Human Brain Cloud shows you a random word and asks you to enter the first association that comes to mind. From this it is creating a ginormous web of word and phrase associations: 531,316 unique words and phrases connected through 5,704,465 associations, contributed by 357,762 people, all since mid July.

It's a fun diversion and as you can see the graphics are lovely--Kyle Gabler, the creator of the site, is a game designer. Shortly after launch Kyle reported a bunch of interesting statistics, but what most got my attention were his comments on the tenor of the contributions: "the number one thing that surprised me right off the bat with this experiment is that people are, in general, overwhelmingly funny, friendly, articulate, and willing to play along."

Sounds familiar. I think playing with words brings out the best in people.

Mil gracias to Steve for the link.

Labels: associations, human brain cloud, kyle gabler, steve, web of goo