Thinking Analytically » The Numerati http://thinkinganalytically.com Analytics from A to Z Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:15:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Mining the Sentimental Journey http://thinkinganalytically.com/2009/08/mining-the-sentimental-journey/ http://thinkinganalytically.com/2009/08/mining-the-sentimental-journey/#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:07:26 +0000 John http://thinkinganalytically.com/?p=143 Analytical Thinkers typically are searching for the truth and the truth often implies hard, cold facts. The NY Times article Mining the Web for Feelings, Not Facts might seem hypocritical but speaking from experience, “there’s gold in that ther’ text.” In the mid ’80s I managed a group of employee relations analysts that mined mountains of text in an attempt to quantify employee morale for a 10,000 person company.  Out of this work came “ERATS” or the Employee Relations Attitude Tracking System.  (We were really tracking morale but couldn’t come up with a good acronym with that pesky “M”. Sentiment analysis is exactly what we were trying to do but completely by hand.

An emerging field known as sentiment analysis is taking shape around one of the computer world’s unexplored frontiers: translating the vagaries of human emotion into hard data.

Two recently devoured books on my shelf explore the web-analytics from a few angles.  If you haven’t already, check out:

Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters

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I was first on the list at the local library for the new book The Numerati so I decided to take it on a business trip last week. I started reading on my first flight and by the time I reached my layover airport, I decided to buy the book at an airport bookstore. Of course, I paid full price but at least I could start writing in the margins!

I’ve started a mind map of some of the key concepts. It is interactive in the frame above or click on the map to collaborate and add your own information at Mind Meister. Just create a free account. Or, for less than $50 you can create a premium account which will allow you to create an unlimited amount of shared maps. This seems like a neat opportunity to try a relatively new form of collaboration. Tell me what you think in the comments.

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