Infodemiology, that’s easy for you to say!
Your life through the internet bares all and joined by the plethora of armchair critics, bloggers and tweeters, they all have something to say! So listen up my friend, because they know how you feel!
As we know all business and social aspects/mood/sentiments are prevalent on line and very much here to stay….and that’s getting analysts excited. The idea of tracking a social index has arrived.
Count what is countable, measure what is measurable. What is not measurable, make measurable. Galileo Galilei.
Wise words indeed Mr.Galileo and definitely wisdom to adopt. The prospect of tracking opinion and sentiment through micro blogs is now a science. There was talk of harnessing the ‘twitter effect’ but to no avail, however now with reported 98% accuracy that’s about to change. Researchers from Hewlet Packard Labs in California are in the process of creating a patent for their latest computer algorithm, which correctly predicted the box office success of newly released films in the cinema. Tracking millions of tweets, it correctly predetermined the success or failure of over 20 films.
Quantifying sentiment isn’t just about mood prediction, it can help us see where things are headed, with talk of stock market predictability on the horizon, the sky is the limit.
Potential infodemiology indicators and metrics include automatically aggregated and analyzed data on the prevalence and patterns of information on websites and social media……metrics on the “chatter” in discussion groups, blogs, micro blogs/tweets……..even activities on search engines. My only concern is how easy search engines can define, or rather refine my results; ultimately are they predicting the future or manufacturing it?!?!?
We are seeing more collaboration across frontiers, LinkedIn for scientists is a reality not a punchline, innovations and scientific growth could be exponential. The future may be here sooner than we think.
Social science may not be the new kid on the block but with the advent of social reporting, he’s growing up fast. Filling out surveys or even asking awkwardly ‘how are you’? will all be a thing of the past.
Prediction won’t be a shake of the dice.
