Quick Facts
Biography
Maximillian Laumeister is a software engineer and open source software programmer. He wrote the open source visualization app BitListen, originally known as Listen to Bitcoin, which Listen to Wikipedia is based on. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science: Game Design from University of California, Santa Cruz.
BitListen
BitListen is a web application that visualizes and sonifies Bitcoin transactions. Whenever a Bitcoin transaction takes place, the app produces a bubble which floats to the top of the screen, along with a chime from a celesta. Higher value transactions produce larger bubbles and lower pitched notes.
Laumeister wrote the initial version of BitListen over the course of a week, as an independent project outside of college coursework. According to Laumeister, the message of the project is to show that “there is beauty in the data around us, and that if we present data in the right way, it can be captivating”.
Wikimedia Foundation legal counsel Stephen LaPorte and developer Mahmoud Hashemi created the application Listen to Wikipedia, inspired by and based on BitListen, which has been used for trend spotting and prediction of Wikipedia edits. Listen to Wikipedia reuses the same instruments and chords from BitListen, with the addition of a clavichord.