If you're happy and you know it …
so might they. In time, they may
even know what you'll do next.
T
TECHNOLOGY
CAN
THESE
TWO MEN
PREDICT
THE
FUTURE?
34 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015 www.vanguardcanada.com
A
lbert Einstein once said that information is not knowl-
edge. That doesn't seem lost on anybody as I sit and
stare at one of the most interesting (and powerful) so-
cial media analytics projects in the country.
I'm in an unassuming building on the campus of the National
Research Council, imaginatively named M-50. Richard, the pho-
tographer, arrived at the same time, slipping in next to me in the
parking lot. Both of us found the building by chance, driving aim-
lessly around the sprawling complex's circuitous roads because I
forgot to download the map I'd received earlier.
We entered the building early, striding though double glass
doors, and waited around the bright, roomy lobby after check-
ing in with the Commissionaire. An old, plush recliner stood
out amongst some pristine looking office furniture carried into
place around the same time Sarah McLachlan released the single,
"Building a Mystery."
A few minutes later, Richard and I met our guides and were es-
corted down a long white corridor to a large, non-descript room
with a collection of brown laminate tables in the middle and a
screen at one end.
Funny, I thought to myself. You'd think the brightest minds in
Canada, working on some of the most technologically advanced
projects in the world, would have facilities on par with Tony Stark
or Professor X (for you comic book fans). But as mere mortals
without fictional Hollywood budgets, they make do with Power-
Point and whiteboards like the rest of us.
Research Ocer Pierre
Isabelle explains how the
NRC's analytics system
works by getting you to
imagine social media
information from Twitter,
Facebook, news feeds,
and blogs flowing through
massive pipes.
Photo: Richard Lawrence
Program Lead
Andrew Scheidl says
that although the
analytics system can
provide mountains
of information,
an analyst is still
required to make
sense of the data.
