This is old skool data mining.
In the UK, the Guardian Newspaper put 700,000 documents of MPs’ expenses online for review. Rather than employing text analysis software, the Guardian is relying on humans to read, decipher, and flag suspicious spending for further review. As of 5 am (MT) 80% of the documents were reviewed.
Nothing like the possibility of salacious or euphemistic mis-classification of dubious expenses to fire up the inquisitive nature of the common man.
I can’t help but wonder what this type of forensic illumination this may bring to the democratic process. How would MPs or members of Congress spend and behave if they knew the public might scrutinize line by line every reported expense? Would there be more accountability or would this lead to more creative methods by lobbying firms to buy influence?
Perhaps both.
michaelsevilla Idea to Grab, Online Communities, Things to watch Add new tag, consumer behavior, patterns
Just finished an article on the Kellogg Insight web site discussing research findings on mavens, community, and influence.
Using key work semantic analysis on the community postings, the Kellogg researchers determined those knighted as “influencers” are able to disproportionately sway opinion vs. the average community member. And more often than not, influencers took positions on a product’s performance and whether or not to buy the product.
This could be a great tool for those in the financial services industry. More specifically for analyst who follow and analyze earnings of product based companies. By using an online community and deploying a systematic research focus, it may be theoretically possible to determine how well a new product might perform in the market place. And, if it is a highly visible product (from a company’s revenue generation perspective) the community’s response could be a leading indicator on the impact the company’s bottom line.
michaelsevilla Idea to Grab, Online Communities, Social Economics Business School, Insight, Online Communities
I love this picture, quite the juxtaposition of organic and inorganic designs and material.
The photo was taken in Hong Kong. The scaffolding is made out of bamboo which is tied together to build the superstructure used outside of the building under construction.
The Bamboo Borg
In some ways this makes me think of the interactions that online and social community software companies try to capture.
Some companies like Jive, Mzinga, and of course HiveLive (where I work), take the organic predisposition of humans to interconnect and bind. In turn, the software provides the structure and meta-framework that allows for the maximization of discovery and interactions, both human and information centric.
Of course I’m greatly biased as to which company does it the best, cough, HiveLive.
michaelsevilla Online Communities interactions, Online Communities, Social Platforms
Despite a crazy valuation based on eyeballs, Facebook has always struggled to monetize their user base on the growing social platform.
So how does the poster child for online communities decide to make a buck? Sell your profile data.
To their credit, Fb did try advertising, but too many of its users focused on friending rather than paying attention to Fb version of lame ass banner ads.
We’ll see how much intrusion the FB audience will handle. A decent amount of information is already available for Fb users. A key point will be to what degree market researchers methods intrude and ratchet up the creep factor. Then again, Facebook users aren’t exactly known for being, er, discrete.
michaelsevilla Online Communities facebook, Online Communities, Social Software
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