Wolfram|Alpha declares Oct. 21 'Homework Day'

Because they can … and the date was open.

Marketing stunts don't get much more self-serving than declaring that any random date shall henceforth be known as Such-and-Such Day. But Wolfram|Alpha, the ultra-hyped "computational knowledge engine," must figure if it's good enough for the greeting card industry it's good enough for them.

So let's go ahead and mark our calendars.

From the company's press release:

Wolfram Alpha LLC today announced that it will inaugurate Wolfram|Alpha "Homework Day," a groundbreaking live interactive Web event, on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009. Led by noted scientist and Wolfram|Alpha creator Stephen Wolfram, this marathon webcast will bring together students, parents, and educators from across the country to tackle tough homework assignments and explore the richness that Wolfram|Alpha brings to K-12, college, and beyond.

At least they didn't call it "the first annual;" that really bugs me.

The goal of Homework Day is to broadly share how students and educators are using Wolfram|Alpha in K-12 and college education and to demonstrate the advantages of using this free site not only to solve specific problems, but to inspire students to probe subject matter further and promote deeper understanding of fundamental concepts.

Which I suppose makes me a cynic for suggesting that the goal of Wolfram|Alpha Homework Day might have something do with promoting Wolfram|Alpha.

Wolfram|Alpha has established a permanent Homework Day Web site(http://homeworkday.wolframalpha.com) where people can contribute ideas, lesson plans, screencasts, and videos before, during, and after the event. The site will be used to broadcast the live Oct. 21 webcast and will feature live chat, where participants are encouraged to submit questions that Stephen Wolfram and his team will analyze and solve throughout the webcast.

That Web site won't be live until Monday.

Now to be honest, I haven't spent a lot of time playing with Wolfram|Alpha, so I decided to try a few queries this afternoon before writing this snarky post. It really is quite amazing, although as both critics and the company have noted, it's still in its technological infancy.

I popped in "U.S. population," figuring that would be a homework type of topic, and the speed with which it brought back a tidy little package of facts, tidbits and graphics was impressive.

Then, as suggested on the Wolfram|Alpha homepage, I entered my birth date. Same thing: I did not know, for example, that I share a birthday with Chiang Kai-Shek and Dan Rather. However, I was a bit disappointed to see the contention that our special day comes with "no official holidays or major observances" attached.

Say what? Chiang Kai-Shek, Dan Rather and yours truly, you see, were all born on Oct. 31.

So here's my proposed assignment for Homework Day: Teach Wolfram|Alpha about Halloween.

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