Expressivearth provides what we have coined as “Aggregated Social Intelligence” (ASI) It is comparable in many ways to the common definition of Business Intelligence (BI), except we define what we do as gathering “information from society for society.” In this article hopefully I can articulate how BI is commonly used in the Retail industry in contrast to some ways that we use ASI in social networking.

In the Retail industry, companies (Retailers and their vendors) track POS (Point of sale – cash register activity) information as specific events, in order to gain insight into sales, adjust replenishment models, evaluate and adjust advertising, etc. The intelligence gained from POS information has many applications, and is responsible for significant innovation up and down the supply chain.

When you take an item to the cash register at your local superstore, lots of things happen the minute the cashier swipes your product across the barcode scanner. Data is read off the barcode, i.e. what it is – price, size, color, and many other attributes depending on product and type of store. The POS system is associating lots of other event-related information with every swipe of the barcode, such as time of purchase (day, hour, minute, etc.), location of store, number of items purchased, etc. Numerous systems continue on and associate your profile with those purchases if you use a credit card and/or a store club card. The same sort of data collection process is associated with other systems, including returning a product, store inventory transfers, damaged goods, and more.

Let’s say you went to the store three days ago and purchased three items, paid cash and walked out. The data recorded probably looks something like the image below. Although there was probably other data included in the transaction (Register#, cashier or employee#, etc.) the important information was what: (Item), When (Time), and where (Location). Each attribute collected in the transaction has specific uses.

The information (Illustrated in preceding graphic) by itself doesn’t do much for anyone. One individual purchasing event is not indicative of anything, really. When you batch them up and compare them against forecasts, other items, other locations, demographics etc. – suddenly you have a much better picture of what is going on. What you have now is relevant business intelligence, which you can act on.

Now let’s take a look at what Expressivearth does.

We believe people’s actions, movements and opinions are important. They make up who we are. When taken individually, they tell one story and may represent a perspective with many attributes. Attributes may include how you feel about current politics, the weather and war in Iraq, how you feel about the litter in your parks, global warming and so on. What happened to you on the way to work the other day, crime in your neighborhood or community is also important. Each person, no matter where they live in the world, has information of great value which when shared and ‘batched’ with similar opinions can help people arrive at common ground. Take a look at the sample below.

The financial crisis going on currently in the US (And spreading) will most likely have significant impact on people’s daily lives. Using our application to demonstrate this would mean users coming to the site and creating events. Events contain fields for people to list report location, opinion, actions (Committed by you or others) and record times/dates. Events are like purchases in any store in that we collect each event and batch it with other events. Users also get to view the stories, read the reports as they happen. Doesn’t take much for anyone to say “Wow, a lot of folks are having financial problems…” Just like someone in a retail operation “Anyone else notice how many cans of split pea soup have been sold this week?”

Using the collected, batched data we can filter it to produce reports which can help identify where crime, pollution, hunger, sickness and other issues are most prolific and/or most deeply felt. We can use the information to better determine where funds and other resources should be focused – and maybe it will inspire more people to act in fixing some of the world’s problems. In the case of the financial crisis, the information can have the following benefits:

1. Promote opinion to legislators and other politicians or oversight groups.  Tell a company how you feel about their actions.
2. People and groups can collaborate on how they are coping and work to solve problems jointly
3. Reform can be more accurately focused
4. People (You and me) are better informed

Information, for information’s sake is not such an exciting thing, here everyone plays a role. Everyone counts.