Slashdot Mirror
IBM Announces "Blog-Spotting" Software
notesdude writes to tell us InternetNews is reporting that IBM has announced new "Blog-Spotting" software that will allow the monitoring of blogs, wikis, news feeds, consumer review sites, newsgroups, and other community-generated content. From the article: "People can share and spread opinions faster than ever before and that's accelerated the impact of public opinion on businesses"
Let the lawsuits begin....
Yes, you too can now easily track all those slamming your product, no matter how much it might deserve public scorn. Have your lawyer on speed dial, because it's time to stop that pesky public from interfering with your business model by commenting on such silly things as "quality."
If you can spot it, you can spam it.
i.e Ikea uses Blogspotter (or it's open-source alternative Spogblotter), finds any blog that mentions Ikea, and likkity-split everyone who visits these blogs can read about the best deals on ottoman's "only at Ikea SATURDAY SATURDAY SATURDAY".
Yup - but it's funny, since blogging is much more a mob mentality than forums are. Blogs are quick to pick up a negative opinion and trackback the sh*t out of it, but then as quickly as it hits, it is forgotten. This software will not only have to consider huge swings in chatter about a brand, but huge swings in opinion as well.
Excuse my speling.
Making The Bar Project
Yes, public opinion can affect business more rapidly than ever. That should be motivation for companies to improve, not for developers to create products to PREVENT public opinion. Man, this world is getting sad, sad, sad!
Umm... because they're analyzing it?
Aggregating RSS feeds based on keywords is easy. Separating them into positive and negative comments, and separating useful feedback from random spouting off, is a lot harder, especially in software.
Either way, I know that there'd be a ton of people such as myself who would use it to avoid the glut of crappy fake-journalist blogs.
Why? Depending what you were searching for (especially local establishments that aren't chains) you might come across personal websites or blogs that offer far more informative listings for various businesses than you would find anywhere else.
Yeah, you may not want to hear my comments about a particular location, but you can at least be safe in the knowledge that regardless of the lack of a Google search presence for a particular location, you will likely find the link (if it exists) for any number of local places.
I believe that when you search for a local pizza place in my area (Carbone's Pizza Lakeville) you will find me first (with a link to their URL) and then 19 spots down you will find them, sorta...
Me? I'm all for those results showing up.
No, this'll make the hammer faster. If the Chinese gov't employs someone to constantly check "China, negative" or "Taiwan, positive" or "Falun Gong, positive" or something, then they just go to those sites, and nail the people responsible (if the people are from China). This makes a site practical for only 2 or 3 messages, as opposed to working until the authorities were tipped off by informers.
I love how the web screws with everything... national borders, taxation and tariffs, censorship, copyright, "local standards" etc. Lots of existing laws are tacitly based on obsolete assumptions about technology, or the way people behaved when their choices were more limited. The ability of anyone to become a publisher is screwing with the notion of publishing, of what a news organization is, and issues such as libel. If you criticize your boss or your company in a letter to your mom it's no big deal, even if she reads it to her neighbors. But if you put the same information on a website it could become a huge deal.
Some people flatly declare that anybody with a website is a publisher, period, and is therefore subject to the same rules and responsibilities as Time Warner, period. That argument would have made sense back in the days when the difficulty of becoming a publisher made it reasonable to presume a certain level of sophistication and awareness of the legal liabilities. But it's a stretch to make those same assumptions today about your aunt when she signs up on BlogSpot and starts posting away. It's far too easy for the average person to step on the wrong toes on the web.
The law should be more like a safety railing than like a minefield. It shouldn't lay traps for plain citizens honestly expressing their personal opinions. It should adjust to people's new capabilities and to the way they naturally act. IANAL and I don't know the legal definition of "damage" from other people's words, but I think it should allow for normal, natural expression on a larger scale than it probably does now, and oblige us to exercise more tolerance toward other people's public statements.
We are going to be seeing more and more cases of one person or entity attacking another in court because of things said on the Web. The outcomes of those cases will have a huge effect on our freedom to use the web to express opinions. I hope the judges and juries have the wisdom to look beyond single cases and think about the bigger picture. I really don't want the web to be a happy hunting ground for legal predators, waiting for me to make a slip and say the wrong thing so they can take away my house.
Actually Wikis are very useful for storing Documentation. You just have to limit the scope of your Wiki clearly and it is much better than months-old stale documentation just because there is no dedicated documentation maintainer anymore for your project.
Linux is not Windows
This isn't a consumer "time saver." It's a weapon for corporations to police the internet.
Plug in this sort of technology and you can keep track of your blogging employeees. Are they bad-mouthing the boss? Obviously engaged in something that the company could claim as intellectual policy? Organizing a union? Busted.
This will automate the troll for IP and trademark infringments. More amusingly, though: now corporations can keep a sharp eye peeled for misbehaving customers. Bitch abour Mega-Mart's pricing or shoddy products, and you might get a Cease and Desist. Or a slander suit.
Ah, technology in the service of the powerful! How it warms the hearts of lawyers everywhere.
Damn, this aluminum beanie gets warm fast.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.