The Future Is Here: Twitter = Eye Popping Real Time Polling

Caught another fabulous article at the Huffpost, this one opening more horizons than I can imagine.  A game changer that will forever alter the way polls are conducted and social information is gathered.

An outfit called SGI has sicked their super-computer on Twitter tweets to determine the mood, or tone, of Twitter using populations at any given moment.  They have produced a series of videos and maps that illustrate people's emotions, angry/happy, Romney/Obama, that is eye opening in both its visualizations and in its possibilities.  Of course, these charts and videos only represent 10% of the Twitter using population, but for those populations it is dead on and portends target marketing the likes of which we have never before seen.

U.S. sentiment from live Twitter feed on the date and time listed.  Red equals negative sentiment, blue positive.  Don't know what was going on at 10:43 AM on the 15th but this was the mood of the country at that time.  I think I was in the loo.

Now here is some useful information.  If you like beer, you know where to live.  Although, my area of Baja Georgia is bright red and there seems to be no shortage of drunks around here.  I guess we drink whiskey.

Check out this video of election night.  Really cool but also frightening considering how this type of trending can reach so much of the population before they have even voted.  There is no more powerful motivator to those undecided than the "bandwagon" effect.  It's been used by marketers and promoters for years.  On the other hand, it could also be a motivator for the opposition to get out and vote if they see the other side winning.  Either way,  I see this as an enormous threat to free, uninfluenced elections and something that needs to be addressed.  But the technology behind it is fascinating and worth a look-see.