A World of Virtual Emotions

Explored in this Jonathan Harris speech is the computer scientist's commitment to building tools that enable other people to share their stories with other individuals. Harris begins his speech by arguing that members of society today define themselves by gaps -- age gaps, gender gaps, education gaps, wealth gaps, religious gaps, language gaps -- but despite this, everyone has this in common: the deep need to express themselves.

As more and more individuals turned to the Internet as means of self-expression, Harris took a keen interest in being able to track and analyze people's emotions. He created a computer program that evaluates human feelings based off of Internet technology and content -- everything from blogs to chat rooms. Through this program and others he has created, he hopes to demonstrate just how many feelings individuals of the world share today.