Amazon Web Services:Fueling Innovation and Entrepreneurship

SOA Web Services Edge 2006Jeff BarrWeb Services EvangelistAmazon Web Servicesjbarr@amazon.com

Introduction & Background

Software development backgroundVeteran of several startupsVisual Studio team at Microsoft Almost 4 Years with AmazonAmazon Web Services Developer Relations Team

What Is Amazon?Online RetailerUS, UK, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, China

Technology ConsumerMulti-National Web SitesVast Data WarehousesWorld-Class Logistics

Technology ProviderAmazon AssociatesMarketplace SellersSoftware Developers

The Web Services Concept

The Programmable Web Site:Support for industry standards HTTP, XML, SOAP, XSLTRemote access to data and functionalityDecoupling of data and presentationCreation of a platform to attract software developersVehicle to unlock developer creativityMeans to leverage our technology investment

What Is Amazon Web Services? APIs that give developers programmatic access to Amazons data and technologyBuilding-block web servicesWeb-scale infrastructureE-commerce capabilityContent, data, and informationNew business modelsCustomer-created content

AWS Product FamilyAmazon Mechanical TurkArtificial Artificial IntelligencePaid Internet-scale workforce

AHP Amazon Historical PricingData warehouse access for product pricing

SQS Simple Queue ServiceIT building block

Alexa Top SitesTop sites by Alexa traffic rank

AWIS Alexa Web Information ServiceData warehouse access for web crawl data

AWSP Alexa Web Search PlatformRoll your own search engine

ECS E-Commerce ServiceDirect access to Amazons product catalog

Amazon S3 Simple Storage ServiceStorage for the Internet

AWS Business ModelsFree 1 call per second, send us trafficE-Commerce Service

Monthly FeeAmazon Historical Pricing

Usage / Resource BasedAmazon S3, Alexa Services, Simple Queue Service, Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon E-Commerce Service (ECS)Complete access to the Amazon product catalogRich data schemaMillions of productsShopping cart & checkoutWishlistsRevenue Model: Link to Amazon Associates program

Successful ECS Applicationstvmojo.comassociate-o-matic.com

Business Model: Click SharingInstall on ServerDevelopers Associate IDSite Operators Associate IDClick!10% to Developer90% to Site OperatorAssociates Commissions

Alexa Web Information ServiceAlexa Web Information ServiceAccess to 300 TB of Alexa crawl data10 billion web pages5 functions:CrawlSearchUrl InfoCategory Web Map

Alexa Web Search PlatformBuild your own search engine!

3 Steps:Specify pages to access within the 300TB archive.Write parallelizable application to process these pages.Publish results as XML feed or as web service.

Pricing everything costs $1:50 GB of data processing1 CPU Hour1 GB of data downloaded4000 web service requests

Amazon S3Simple storage serviceStorage for the internet - web service to read and write data

15 cents per Gigabyte-Month to store data

20 cents per Gigabyte to access data

Private and public storage

Scalable, reliable, cost-effective, and simple!

Amazon S3 Properties

Web-scalableScale to support unlimited number of applicationsUse scale to increase reliability

Reliable 99.99% availabilityManaged replicationSelf-repairingFastTake it for granted

Cost-effectivePay for what you use storage and bandwidthAmazon datacenters with industry-leading operating costsExpect hardware failures

SimpleBuilt for use in any applicationFocus on innovation, not figuring out storage

Amazon S3 ApplicationsS3 Explorerfilicio.usJungle DiskS3 Ajax WikiBackup Manager

Amazon S3 ApplicationsSmug Mug

Ookles

Chicago Crime

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Man Versus Machine

But Not Really

Amazon Mechanical TurkProvides Web Services API for computers to integrate human intelligence directly into their processing by making requests ofhumans

Put The Human In The Loopwhile (read (photo)) { ContainsHuman = CallMechanicalTurk(photo); if (ContainsHuman) { acceptPhoto(photo); } else { rejectPhoto(photo); } }

How It Workswww.mturk.comWorkersArtificial, Artificially Intelligent SoftwareRequester(Developer)Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs)Completed HITsWorker Qualifications

What This MeansFor Software DevelopersSolves problem of building applications that until now have not worked well without human intelligence

For BusinessesEfficiently, effectively and inexpensively complete millions of tasks that require human intelligencePreviously unimaginable business ideas are now feasible

For AnyoneMake money using the skills you already have whenever your schedule allows

Sample Mechanical Turk Business Casting Words

Podcast transcription service provider Transcribes audio into high-quality text Amazon Mechanical Turk Workers transcribe podcasts and index text within search engine Amazon S3Storing the podcasts and related files

Summary Of Our Offering8 powerful and unique web services

Commercial-use licenses

Reasonable licensing terms

160,000-member developer community

Bright future

Questions?

Thanks!Contact Info:Jeff BarrWeb Services Evangelistjbarr@amazon.comhttp://aws.typepad.com

This slide is a build now. Start by talking about the Amazon.com everyone knows. This is a great place to ask for a show of hands how many folks in the audience made a purchase in the last 12 months. Without fail you will see 90%of the audience raises their hands. Everyone then ooos and ahhhs.

The countries listed are the country specific websites we have like amazon.jp, amazon.ca, etc.

Next talk about us as a technology consumer and the facts thatwe run websites all over the worldhave one of the largest data warehouses in the worldhave world class logistics.

Fulfillment centers: 13 US/ 8 Intl

Finally, talk about Amazon as a technology provider!Our Associates program, our huge seller community, and our growing AWS developer community.

Reducing the barriers of entry to building web-friendly applications and businesses.

We have looked at the investment we have made in technology over the last 10 years and Amazon Web Services strategy is to see what parts of our technology is exposed to developers outside of Amazon.com That is the point of the Amazon Mechanical Turk web services API -- for computers to integrate "artificial, artificial intelligence" directly into their processing by making requests of humans. - Before we talk about what Mechanical Turk will do for software and the Web, lets talk about where it came from- In 1769, Hungarian nobleman Wolfgang von Kempelen astonished Europe by building a mechanical chess-playing automaton that defeated nearly every opponent it faced. A life-sized wooden mannequin, adorned with a fur-trimmed robe and a turban, Kempelens "Turk" was seated behind a cabinet and toured Europe confounding such brilliant challengers as Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte. To persuade skeptical audiences, Kempelen would slide open the cabinets doors to reveal the intricate set of gears, cogs and springs that powered his invention. He convinced them that he had built a machine that made decisions using artificial intelligence. What they did not know was the secret behind the Mechanical Turk: a human chess master cleverly concealed inside. That is the point of the Amazon Mechanical Turk web services API -- for computers to integrate "artificial, artificial intelligence" directly into their processing by making requests of humans. To the application, the transaction looks very much like any remote procedure call: the application sends the request, and the service returns the results. Behind the scenes, a network of humans fuels this artificial, artificial intelligence by coming to the web site, searching for and completing tasks, and receiving payment for their work.All software developers need to do is write normal code. This pseudo-code below illustrates how simple this can be.

(on slide) read (photo); photoContainsHuman = callMechanicalTurk(photo); if (photoContainsHuman) { acceptPhoto(photo); } else { rejectPhoto(photo); } Here is how it works:

Lets say you are a developer with an amazing new idea for a business that before now has not been feasible because of the resources necessary to access a network of humans.

In the context of AMT, we call you a Requester. You use the API to submit submit tasks that require human intelligence what we call HITs to the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site where a vast network of people what we call Workers come to make money by using the skills their innate, and still extremely valuable, common human sense. They complete these tasks and submit them for approval back to the Requester or the software they wrote. Once the HIT is verified as accurate, the system automatically pays the Workers.

Developers can program this entire process to happen automatically and be integrated into the processing of their software. What does this mean for developers?For software developers, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service solves the problem of building applications that until now have not worked well because they lack human intelligence. Humans are much more effective than computers at solving some types of problems, like finding specific objects in pictures, evaluating beauty, or translating text. The Amazon Mechanical Turk web service gives developers a programmable interface to a network of humans to solve these kinds of problems and incorporate this human intelligence into their applications.

For businesses and entrepreneurs who want tasks completed, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service solves the problem of getting work done in a cost-effective manner by people who have the skill to do the work. The service provides access to a vast network of human intelligence with the efficiencies and cost-effectiveness of computers. Oftentimes, the cost of establishing a network of skilled people to do the work outweighs the value of completing it. By turning the fixed costs into variable costs that scale with business needs, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web service eliminates this barrier and allows work to be completed that before was not economical.

For people who want to earn money in their spare time, the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site solves the problem of finding work that they can do wherever and whenever they want.Fast time to market enabled company to establish itself as a market leader. Inexpensive solution to transcribe audio files for customers. Have technology that they can scale quickly.

Also, have a podcast search engine, free service, returns accurate results of finding a word within the spoken words of a podcast