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January 11, 2012 Previous day Next day

A Look Inside the Social Cockpit Intel is Using to Discover and Analyze What's Getting the Most Buzz on Twitter, Blogs, Facebook and YouTube

 

CESlogo.jpg

 

The online heartbeat of the Consumer Electronics Show is being monitored in real time by a team of data analysts and algorithm coders.

 

In a small private room above Intel's booth on the trade show floor, members of the company's social media team and a small group from WCG, a Texas-based communications agency, are monitoring the mass of conversations happening around CES. They are using a proprietary Adobe Air-based desktop application to collect and make sense of the buzz generated online by people either attending or following CES on blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

SocialDashboard03.JPGSocial media activity about CES shared in Facebook, Twitter and YouTube is tracked, then analyzed hour-by-hour using software created by Texas-based firm WCG. (Flickr photo)

 

The goal: measure the pulse and meaningful movements of the social Web, something akin to how the Bloomberg Terminal gives minute-by-minute information about stock markets and financial news.

 

"We can see live 'the share of voice' for companies like Apple, Google, Intel, HP and Microsoft and see how it changes during news announcements or keynotes," said Aaron Strout, a group director at WCG.

 

Strout's team is tracking much more than just CES Twitter hashtags. They have crafted a complete "social cockpit" based on the agency's proprietary search and analytic software that tracks and collects data such as Facebook Newsfeed posts and Likes, Tweets that mention leading tech brands, Fan Page and Twitter follower growth, popularity of YouTube videos as well as posts from top technology blogs and forums. The cockpit serves as a constantly updating dashboard that fills several large monitors so the teams can track in real time who is getting share of voice, and generally, what people are saying and about what products and what companies.

SocialDashboard02.JPGThe so-called "social cockpit," a social dashboard, displays online buzz about companies making Ultrabooks, a hot new item at CES this year.  (Flickr photo)

 

"We can identify who is talking online about a company or a product at CES," said Strout. "Are they from the general public? Are they influencers? Are they company representatives? And from this we look at what company and product they're talking about and what hashtags they are using."

 

"There seems to still be high expectation around tablets," said Strout about 6 hours into the first official day of CES. "But we're seeing more mentions of mobile in general and about Android specifically and Ultrabooks, shifting the weight away from the specific topic of tablets."

 

Strout says he's taking an even deeper dive into buzz around Ultrabooks to see how CES is impacting a handful of Ultrabook makers. Acer, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba were all showing up as of late Tuesday afternoon before Dell announced its new XPS13 Ultrabook during [Intel President and CEO] Paul Otellini's keynote later that day.

 

Acknowledging that others may be using competitive monitoring technology such as Radian6, Strout still believes his team is collecting and presenting analyses swiftly and perhaps more actionable than anyone else at CES.

 

"The way of the future is to collect data then apply logic and algorithms to create an easily digestible story that you can act upon," he said.

 

 

 

 

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The Android Phone Features a High-Resolution 4.03-Inch LCD Screen; Battery Life Is Expected to Be up to 8 Hours for 3G Voice Calls

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Intel's Smartphone Reference design was getting a lot of attention at CES and may have finally put Intel firmly in the phone game.

Intel_Smartphone_Reference_Design_angle.jpgThe Intel Smartphone Reference Design was developed to help reduce development time and costs for phone OEMs and carriers. (Flickr photo)

 

The idea behind the reference design is to speed development time for phone manufacturers that, in turn, can focus on adding additional features and software. The phone features a high-resolution 4.03-inch LCD screen and is running Android Gingerbread OS on the company's Medfield phone platform. A company representative said versions of the phone are also running Ice Cream Sandwich but none were being shown publicly at CES.

 

Battery life on the reference phone, according to Intel, is expected to be up to 8 hours for a standard 3G voice call with standby power lasting up to 14 days. The phone also features a paparazzi-like "burst mode" that allows users to fire off 15 photos (from either one of two cameras on board) in about a second with 8-megapixel resolution.

 

Mike Bell, general manager of Intel's Mobile and Communications Group, joined Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini onstage at the CES keynote Tuesday afternoon to show the phone more broadly, but it was already getting the lion's share of attention earlier in the day at Intel's booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

 

Otellini announced two new customers (Lenovo and Motorola) but it wasn't clear whether either of these customers would be using the reference design as part of their go-to-market strategy. At a Credit Suisse conference last month, Otellini did say customers would be using the "guts" of the reference design in phones coming out later this year.

 

 

 

 

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