The emergence of social computing has forever changed the pace of information dissemination and the ability of the individual to be heard by millions.  Compounded with ubiquity of mobile computing devices and smart phones, social media has proven to be a disruptive technology to all well-established vectors of information dissemination and may be the most effective means of gathering “ground truth” in a crisis or understanding the attitudes of a population. 

Government at all levels, corporations and other institutions have come to understand the importance of not only gathering information from social media but also the potential for targeting individuals and communities with tailored messages at a much more granular level than has ever been possible.

The biggest challenge in fully leveraging social media is having computational means to filter “signal” from “noise,” and then recognizing which sources are trustworthy. At Perceptronics Solutions, our resourceful approach is grounded in decades of social science theory and we apply cutting-edge machine-learning and social network analyses techniques to study the complexities of modern, evolving, data. At the core, we create converging evidence for observed phenomena by integrating multiple social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook). We make sense of this data by visualizing social networks with intuitive, flexible displays—allowing for the discovery of sub-groups within topics of communication— while conducting ground reporting to reduce sampling bias and to provide an accurate picture of events.

Unique Technical Approach