Marc Davis

Marc Davis invents mobile, social, media, and personal data technologies that connect people, the web, and the world. With a twenty year career of technology research and development spanning the MIT Media Lab, Interval Research, UC Berkeley, Yahoo!, Invention Arts, and Microsoft, he has done pioneering work in context-aware computing, computer vision, mobile media metadata, social media, mobile and social advertising, and personal data technologies and applications. He has transformed his ideas into over 200 patent applications, as well as numerous research prototypes, products, and publications. Marc Davis is a Partner Architect at Microsoft working on the vision and technology strategy for Microsoft’s Online Services Division.

Before Microsoft, Marc Davis was Chief Scientist at Invention Arts, where he focused on new approaches to how people can better control, share, and benefit from their personal data. Before Invention Arts, Marc Davis was Chief Scientist and Vice President of Early Stage Products (ESP) for Yahoo! Mobile, where he worked on innovative products and platforms such as oneConnect, Social Pulse, the Yahoo! Open Strategy (Y!OS), and the vision demo for the future of Yahoo! shown at CES 2008. Marc Davis was also the Founding Director of Yahoo! Research Berkeley, where he and his teams developed ZoneTag and Zurfer (context-aware mobile photo upload, tagging, and browsing software), and TagMaps (a collective map of human attention created by analyzing millions of geocoded Flickr photos). Marc Davis served as an Assistant Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information where he directed Garage Cinema Research.

Marc Davis gives talks at leading conferences such as SXSW, Web 2.0 Expo, Telco 2.0, and Mobile 2.0, and his ideas and work have been featured in publications such as the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, BBC News, GigaOm, O'Reilly Radar, AllThingsD, SearchEngineLand, and ReadWriteWeb.

• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Study Scholarship

  German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
  • June 1984

  Highly qualified graduating seniors (fourth or final year of undergraduate students in Canada) or those who have received an undergraduate degree of all disciplines may apply for the DAAD Study Scholarship for a year of independent study or a full master's degree program at a German university (https://www.daad.org/gradstudy2).

• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Study Scholarship

  German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
  • June 1985

  Study Scholarships provide highly qualified individuals with an opportunity to do independent study in Germany or to complete a full Master's degree program at a German university (https://www.daad.org/gradstudy).

• English

  (Native or bilingual proficiency)

• German

  (Full professional proficiency)

• Rethinking Personal Data

  • March 2010 to Present
  Team Members: Marc Davis, Justin Rico Oyola, Alan Marcus, , Jennifer Binder-Le Pape, Carl Kalapesi, Scott David, John Henry Clippinger, Michele Luzi, Simon Torrance, Alex `Sandy' Pentland

  Rethinking Personal Data project, a multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at understanding the challenges, opportunities, and collaborative actions required to enable the use of personal metadata for new economic and social value.

1. Invention
2. Research
3. Web 2.0
4. Social Media
5. New Media
6. User Experience
7. Social Networking
8. Product Strategy
9. Information Architecture
10. Search
11. Patents
12. Mobile Devices
13. Product Management
14. Visionary Thinking
15. Political Economy
16. Personal Data Protection
17. Human Rights
18. Digital Media
19. Social Media Marketing
20. Management
21. Privacy Issues
22. Start-ups
23. Human Computer Interaction
24. Big Data
25. Data Privacy
26. Semantic Web
27. Knowledge Representation
28. Philosophy
29. Metadata
30. Ubiquitous Computing
31. Public Speaking
32. Machine Learning
33. Mobile Applications
34. Personal Data
35. Mobile
36. Lecturing
37. Ideation
38. Thought Leadership
39. Strategy
40. Distributed Systems
41. Information Retrieval
42. Computer Science
43. Algorithms

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• System And Method For Synchronizing Data On A Network

  • United States Patent 8069142
  • Issued November 29, 2011

  The disclosure describes systems and methods for synchronizing data on a network based on temporal, spatial, social and logical data available to the network. The method includes receiving a first information object (IO) containing attributes for a first real-world entity (RWE), the first IO associated with a second RWE; identifying one or more second IOs, each second IO containing one or more attributes for the first RWE and each second IO independently associated with a third RWE; generating a different probability for each IO based on a comparison of contents of the first and second IOs and their associated RWEs; and replacing one or more of the attributes in at least one IO with at least one attribute from a different IO based on the probabilities for each IO.

• System And Method For Context Enhanced Mapping Within A User Interface

  • United States Patent 8108778
  • Issued January 31, 2012

  A system and method for Context Enhanced Mapping. A request is received from a user over a network for a map comprising an identification of a physical location, and at least one criteria. The physical location is mapped. Spatial, temporal, topical, and social data available to the network relating to the physical location and criteria is retrieved using a global index of data available to the network and prioritized for inclusion based upon the user and context of the request. The map of the physical location and at least some of the retrieved spatial, temporal, topical, and social data is displayed on a user interface.

• Systems And Methods Of Ranking Attention

  • United States Patent 7769740
  • Issued August 3, 2010

  The disclosure describes systems and methods of ranking user interest in physical entities based on the attention given to those entities as determined by an analysis of communications from devices over multiple communication channels. The attention ranking systems allow any “Who, What, When, Where” entity to be defined and ranked based, at least in part, on information obtained from communications between users and user proxy devices. An entity rank is generated for entity known to the system in which the entity rank is derived from the information in communications that are indicative of user actions related to the entity. The entity ranks are then used to modify the display of information or data associated with the entities. The system may also generate a personal rank for each entity based on the relation of the entity to a specified user.

• System And Method For Disambiguating Non-Unique Identifiers Using Information Obtained From Disparate Communication Channels

  • United States Patent 8166168
  • Issued April 24, 2012

  The disclosure describes systems and methods for disambiguating a non-unique identifiers of real world entities (RWEs) detected by a computing network by dynamically identifying relationships between RWEs known to the network. The relationships are determined based on social, spatial, temporal and logical information known about the RWEs based on the RWEs previous interactions with the network. These relationships are then used to generate a probability for each RWE that the non-unique identifier identifies that RWE. Based on the probabilities an RWE is selected and the proper network identifier may be used in place of the non-unique identifier.

• Social Aspects Of Content Aggregation, Syndication, Sharing, And Updating

  • United States Patent 8032510
  • Issued October 4, 2011

  "Smart bookmarks" are described which facilitate aggregation, sharing, and dynamic access to the content in which a particular user has an interest.

• Dynamic Representation Of Group Activity Through Reactive Personas

  • United States Patent 7895049
  • Issued February 22, 2011

  Embodiments are directed towards managing an adaptive media object to dynamically represent a persona reflecting a group's (or individual's) online and/or offline activities and behaviors. The group selects the adaptive media object to represent their persona digitally. The group may indicate which activities, actions, and/or behaviors are to be used to adapt the persona, and may further specify at least one mapping of a selected activity, action, and/or behavior to a change in the configuration of the adaptive media object. In one embodiment, the various activities, actions, and/or behaviors may be input to a machine learning algorithm that dynamically determines the changes to the adaptive media object. The adaptive media object may serve as a single point of contact for the group or individual for communications. The adaptive media object configuration may also change based upon the client device used to access the adaptive media object.

• System And Method For URL Based Query For Retrieving Data Related To A Context

  • United States Patent 8032508
  • Issued October 4, 2011

  A system and method for URL based query for retrieving data related to a context. A request is received over a network from a user for data related to a context, wherein the request is a URL comprising a context query comprising at least one context criteria. The context criteria are parsed and translated and disambiguated. A network data query is formulated based on the context criteria so as to search, via the network, for user profile data, social network data, spatial data, temporal data and topical data that is available via the network and relates to the context query so as to identify at least one data object that relates to context criteria. Permissions relating to the identified data objects are checked and references to the data objects are transmitted over the network to the user.

• System And Method For Delivery Of Augmented Messages

  • United States Patent 7925708
  • Issued April 12, 2011

  The disclosure describes systems and methods delivering communications associated with delivery conditions in which the occurrence of the delivery condition is determined by monitoring information received from a plurality of sources via multiple communication channels. The message delivery systems allow messages to be delivered to any “Who, What, When, Where” from any “Who, What, When, Where” upon the detection of an occurrence of one or more “Who, What, When, Where” delivery conditions. A message (which may be any data object including text-based messages, audio-based message such as voicemail or other audio such as music or video-based prerecorded messages) is delivered in accordance with delivery conditions based on any available data, including topical, spatial, temporal, and/or social data. Furthermore, because the systems coordinate delivery of messages via multiple communication channels and through multiple devices, the communication channel for delivery of a message may be dynamically determined based on the delivery conditions.

• Open Framework For Integrating, Associating, And Interacting With Content Objects Including Automatic Feed Creation

  • United States Patent 8140566
  • Issued March 20, 2012

  Information regarding a mobile user's context including but not limited to current mobile activity, social relations and associations history, and past mobile, search and browsing history is identified and converted to metadata. Metadata is also applied to content sources delivering content to a search engine or personalized content engine. The metadata is used in part to determine the relative display of content objects delivered to the mobile user as search results or a personalized aggregated information resource, e.g., home page. The user may select information, from one or more entities or search results or as presented to the user in other contexts, to be automatically delivered to the user's home page as a content feed including multiple content objects or content feeds associated with an entity. Information regarding mobile user activity is compiled and used to permit publishers and advertisers to identify target candidates to receive advertisements or marketing materials.

• Context-Based Community-Driven Suggestions For Media Annotation

  • United States Patent 7739304
  • Issued June 15, 2010

  Disclosed are apparatus and methods for facilitating annotation of media objects by a user. Mechanisms present a user with an easily usable set of annotation suggestions that are most likely to be relevant to the particular user and/or media context. In general, existing annotations are analyzed to determine a set of suggested annotations. Annotation suggestions for a particular user are based on an analysis of the relevance, to the particular user, of existing annotations of one or more media objects so that the most likely relevant annotations are presented as suggested annotations. In particular embodiments, this analysis depends on whether the existing annotations were created and/or selected by the particular user, a member of the particular user's social network, or members of the general public.

• Visualizing Location-Based Datasets Using “TagMaps”

  • United States Patent 7769745
  • Issued August 3, 2010

  The visualization of datasets by associating text (keywords) with location and optionally with time is provided. This visualization may help the user better understand and analyze the contents of the dataset. The visualization takes as input a keyword and related parameters such as location, importance/relevance factors, time, visualization level, and keyword category, and displays the selected keywords on a map, at their associated location, with the size or other characteristic of the keyword varying according to its relevance.

• Bandwidth And Cost Management For Ad Hoc Networks

  • United States Patent 7792040
  • Issued September 7, 2010

  A system and method is described herein for managing bandwidth and cost in connection with a plurality of sensors in an ad hoc network. The system and method receives sensor data that is provided from a plurality of sensors and constructs an ad hoc network among the plurality of sensors based on the sensor data. The system and method also receives and analyzes bandwidth information from each sensor in a group of sensors in the ad hoc network. Based on the analysis, the system and method then modifies a manner in which at least one sensor in the group exchanges data, including sensor data and multimedia content.

• Time-Based Media Processing System

  • United States Patent 5969716
  • Issued October 19, 1999

  Existing media signals are processed to create new media content by defining content representations for the existing media and establishing functional dependencies between the representations. The content representations constitute different data types which determine the kinds of operations that can be performed and dependencies that can be established. Among the types of transformation that can be achieved are synchronization, substitution resequencing temporal compression and dilation, and the creation of parametric special effects. The content representations and their functional dependencies are combined to construct a functional dependency network which causes the desired transformations to occur on input media signals. The inputs to the functional dependency network are parametrically specified by media data types to construct a template that can be used to create adaptive media productions.

• Attention Manager For Occupying The Peripheral Attention Of A Person In The Vicinity Of A Display Device

  • United States Patent 6034652
  • Issued March 7, 2000

  An attention manager presents information to a person in the vicinity of a display device in a manner that engages at least the peripheral attention of the person. The information is embodied by one or more sets of content data (e.g., video or audio data). Each set of content data is formulated by a content provider and made available for use by content display systems. Upon appropriate activation, each content display system displays images corresponding to the sets of content data in accordance with predetermined scheduling information. The attention manager makes use of "unused capacity" of the display device and the person's attention, providing information to the person that the person might not otherwise expend adequate energy to obtain. The attention manager also affords an opportunity to content providers to disseminate their information to people that are interested in receiving such information, enabling the content providers to provide better directed information dissemination, as well as providing access to the previously unused attention capacity of those interested people.

• Bandwidth And Cost Management For Ad Hoc Networks

  • United States Patent 7792040
  • Issued September 27, 2010

  A system and method is described herein for managing bandwidth and cost in connection with a plurality of sensors in an ad hoc network. The system and method receives sensor data that is provided from a plurality of sensors and constructs an ad hoc network among the plurality of sensors based on the sensor data. The system and method also receives and analyzes bandwidth information from each sensor in a group of sensors in the ad hoc network. Based on the analysis, the system and method then modifies a manner in which at least one sensor in the group exchanges data, including sensor data and multimedia content.

• Comment Filters For Real-Time Multimedia Broadcast Sessions

  • United States Patent 7809773
  • Issued October 5, 2010

  Methods, apparatuses and systems directed to filtering comments presented to users in connection with multimedia content, such as video and audio content. In a particular implementation, there are two types of users of this system. A writer comments on sections of a real-time multimedia stream, while readers or viewers observe the discussion embodied by the comments that are displayed.

Websites:

• Marc Davis Web Site
• Marc Davis on Twitter
• Marc Davis Page on Facebook

Interests:

Invention, Social Media, Mobile Media, Media Metadata, Mobile, Personal Data, Semantic Web, Computational Media Production, Media Sharing and Reuse, Media Remixing, Multimedia Computing, Context-Aware and Mobile Computing, Mobile Monetization, Social Monetization, Social Media Advertising and Marketing, Social Media Monetization, User Data Management, Knowledge Representation, Human-Computer Interaction, Online Communications, Narrative Intelligence, New Media, Project-Based Learning, Sociotechnical Design Processes, Generative Conceptual Frameworks, Innovation