IBM Launches City Sentiment Analytics Service

IBM has launched a global social sentiment analytics service to help cities around the world measure and understand public opinion on issues and services such as public transport and education.

The firm says that by understanding the public sentiments of those living and working in a city, public sector leaders can create a new 'virtual town hall' that can generate more informed decisions that will in turn lead to improved services for citizens.

Through the introduction of its new 'Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) for Smarter Cities', IBM offers analysis of large volumes of public social media data, to assess and understand citizen opinions.

Using IBM's advanced analytics and natural language processing technologies, the IOC has been developed to help city officials access and understand unfiltered citizen attitudes and actions. According to the company, it can distinguish between sincerity and sarcasm, and can even predict trends as they surface online.

The system has already been piloted in India, to examine public sentiment on transportation issues across Bangalore, New Delhi, and Mumbai.

Guru Banavar (pictured), VP and CTO of Smarter Cities at IBM, comments: 'When city officials can factor public sentiment - positive, negative or otherwise - around city services like transportation, they can more quickly pinpoint and prioritize areas that are top of mind for their citizens. This could mean more targeted investment, improving a particular city service, or more effective communication about a service that is offered.'

Web site: www.ibm.com .