The Development of Samara Psychologists and Programmers Will Help to Monitor the Effectiveness of the Officials’ Actions

A special software complex for automatically sensing public opinion on the Internet, known as "Social Echo Sounder",  has been developed at Samara National Research University. It will be presented for the first time at the exhibition of “Open Innovations” Forum on Monday, October 21, and its developers will tell experts and guests of the forum about the prospects for using the complex as part of a business programme.

"Social Echo Sounder" is the result of a joint work of Samara University  psychologists and IT specialists. The development will help to organize a kind of public control by various Internet communities in social networks, and can be used by the authorities in making decisions on various socially significant issues, including ones within national projects implementation.

"Social Echo Sounder" complex is a computer system that automatically determines the attitude of communities and groups in social networks to any event, phenomenon, process, and can be used before making potentially resonant decisions on a wide range of topics – either it is the use of public spaces in large cities, or the construction of large facilities and much more. “Social Echo Sounder” analyzes the information “splash” on the Internet not only from an estimated and quantitative point of view – for example, how many people liked or did not like a particular event or initiative, but also determines why, for example, users of social networks do not like this initiative and how, in their opinion, it is possible to change the situation.

The artificial intelligence underlying the software complex analyzes the semantic codes reflected on the Internet on the basis of a unique digital dictionary system developed at the university. “Setting keywords that limit the sphere of interests of a particular analyst, one can easily get current information about the state of public opinion in relation to a particular problem.

The fundamental novelty of the echo sounder is that it can simulate contextual “spaces” in which not only  substantive aspects of information are viewed, but also semantic ones”, – Head of Samara University Developmental Psychology Department Konstantin Lisetskiy said.

According to Samara scientists, their development makes it possible to restore the semantic context of statements and forms a more accurate view of public opinion in real time, dynamically demonstrating changes in public opinion for selected social groups. Unlike widely used sociological surveys and marketing programmes, when working with "Social Echo Sounder" people do not have to answer pre-formulated questions, as is occurs with opinion polls. Thus, the echo sounder saves the cost of surveys conducting. "Taking into account the efficiency of the software complex, it is possible to collect differentiated information in one click –  and thus get a vector of public opinion changes to certain events in real time",  – Professor of Samara University Technical Cybernetics Department Alexander Kupriyanov said.

Image: pixabay.com