a D&AD yellow pencil for his design work.
When away from YossarianLives! Dan enjoys kite surfing, cycling, the beach, and creative experiments of all sorts.
J. Paul Neeley, Co-Founder & CEO
J. Paul is our business and strategy lead at YossarianLives!, helping to ensure that everything at the company is heading in the right direction. He has a background in service & experience design, brand & design strategy, business design, and design research, and has worked professionally at Mayo Clinic’s Center for Innovation//SPARC as Designer/Researcher, at Teton Radiology and Medical Imaging Associates as Service Design Manager, and at Unilever in Consumer & Market Insights on leading CPG brands. J. Paul holds an MA in Design Interactions with Distinction from the Royal College of Art, and is a graduate of Northwestern University where he studied Communication Studies, Economics, and Cello Performance.
When not working on the future of knowledge creation, J. Paul can be found exploring the optimization of human happiness with Masamichi Souzou, or leading theory work on issues of complexity and computational irreducibility in business and design with New Kind of Design. He is also an active cellist and chamber musician, and loves putting laps in at the pool.
Katia Shutova, Co-Founder & Chief Research and Engineering Officer
Katia is our research and technical lead at YossarianLives!, and makes sure that our products are on the leading edge of the technological spaces we are working in. Katia has a background in computer science, linguistics and natural language processing (NLP). In her doctoral work, she designed and constructed the first statistical metaphor processing system which operates on unrestricted text. Katia holds a PhD and an MPhil from the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and an undergraduate degree in computational linguistics from St-Petersburg State University. Her work has been published at top NLP conferences and was marked by a number of prizes and awards, including a Google Anita Borg EMEA Scholarship 2010, NSF and ACL Walker Award 2009, Overseas Research Students Award 2007-2010 and many others. Katia’s wider background includes mathematics, art, literature and modeling human creativity across these disciplines, as well as data mining and information retrieval.
When away from computational creativity, Katia can be found learning new languages, writing stories, enjoying music, or exploring dance in the ballet studio.
Contact us.
For questions about the future of search and knowledge creation, press inquires, or investor information please contact us
at hello@yossarianlives.comWe’re hiring!
We are looking for talented individuals to join us in creating the future of search. Interested? Do drop us a line
at jobs@yossarianlives.com and along with a resume, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Tuesday 28 February 2012
Yossarian Lives!
