Saturday, October 12, 2013

Introducing the Industry Graph - Extending Searching & Discovery Intelligence

Useful context is the latest frontier of Internet information. Google is pioneering the next stage of Internet search with its Knowledge Graph, which aims to understand the searcher’s intent and the contextual meaning of his/her search terms[1].  Facebook has been developing its Social Graph for people to people context by learning the personal relationships of its users[2].  Yahoo has been developing the Interest Graph which builds a context of personal identity that can be used as indicators of such things as what people might want to do or buy, where they might want to go, or who they might want to meet, vote for or follow.[3]




Now the Industry Graph, created by Industry Building Blocks (IBB) and News Patterns, is another source of useful decision making context.  The Industry Graph is being developed to serve competitive strategy and financial decision making.  The Industry Graph first creates useful competitive context around the companies competing in 15,000 granular industries[4].  This high degree of granularity enables useful intra-industry and inter-industry financial and strategy analyses.  The Industry Graph creates a real time situational awareness by prioritizing news that might indicate interesting industry trends or changes within the industry composition and broader inter-industry ecosystem.  This Industry Graph context is the foundation for superior searching, discovery, competitive analysis, situational awareness, market anticipations, financial tracking and investing strategies.

Industry Graph Discovery starts with granular industry definitions.  In the above illustration, industry i2 is the relevant industry from which granular and contextual searching and discovery is required.  Real time news and social media are continuously gathered relative to a specific company (red check marks) and the specific contextual lens of industry 2 with associated competitors, suppliers, buyers, substitutes and new entrants (blue check marks).  Competitive pattern seeking algorithms discover the priority articles and trends that might deserve attention within and between industry forces.

Key Advantages of Industry Graph Search and Discovery
·         Granular Industry Graph context enables superior searching, discovery, competitive analysis and financial tracking.
·         Searcher does not need to define the details of his/her competitive environment: competitors, suppliers, buyers, new entrants and substitute relationships.
·         Search engines and news feed services can enable superior business and financial search results for users without their laborious and tedious effort of refining or maintaining search queries.
·         Discovery enables a real-time process for prioritized situational news and social media awareness.
·         Once personalized discovery is activated, decision makers do not need to dedicate daily effort to searching or scanning for relevant news, trends and social media information, or waiting for others to pass information along.



[2] Wikipedia, Social Graph, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_graph, October, 9, 2013
[3] Wikipedia, Interest Graph, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest_Graph, October 9, 2013
[4] Similar contextual build-out efforts are also under way for political campaigns.


 

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Syrian Storm Gives President Obama a 100X Improvement in Politically Favorable News Trends

News Patterns discovers patterns and trends among overwhelming flows of news and social media. 

In my previous post, I wrote that ... "Arab Spring (which includes Syria) is now approaching President Obama, not for uncontrolled events in Egypt, but for US controlled events surrounding Syria.  The US decision to prepare for a military strike against Syria became the major news storm over the past week."

Over the two weeks between August 25 and September 8, 2013, President Obama has seen nearly a 100X (100 times) improvement in news trends that politically favor him and his administration.  In coarse political terms, US citizenry and news reporting have drastically moved their attention away from challenges to President Obama, to topics and issues potentially more advantageous to Obama.  President Obama is now essentially controlling US political discourse.  And when he controls it, his adversaries have little public attention to their political interests.

My use of the term "politically favor" is not based on the sentiment of articles.  Rather, our measurements of news trends are based on the relevancy of political issues and politicians.  In our calculations, the most relevant politicians and issues are the most interconnected with other politicians and issues.  These interconnections pull the most relevant news topics to the center of our radars.  Less relevant politicians and topics are pushed to the periphery.  Therefore, when you look at the following US Politics radar, you will see that US Congress and President Obama are at the radar center.



Radar Notes: The most relevant topics win the center of our radar spaces, and are often the primary contestants in markets or politics.  At this time, US Congress and President Obama are at the center of the US Politics radar.  Positions and movements define what a collective news intelligence is telling us in real-time, often correlating closely to polling results.  Topics that are near each other are highly connected or related to each other in the news.  The strength of connections among news topics is more important than the simple counting of article instances.
Live animated radar can be seen here: US Politics Animated News Discovery Radar.

 

President Obama Completely Changed Political News Trends -
between August 25 and September 8, 2013
  1. In August, President Obama was faced with these politically challenging issues: Healthcare implementations, Spending (aka the debt limit), Arab Spring (as in near Egyptian civil war and Benghazi consulate attack), Jobs, Economy, IRS scandal, Immigration Reform, and NSA Spying. 
  2. Nerve gas attacks in Syria gave President Obama an opportunity to refocus US political news attention.
  3. Elevation of Syria/Nerve Gas topic with threatened military action (Security topic) acutely refocused news trends (aka public attention) to a new version of Arab Spring (Syria, not Egypt or Benghazi) while stripping Security topic away from NSA spying issue.  In regard to the US Politics radar, the Arab Spring and Security topics catapulted toward Obama at the center of the radar.  Our news patterning algorithms calculated a 10X positive move for President Obama with the ascendancy of these two topics.
  4. With so much news and political energy being spent on Syria and Security, the politically challenging issues to President Obama greatly lost news relevancy and public attention.  In the above US Politics radar, see the relevancy decay of Healthcare, Spending, Immigration, Jobs, Economy, NSA Spying, and IRS targeting.  These topics are seen losing political relevancy in the US Politics radar as they drifted to the radar periphery over the past two weeks.  Our news patterning algorithms calculated a 10X positive realignment for President Obama with the decay of these topics.
  5. The net of the 10X increase due to Syrian initiatives, multiplied by a helpful 10X decay in challenging news topics gives President Obama a 100X improvement in current political news trends.
  6.  
 
Thousands of news journalists, bloggers and social media contributors will continually observe and report on these storms as they develop.  Our news patterning algorithms will capture the collective trends and display them as an early warning system. Daily updates to UP Politics and other News Radars can be found at this Twitter location John Dundas, News Patterns

 

Friday, August 30, 2013

Syrian Storm Significantly Changes US Political News to the Advantage of President Obama

News Patterns discovers patterns and trends among overwhelming flows of news and social media.  Presently, the US Politics radar is discovering patterns out of 120,000 monthly articles.

In a previous post, I anticipated that the topic of Arab Spring would be an uncontrolled disruptive storm that would approach the Obama topic in the US Politics News Radar.  At the time, I made that intelligence estimate based on the near civil war in Egypt. 

I was correct but for the wrong reason.  Arab Spring (which includes Syria) is now approaching President Obama, not for uncontrolled events in Egypt, but for US controlled events surrounding Syria.  The US decision to prepare for a military strike against Syria became the major news storm over the past week.  The following August 30th US Politics News Radar shows the Arab Spring storm, powered by events around Syria, impinging on the Obama topic at the center of the radar.


Radar Notes: The most relevant topics win the center of our radar spaces, and are often the primary contestants in markets or politics.  Positions and movements define what a collective news intelligence is telling us in real-time, often correlating closely to polling results.  Topics that are near each other are highly connected or related to each other in the news.  The strength of connections among news topics is more important than the simple counting of article instances.
Live animated radar can be seen here: US Politics Animated News Discovery Radar.
 

In addition to the redirection of news attention to the connection between Arab Spring and Obama, one can see that the Security topic has also become more connected to the Obama topic.  This move by Security is politically advantageous to the Obama Administration in that Security has now become less connected to the Spying (NSA) political debate.  Other political news pattern advantages for the Obama Administration include a dissipation of these topics: IRS-Scandal, Jobs, Economy, Spending, and Healthcare implementation.

 Here is the previous August 18, 2013 US Politics News Radar as a reference.
 
 
Thousands of news journalists, bloggers and social media contributors will continually observe and report on these storms as they develop.  Our news patterning algorithms will capture the collective trends and display them as an early warning system. Daily updates to UP Politics and other News Radars can be found at this Twitter location John Dundas, News Patterns

 

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Microsoft Surface Tablet Spikes Early in News Pattern Relevancy

News Patterns discovers patterns and trends among overwhelming flows of news and social media, as defined by thousands of independent news content creators.  The most relevant topics win the center of our radar spaces.  Less relevant topics occupy the periphery of the radar space.  Changing real-time news alters the positions and movements of the radar topics, often correlating with market share results.  Topics that are near each other can be highly connected or related to each other in the news.

In the following Tablet News Radar history, we can track the approximate path of the Microsoft Surface tablet over the past year.  The Surface was announced in the summer of 2012.  The Tablet Radar shows us that Surface started like most new products with low news pattern relevancy as compared with existing competitors and other market forces.   By October of 2012 when it was introduced for sale, the Surface reached its peak relevancy, nominally challenging market leaders Apple iPad and Android OS tablets at the center of the radar.



The live animated radar can be seen here: Tablet Animated News Discovery Radar.  Daily updates to UP Politics and other News Radars can be found at this Twitter location John Dundas, News Patterns
 
Nevertheless, in subsequent months past October of 2012, Surface news patterns exhibited a steady decline in relevancy.  Tablet Radar news relevancies appear to be correlating with recent market share data.  In their August 5, 2Q 2013 Worldwide Tablet Tracker, IDC  recently reported Android, iPad (Apple iOS) and Surface (Microsoft OS) tablet market shares were respectively 63%, 33% and 5% .

Surface can reverse its relevancy decline by becoming the tablet of choice of for Game, Multimedia or Business app users.  In the above radar illustration, one can see the high relevancy of these apps.  If a tablet becomes relevant to a large customer group, history shows us that news creators will be interested, and will document user experiences with articles that connect-the-dots among the players in a marketplace. 
 

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Hurricane Healthcare Brushes Past Obama and Takes Aim at the US Congress

News Patterns discovers patterns and trends among overwhelming flows of news and social media, as defined by thousands of independent news content creators.  The most relevant topics win the center of our radar spaces.  Positions and movements define what a collective news intelligence is telling us in real-time, often correlating closely to polling results.  Topics that are near each other are highly connected or related to each other in the news.

In the following August 20, 2013 snapshot, one can see President Obama and the US Congress are the central news topics at the US Politics News Radar center.  Over the past six weeks we can see that the Healthcare (aka Obamacare) topic has emerged from low relevancy to become a significant disruption to US federal leadership.  In fact, the Healthcare topic first brushed past President Obama and is now taking aim at the US Congress.  Thousands of local town hall meeting articles are giving energy and direction to the healthcare storm.


The live animated radar can be seen here: US Politics Animated News Discovery Radar.  Daily updates to UP Politics and other News Radars can be found at this Twitter location John Dundas, News Patterns

In spite of apparently missing the thrust of the Healthcare storm, President Obama and the White House should be preparing for the emerging Arab Spring storm that is being energized by civil strife in Egypt.
 

Sunday, August 18, 2013

News Patterns Forecast a Disruptive Arab Spring Storm for President Obama

News Patterns is the big picture of relevant news, trends and connections out of overwhelming flows of news and social media.  Presently, the US Politics radar is discovering patterns out of 130,000 monthly articles.

Since my last posting, the topic of Arab Spring has been gaining in relevancy in the US Politics radar.  Arab Spring encompasses topics like Syria, Benghazi and certainly the near civil war in Egypt.  As can be seen in the following radar snap-shot, the topic of Arab Spring has moved into a more potentially disruptive path since a month ago. 

The topic of Arab Spring now has a clear path toward a greater disruptive impact on President Obama since there are few intervening topics between it and the US President at this time.  In fact this disruptive pattern may intensify if journalists and bloggers increasingly connect President Obama with Egypt - a connection that has heretofore been relatively minimal.

 
 
Radar Notes: The most relevant topics win the center of our radar spaces, and are often the primary contestants in markets or politics.  Positions and movements define what a collective news intelligence is telling us in real-time, often correlating closely to polling results.  Topics that are near each other are highly connected or related to each other in the news.  The strength of connections among news topics is more important than the simple counting of article instances.
Live animated radar can be seen here: US Politics Animated News Discovery Radar.

Coincident with the brewing Arab Spring storm, these storms are also being tracked in the US Politics radar:
  • Healthcare (aka Obamacare)  - same intensity since last report on August 9, 2013
  • Economy - dissipated intensity
  • Spending (debt ceiling) - dissipated intensity
  • Jobs - same intensity
  • Arab Spring - growing intensity
  • Spying (NSA) - same intensity
  • Immigration (reform bills) - dissipated intensity
  • IRS - dissipated intensity
Thousands of news journalists, bloggers and social media contributors will continually observe and report on these storms as they develop.  Our news patterning algorithms will capture the collective trends and display them as an early warning system. Daily updates to UP Politics and other News Radars can be found at this Twitter location John Dundas, News Patterns

 

Friday, August 9, 2013

News Patterns Forecast a Disruptive Political Season for US Congress and President Obama

News Patterns discovers patterns and trends among overwhelming flows of news and social media.  The most relevant topics win the center of our radar spaces, and are often the primary contestants in markets or politics.  Positions and movements define what a collective news intelligence is telling us in real-time, often correlating closely to polling results.  Topics that are near each other are highly connected or related to each other in the news. 

In my last posting, I focused on the Healthcare Hurricane.  This posting positions Healthcare among other potential political storms.  Many storms are brewing.

Below is the August 9th, 2013 US Politics News Radar.  It is forecasting significant political hurricanes that are brewing in the relatively quiet, late summer news cycle.  As news events unfold, topics that are now peripheral, may grow in strength and start to converge on President Obama and the US Congress at the center of the US Politics radar.  Our animated versions of this radar will show the daily trackings of the political storms.  If storm events do converge on the radar center, then politicians will need to anticipate, plan and react.
 
 
Live animated radar can be seen here: US Politics Animated News Discovery Radar.

Political storms that we are now tracking include these in most expected occurrence order as tracked in US Politics News Radar:
  • Healthcare (aka Obamacare)
  • Economy
  • Spending (debt ceiling)
  • Jobs
  • Immigration (reform bills)
  • Spying (NSA)
  • Arab Spring (Egypt, Benghazi, Syria)
  • IRS
Thousands of news journalists, bloggers and social media contributors will continually observe and report on these storms as they develop.  Our news patterning algorithms will capture the collective trends and display them as an early warning system. Daily updates to UP Politics and other News Radars can be found at this Twitter location John Dundas, News Patterns

Multiple Hurricane warnings are now issued for President Obama and the US Congress.