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NowPublic Unleashes Scan: Crowd Powered Media
Thanks to the popularity of microblogging and status sites like Twitter, Identi.ca, Pownce, and Plurk, we're being given to more information faster than ever before. The Pope's recent visit to New York prompted an incredible number of updates - as many as 800 tweets a minute. So how do you find important, relevant content amongst the constant flow of updates?
You find a great tool to do it for you, that's how.
NowPublic's Scan offers an incredible new way to look at what's happening right now by tapping in to data from the aforementioned sites, geocoding it, and analyzing it - all within mere moments of an event taking place.
Useful? Without a doubt. Cool? Absolutely. Revolutionary? The potential is certainly there for Scan to change the way people find and follow up-to-the-minute stories.
Len Brody, NowPublic's CEO, led me through a couple of topics to illustrate how Scan works. Take Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, for example. Scan provides the "engine velocity," which averages the number of pertinent posts per hour (Palin rates 109/hr). The five most posted links are displayed and - not too surprisingly - Exploration's listing of Palin rumors tops the rankings.
Scan knows more than who is talking about what. It also pinpoints the geographical origins of the updates, providing insight into where they are talking about it. Markers are displayed on a Google map, and you can click any marker to view the Tweet or update that originated from that point. The chart provides a timeline for viewing engine velocity over different time periods (24 or 48 hours, one week, and one month).Maybe you're trying to follow a story on the web, like Engadget's recent Nasa post. By extracting URLs from the updates it monitors, Scan provides users with a way to quickly find and visit web pages that are being mentioned in updates about a given topic.
A story breaks, one post goes live, and other people start talking about it. As links to the original increase, it climbs Scan's most posted list.
Brody feels that breaking news must be covered by a media "outlet" like microblogs, as the speed and ease of sharing information is unmatched. Take the happenings of September 4th at the Republican national Convention.
NowPublic member Mikasi phoned in a voicemail tip about the impending riot and police response, and within seconds the story had made it to the front page and Scan began monitoring the microblogs for updates. Traditional outlets didn't pick the story up until much later in the evening.
Currently, NowPublic's staff maintain the subjects being monitored, though they are planning to open the floodgates and allow users the power to follow anything they choose. Pick a buzzworthy topic - Google's recent launch of Chrome, for example - and Scan will aggregate, geolocate, and analyze updates for you in near real time.
Scan is an amazing showcase of what can be done with data from sites like Twitter, and I can't wait to see how it evolves.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sir Loin said 10:59AM on 9-12-2008
This is pretty cool and has some serious potential. Thanks for the write-up, going to spend some time watching things unfold on that site to get a better idea of how it works.
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