While browsing the net to research an idea that has been at the back of my mind for quiet sometime (and gathering momentum recently working with a few friends), I stumbled upon a site which was pretty much already doing what I was hoping to do.
Sentiment analysis using text/data mining is already hot - there are sites that scan twitter messages and gather sentiments. See this one where I put the search term 'Obama' - you can change the term to anything else - say 'economy' or 'unemployment' etc and the bars on the left side will indicate the current sentiment.
http://twendz.waggeneredstrom.com/default.aspx?q=obama
I stumbled upon this while reading about the election results in India, and there are sites that have used Twitter Sentiment analysis to capture some important information.
For example look here :
Now, what we do will have to be different and unique, these folks have already executing and have gone commercial.
However, if you read this guy's blog and the comments under, you will see that this whole concept is still in it's infancy and there are potential for large variances -
GapMinder
I was crawling the web for some online tools/sites that provide some reliable statistics on varied topics and came across this website.
I loved the manner in which the data is presented and also the topics that were considered to show a graphical representation of facts
It is truly "Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view."
More here
I loved the manner in which the data is presented and also the topics that were considered to show a graphical representation of facts
It is truly "Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view."
More here
Googles April Fool pranks
Gmail AutopilotTM by CADIE
The easiest email could possibly be.
As more and more everyday communication takes place over email, lots of people have complained about how hard it is to read and respond to every message. This is because they actually read and respond to all their messages.
Sample Autopilot responses
Respond to business proposals
Manage relationships
Match your personal style
FAQ
How does Gmail mirror my communication style?
The more Gmail messages Autopilot can sample, the better. With fewer than 100 messages, there may not be enough data to calibrate Autopilot effectively. You can adjust tone, typo propensity, and preferred punctuation from the Autopilot tab under Settings.
You may want to log in every week or so to ensure Autopilot is calibrated optimally.
Does Autopilot work for Gmail chat too?
Yes. Chat was actually simpler to build, given the natural language headway made by Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA. While many claim ELIZA oft times passed the Turing test, Gmail Autopilot passes with 99.9% accuracy due to the inclusion of human-like qualities such as compassion and wisdom and CADIE's related ability to calibrate to match your chat style.
What happens if a sender and recipient both have Autopilot on?
Two Gmail accounts can happily converse with each other for up to three messages each. Beyond that, our experiments have shown a significant decline in the quality ranking of Autopilot's responses and further messages may commit you to dinner parties or baby namings in which you have no interest.
The easiest email could possibly be.
As more and more everyday communication takes place over email, lots of people have complained about how hard it is to read and respond to every message. This is because they actually read and respond to all their messages.
Sample Autopilot responses
Respond to business proposals
Manage relationships
Match your personal style
FAQ
How does Gmail mirror my communication style?
The more Gmail messages Autopilot can sample, the better. With fewer than 100 messages, there may not be enough data to calibrate Autopilot effectively. You can adjust tone, typo propensity, and preferred punctuation from the Autopilot tab under Settings.
You may want to log in every week or so to ensure Autopilot is calibrated optimally.
Does Autopilot work for Gmail chat too?
Yes. Chat was actually simpler to build, given the natural language headway made by Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA. While many claim ELIZA oft times passed the Turing test, Gmail Autopilot passes with 99.9% accuracy due to the inclusion of human-like qualities such as compassion and wisdom and CADIE's related ability to calibrate to match your chat style.
What happens if a sender and recipient both have Autopilot on?
Two Gmail accounts can happily converse with each other for up to three messages each. Beyond that, our experiments have shown a significant decline in the quality ranking of Autopilot's responses and further messages may commit you to dinner parties or baby namings in which you have no interest.
Is Twitter the Next Monster?
Posted by: Rachael King on March 12
Plenty of job seekers spend hours combing through listings on Monster or CareerBuilder but experts say that’s not necessarily the most effective way to hunt for a job. It turns out that only 12.3% of hires of candidates from outside the company come from those kinds of job boards, according to a February report about the hiring practices of large companies by consulting firm CareerXroads. In fact, the report says that Monster and CareerBuilder account for half the job board hires but both are losing ground to social networks and other niche sites.
Increasingly, both job seekers and companies are turning to social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and even Twitter to find and fill jobs. That may be due to the fact that referrals from both employees and corporate alumni make up 27.3% of all external hires, according to CareerXroads. In fact, the report suggests that referrals could be the best way for outsiders to land a job at a company. Today, software developer Kevin Smith wrote a blog post about how he used Twitter to find a job at a company called Gnoso. Smith discovered Gnoso through one of his Twitter acquaintances who ultimately helped shepherd Smith’s resume to the right person.
The viral nature of Twitter means that one message can be re-tweeted and seen by thousands of people. One marketing firm experienced that viral effect after posting a job listing on Twitter. “Within 15 hours, this tweet went from a few thousand to 15,000 people,” says Divesh Sisodraker, founder of a company called TheJobMagnet which creates recruiting tools for social networking sites. Today Sisodraker’s company launched tweetCruit a software service which helps companies track the viral nature of tweets and how many people clicked through to the job ads. The tool can also help companies do pre-screening and filtering of job candidates.
While Twitter may be a great tool for spreading the word about a job, it can be unwieldy for job applicants. For example, job seekers interested in working at AT&T can follow @attjobs on Twitter. There are plenty of postings but they’re for a range of jobs such as sales consultants and technicians in a range of places from Waco, Texas, to San Diego. There’s really no way to filter jobs based on position or location. These kinds of issues leave some wondering if Twitter will ever become a mainstream tool for job searches or recruiting.
What do you think?
Plenty of job seekers spend hours combing through listings on Monster or CareerBuilder but experts say that’s not necessarily the most effective way to hunt for a job. It turns out that only 12.3% of hires of candidates from outside the company come from those kinds of job boards, according to a February report about the hiring practices of large companies by consulting firm CareerXroads. In fact, the report says that Monster and CareerBuilder account for half the job board hires but both are losing ground to social networks and other niche sites.
Increasingly, both job seekers and companies are turning to social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and even Twitter to find and fill jobs. That may be due to the fact that referrals from both employees and corporate alumni make up 27.3% of all external hires, according to CareerXroads. In fact, the report suggests that referrals could be the best way for outsiders to land a job at a company. Today, software developer Kevin Smith wrote a blog post about how he used Twitter to find a job at a company called Gnoso. Smith discovered Gnoso through one of his Twitter acquaintances who ultimately helped shepherd Smith’s resume to the right person.
The viral nature of Twitter means that one message can be re-tweeted and seen by thousands of people. One marketing firm experienced that viral effect after posting a job listing on Twitter. “Within 15 hours, this tweet went from a few thousand to 15,000 people,” says Divesh Sisodraker, founder of a company called TheJobMagnet which creates recruiting tools for social networking sites. Today Sisodraker’s company launched tweetCruit a software service which helps companies track the viral nature of tweets and how many people clicked through to the job ads. The tool can also help companies do pre-screening and filtering of job candidates.
While Twitter may be a great tool for spreading the word about a job, it can be unwieldy for job applicants. For example, job seekers interested in working at AT&T can follow @attjobs on Twitter. There are plenty of postings but they’re for a range of jobs such as sales consultants and technicians in a range of places from Waco, Texas, to San Diego. There’s really no way to filter jobs based on position or location. These kinds of issues leave some wondering if Twitter will ever become a mainstream tool for job searches or recruiting.
What do you think?
Salesforce.com
Force.com Success Stories
Force.com has been so successful because it's the fastest platform for building business apps. Unlike a stack of disparate hardware and software products, Force.com unifies the development and deployment model from the database to the device. You easily assemble applications with clicks, components and code then instantly deploy them to salesforce.com’s trusted global infrastructure.
More info here
Force.com has been so successful because it's the fastest platform for building business apps. Unlike a stack of disparate hardware and software products, Force.com unifies the development and deployment model from the database to the device. You easily assemble applications with clicks, components and code then instantly deploy them to salesforce.com’s trusted global infrastructure.
More info here
Fox vs. The HedgeHog
It's the classic "Fox" vs. the "Hedge Hog" that Jim Collins speaks about in Good to Great. Foxes never focus on one idea too long. They run from one new idea to the next, while the hedge hog just keeps focused on the task at hand. The hedge hog does what hedge hogs do, and they do it consistently over time. Which is why they're so much more successful than a fox.
More info here
More info here
ProPublica Puts Spotlight on Tracking TARP Money
The MediaShift Innovation Spotlight looks in-depth at one great mash-up, database, mapping project or multimedia story that combines technology and journalism in useful ways. These projects can be at major newspaper or broadcast sites, or independent news sites or blogs.
ProPublica's Show Me the TARP Money is a simple map and chart reflecting the recipients of money provided through TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), a federal program that authorizes the U.S. government to buy assets from struggling financial institutions in an effort to remedy the subprime mortgage crisis. The site shows institutions that have been approved for assistance and keeps a running total of the number of institutions, the amount committed, and the amount invested so far. There is an RSS feed and a widget for the site as well.
When the non-profit site ProPublica put this site together, no one else, including the government, was publicly tracking this information.
More info here
ProPublica's Show Me the TARP Money is a simple map and chart reflecting the recipients of money provided through TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), a federal program that authorizes the U.S. government to buy assets from struggling financial institutions in an effort to remedy the subprime mortgage crisis. The site shows institutions that have been approved for assistance and keeps a running total of the number of institutions, the amount committed, and the amount invested so far. There is an RSS feed and a widget for the site as well.
When the non-profit site ProPublica put this site together, no one else, including the government, was publicly tracking this information.
More info here
