| AMANDA
LANNERT ’94, PRESIDENT OF JELLYVISION, IMPROVES COMMUNICATION
BETWEEN COMPUTERS AND USERS
Ever feel that you and your computer
just aren’t communicating with each other? A company headed
by Amanda Lannert ’94 wants to help.
Jellyvision (www.jellyvision.com),
which is responsible for the creation of the best-selling trivia
game “You Don’t Know Jack” and its many sequels,
attempts to change the way people and computers interact. The Chicago-based
company’s educational and entertainment products use software
that allows the machine, in a manner, to “talk” to the
user.
This kind of innovation is what drew current president
Lannert to Jellyvision in the first place; previously, she had worked
in package goods marketing at a large advertising agency. “I
was attracted to Jellyvision as a small, creative, fast-paced company,”
she says. “It had real brands—excellent, national brands—and
pioneering creative development.”
Lannert became president after only a year at Jellyvision,
and her responsibilities include new business development, operations,
human resources and marketing. “We try to do things in unexpected
ways, using old and new media,” she says. “Our mission
is to do nothing the straightforward, old-fashioned way.”
In keeping with this goal, Jellyvision employs many comedians, artists
and writers—“a funny group of people,” attests
Lannert. The Jellyvision Web site proves the truth of her claim:
Items on the history timeline include “Jellyvision saves cat
from burning building” and “Jellyvision gets butt surgically
reduced.”
One of the keys to the success of the company’s
products (which, besides “You Don’t Know Jack,”
include the home version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”
and “Outsmart,” where players try to outwit computer-generated
celebrities) is the Interactive Conversation Interface software
better known as iCi. Lannert describes iCi as emphasizing conversation
over typical Internet navigation; she compares it to her shopping
trip to buy washer-dryer units, when she read many placards detailing
each machine’s bells and whistles but could not find an actual
human being to explain the advantages of one unit versus another.
“There was lots of data,” she says, “but no customization.”
iCi offers customization in the form of virtual characters like
teachers, coaches and game show hosts who guide users through various
activities.
Lannert anticipates iCi being used anyplace a machine
may have data output, such as in a car or on a cell phone. “We’re
creating the most robust voice XML experience to date,” she
says, “which will allow people to talk to their computers
through their phones.”
The immediate future for Jellyvision holds a new online
version of “You Don’t Know Jack”—the first
new version of the game since 2001—that has Lannert’s
colleagues buzzing. “People are really invigorated,”
she says. “The questions are hilarious.” Jellyvision
is also producing a technological platform that allows other companies
to create interactive conversations on their own: “It’s
a more pervasive form of communication on broadband Web.”
Lannert finds it ironic that a former English major
at a small liberal arts college is leading a company that sits at
the forefront of technology. “But what we do is really about
communication and writing, the ability to empathize and intuit,”
she explains. “It’s very consistent with a liberal arts
education.”
— Brenna McBride
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