Narrative Science: Difference between revisions

Narrative Science was founded in 2010 in [[Evanston, Illinois|Evanston]], [[Illinois]], after starting at [[Northwestern University]] as an academic project in the Intelligent Information Laboratory.<ref name="infolabs">{{cite web|title=Stats Monkey|url=http://infolab.northwestern.edu/projects/stats-monkey/|website=Intelligent Information Laboratory|publisher=Northwestern University|accessdate=6 June 2014|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20101116152532/http://infolab.northwestern.edu/projects/stats-monkey/|archivedate=16 November 2010|df=}}</ref> The first prototype of the company technology went by the project name StatsMonkey and was developed in the laboratory by Kris Hammond, Larry Birnbaum, Nick Allen and John Templon.<ref name="infolabs" /> StatsMonkey automatically generated news stories on baseball game recaps from applicable baseball game data such as players, game score, and win probability.<ref>{{cite web|title=Program Creates Computer-Generated Sports Stories|url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122424166|website=NPR|publisher=NPR|accessdate=6 June 2014}}</ref> Narrative Science licensed StatsMonkey and the related intellectual property from Northwestern and began commercial operations in early 2010.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bachman|first1=Justin|title=Are Sportswriters Really Necessary?|url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_19/b4177037188386.htm|website=Business Week|publisher=Business Week|accessdate=6 June 2014}}</ref> Afterwards the company developed an Advanced Natural Language Generation (Advanced NLG) platform called Quill, which analyzes structured data and automatically generates Intelligent Narratives.<ref name=Datanami>{{cite web|last1=Woodie|first1=Alex|title=Your Big Data Will Read to you Now|url=http://www.datanami.com/2014/10/28/big-data-will-read-now|website=Datanami|publisher=Tabor Publications|accessdate=10 December 2014}}</ref> Narrative Science has several investors, including [[SAP SE|SAP]] and [[In-Q-Tel]], the investment arm of the Central Intelligence Agency.<ref name=tow1 /> In 2014, the Chicago company raised another $10 million in equity financing, led by customer USAA, for a total of $32 million raised since the company’s inception.<ref name=crains />

Competing companies in the Narrative Language Generation industry include [[Automated Insights]],<ref name="tow1">{{cite web|last1=Diakopoulos|first1=Nicholas|title=Automated Stories: Using Algorithms to Craft News Content|url=http://towcenter.org/blog/automated-stories-using-algorithms-to-craft-news-content/|website=Tow Center for Digital Journalism|publisher=Columbia Journalism School|accessdate=6 June 2014}}</ref> a firm based in Durham, North Carolina,<ref name="crains">{{cite web|last1=Pletz|first1=John|title=Narrative Science gets $11.5 million to write next chapter|url=http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130910/BLOGS11/130919987/narrative-science-gets-11-5-million-to-write-next-chapter|website=Crain's Chicago Business|publisher=Crain's|accessdate=6 June 2014}}</ref> and [[Yseop]], Inc, a global enterprise company with offices in New York, London and Paris.<ref name="crains" /> Other similar companies in the area of natural language generation include [[Arria NLG]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Admission to Aim|url=https://www.arria.com/investorrelations/pdfs/Arria_Admission_Document.pdf|website=Arria|publisher=Arria|accessdate=6 June 2014|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714121821/https://www.arria.com/investorrelations/pdfs/Arria_Admission_Document.pdf|archivedate=14 July 2014|df=}}</ref> Smartologic, and Linguastat.