Build Your Information Radar, John Blue - From the 2014 National eXtension Conference, March 24 - 27, 2014, Sacramento, CA, USA. See resource page https://radar.hackpad.com/Welcome-veRHFhkp1ha

1. Building Your
Information Radar
1Tuesday, March 25, 14
Good afternoon,
Welcome to the session
Building an Information Radar

2. Truffle Media
Ned Arthur, Director of Sales and
Content Development
John Blue, Chief of
Community Creation
2Tuesday, March 25, 14
Hi, My name is John Blue and I work at Truffle Media Networks, an agriculture media company
focused on agriculture animal health issues.

3. Thanks to the Extension team running
the National eXtension Conference/
National Extension Directors and
Administrators Joint Meeting for the
opportunity to provide you information
3Tuesday, March 25, 14
Thanks to the Extension team running the National eXtension Conference/National Extension
Directors and Administrators Joint Meeting for the opportunity to provide you information
you can use.

4. FYI
Resource page:
https://radar.hackpad.com/
This session is being recorded
and will be published when done.
4Tuesday, March 25, 14
This session is being recorded and will be published when done.
There is a support page on Hackpad (https://radar.hackpad.com/ )

5. Activity: Taken For Granted
5Tuesday, March 25, 14
Things taken for granted about restaurants.

6. Landscape
6Tuesday, March 25, 14
Media use over the last 20 years has changed.
People have moved from utilizing media based on time and location to discovering
and finding information in real time through multiple channels and various sources of
authority.
Information media has become time free, virtual, digital, and very participatory. (next)

7. Landscape
7Tuesday, March 25, 14
Today the way people receive information is far greater than 20 years ago; And there is more
noise.

8. Why an
Information
Radar?
8Tuesday, March 25, 14
Why an information radar important? Finding out information on a topic or person or
business is needed many times throughout the day to make decisions. Having a process in
place to help identify and highlight trends or events is needed to help get through the swell
of data.

9. 9Tuesday, March 25, 14
Again, there is so much information and data every minute; you have no control over the
amount.
What you do have control over is the way in which you approach the waves of information
and data.

10. Activity: What are you
looking for?
10Tuesday, March 25, 14
Participants write down one key thing you are seeking? What is it you want to see coming
down the road?

11. 11Tuesday, March 25, 14
Again, there is so much information and data every minute; you have no control over the
amount.
What you do have control over is the way in which you approach the waves of information
and data.

12. 12Tuesday, March 25, 14
Putting in place a set of tools and approaches can help deal with the Internet Minute.

13. What is an
Information Radar?
13Tuesday, March 25, 14
What is an information radar? Here are some examples.

14. Radar review
14Tuesday, March 25, 14
The idea of information radar is already in use today: weather, flight, stock, traffic. Each of
these apps collect, organize, and display data to help people make decisions.

15. 15Tuesday, March 25, 14
What does this show you? What questions does it make you ask?
Thermometers show basic information about the temperature right now. It can also provide a
sense of the temperature coming up (rising / falling temp).

16. 16Tuesday, March 25, 14
What do you think about when you see a weather map? What questions immediately come to
mind?
A weather map extends the idea of a thermometer, showing geographic details on weather at
specific times.
Weather maps also provide an expanded view of what the weather will be in the near future.
Weather maps are a summary of data points plus they are presented with some analysis
(prediction/interpretation ) by the weather person.

17. Activity: This next image,
What is your immediate
thought?
17Tuesday, March 25, 14
What do you think of when you see this next image?

18. 18Tuesday, March 25, 14
What is on your mind as you see this map? What questions go through your mind?
Am I going to get home on time? Will I miss a connection. Ug, will I spend another hour on
the Tapenzee Bridge/Lincoln Tunnel?

19. 19Tuesday, March 25, 14
Traffic maps are another form of information radar that is offering a summarized view,
analysis, and prediction.

20. Activity: This next image,
What is your immediate
thought?
20Tuesday, March 25, 14
This next image shares an expanded notion of the radar idea.

21. 21Tuesday, March 25, 14
Newspapers are a form of radar because they offer a point of view from trusted experts on a
set of items pulled from a far larger pool of news. The information is a summary of many
data points, with a dash of analysis, and a touch of prediction. Some newspapers may offer
direct advice, other a bit of opinion.

22. 22Tuesday, March 25, 14

23. Goal: to walk out with
your radar
23Tuesday, March 25, 14

24. Goal: Learn what
other in session are
also doing.
24Tuesday, March 25, 14

25. Activity: What are the 5
things you do when you get
up?
25Tuesday, March 25, 14
List the 5 things you do when you get up (after bathroom needs).

26. Activity: What are the 5
things you do when you get
get to work?
26Tuesday, March 25, 14
List the 5 things you do when you get get to work.

27. 27Tuesday, March 25, 14
An information radar extends the idea of the single purpose apps of weather, flight, or traffic
to an approach whose goal is to questions of a specific nature. (next)

28. 28Tuesday, March 25, 14
An information radar is driven by the initial questions/word that are being asked.

29. Twitter Review
29Tuesday, March 25, 14
Since this webinar that uses Twitter, I want to do a short review on Twitter.

30. 30Tuesday, March 25, 14
Twitter is very simple at the surface: people share things 140 characters at a time.

31. screen namename
tweet
avatar
date/time
immediate actions
gear box of actions
31Tuesday, March 25, 14
But there is more than just that 140 character post. This single tweet has more than 30 data
points as a part of the 140 characters: location, time, mentions, favorites, links in the tweet
are just a few.

32. General info
Location
Metrics
Related
connections
Recommendations
Index to
additional
information
Trends
Tweet
32Tuesday, March 25, 14
In addition to the tweet itself, there are a series of other players on Twitter, each with their
own set of data (name, info, location, avatar, time zone, etc.). There is over 30 different
elements for each Twitter user. (next)

33. General info
Location
Metrics
Related
connections
Recommendations
Index to
additional
information
Trends
Tweet
33Tuesday, March 25, 14
Additionally, there are other Twitter things: trends, recommendations, and lists that play a
part in the Twitter interactions people initiate.

34. If you want to learn more
about the data Twitter
collects along the way,
see the Information
Radar resource page on
Hackpad:
Twitter Field Guide
34Tuesday, March 25, 14

35. Any questions?
35Tuesday, March 25, 14

36. 36Tuesday, March 25, 14
An information radar is driven by the initial questions/word that are being asked.

37. Questions and Words
That Drive Action
37Tuesday, March 25, 14
Questions and words/terms of interest drive action.

38. Example
38Tuesday, March 25, 14
This is an example I am going to use to help get started. Truffle worked with Smart Animal
Training Systems over the last year to help put in place tools and approaches to
understanding the lay of the land in pet training technology on the social web. (next)

39. Example
39Tuesday, March 25, 14
Explain what Smart Animal is about

40. Examples
•What are some events that are happening
in the pet world?
•Who are some of the leading voices in
pets/pet technology?
•What are some trends that are in the same
space as Smart Animal Training Systems?
•What are some of the media outlets in the
pet/pet technology space?
•Are there are any webpages with additional
information I should pay attention too?
40Tuesday, March 25, 14
These are some questions that were being asked.

41. Activity: What is of interest
to you?
41Tuesday, March 25, 14
List on board key terms that point to your interests: work, personal, etc. Aim for ten. Note to
self: have these word listed individually then put them publicly on the wall.

42. 42Tuesday, March 25, 14

43. 43Tuesday, March 25, 14
Once the questions were created, scanning was started. This process was a bit ad hoc as we
did not yet know anything.

44. 44Tuesday, March 25, 14
Knowing nothing about the pet world on social media, I used the Twitter search bar to start
scanning. Terms like pet, dog, and cat were initially used.

45. 45Tuesday, March 25, 14
Quickly I was able to see a few tweets that looked promising. What is #globalpetexpo?

46. 46Tuesday, March 25, 14
The #globalpetexpo hashtag led me to a long set of tweets of a pet products event that was
being held in Orlando (2013).

47. Activity: Who are your go to
sources of information,
advice, or prediction?
47Tuesday, March 25, 14
List your key sources of information: be specific (name names!). Note to self: have these word
listed individually then put them publicly on the wall.

48. 48Tuesday, March 25, 14
Detection

49. 49Tuesday, March 25, 14
And one of those tweets had something even more interesting: #BlogPaws hashtag... What is
that?

50. 50Tuesday, March 25, 14
There is a whole community! and another event; social media and pets.

51. Any questions?
51Tuesday, March 25, 14

52. 52Tuesday, March 25, 14
Ok, so now I have found some events and a bunch of tweets. What can help long term? Let’s
organize some of the info.

53. Index to
additional
information
Twitter
Lists
53Tuesday, March 25, 14
Twitter lists are one way to organize people on Twitter and see what just those people are
talking about. Utilizing the initial search of #globalpetexpo I went through about 1,000
tweets and added people that looked interesting.

54. 54Tuesday, March 25, 14
To get started, a set of bucket names were created to organize pet people on twitter: media,
product, training, health, organization, community, etc. Then the #globalpetexpo search was
used as a starting point (demo)

55. Demo list
additions
http://www.trufflemedia.com/twitter/globalpetexpo2013-02-26.html
https://twitter.com/TruffleMedia/lists/radar-example
55Tuesday, March 25, 14
Show globalpetexpo
Add a person to demo radar list

56. Why a List?
56Tuesday, March 25, 14
With a list I can now go to the list and see what is happening in that general collection of
people.

57. 57Tuesday, March 25, 14
Example.

58. 58Tuesday, March 25, 14
Now that we have some organization, we need to see if some of our questions are getting
answered.

59. Examples
•What are some events that are happening
in the pet world?
•Who are some of the leading voices in
pets/pet technology?
•What are some trends that are in the same
space as Smart Animal Training Systems?
•What are some of the media outlets in the
pet/pet technology space?
•Are there are any webpages with additional
information I should pay attention too?
59Tuesday, March 25, 14
These are some questions that were being asked. Several of these have been answered, some
have partial info (webpages for example). Trends question has not yet been answered
specifically but there are lists of Twitter people to follow that might offer info. (next)

60. Any questions?
60Tuesday, March 25, 14

61. Review
61Tuesday, March 25, 14
Review: Questions must lead the process. Scan the web (Twitter in this case). Detect
interesting things. Summarize for sanity. Analyze where possible. Aim to answer questions.
This is a process, not the end. The questions will change as business needs change.

62. Some tools to help
62Tuesday, March 25, 14
The above steps relied on just using Twitter’s standard interface. That can get a bit
cumbersome. The following are some tools that can be used to help refine.

63. 63Tuesday, March 25, 14
Scanning tools.

64. 64Tuesday, March 25, 14
Additional scanning tools, for real time review: TweetDeck

65. 65Tuesday, March 25, 14
Additional scanning tools, for real time review: HootSuite

66. Why TweetDeck or
HootSuite?
66Tuesday, March 25, 14
Multiple columns can be setup to scan real time when needed. Tweets can be scheduled.
Multiple accounts can be managed.

67. Activity: Tools, What Do You
Have?
67Tuesday, March 25, 14
List on board tools you use to scan for data, organize bits of things, share back out. Note to
self: have these word listed individually then put them publicly on the wall.
Next ask what apps people use on phone, tablet, or laptop/desktop. List those on wall.

68. Tools to monitor and review
68Tuesday, March 25, 14

69. Tools to organize
69Tuesday, March 25, 14

70. 70Tuesday, March 25, 14
These are services that allow you to set up to collect social data over time and get back a file
for analysis. Why important? Example: collecting Tweets from an event. Example: #SXSW is
coming up shortly.

71. 71Tuesday, March 25, 14
DataSift & GNIP offer acces to the full Twitter data firehose (average 6,000 tweets/second)
DataSift offers low cost ($, $20 for 70,000 tweets range) entry up to large dollar ($$$$)
datastreams for big ideas/projects.
GNIP offers large dollar ($$$$) datastreams for big ideas/projects.
ScraperWiki offers low cost ($) entry point to a small set of Twitter data (not the fire hose)

72. 72Tuesday, March 25, 14
Summarize tools

73. 73Tuesday, March 25, 14
These tools can help summarize data from Twitter in to usable chunks and/or help organize
some of the data items for better use.

74. 74Tuesday, March 25, 14
SocialBro allows you to clean up your Twitter lists; people stop using Twitter, their focus can
change, or they just are not helping answer questions. Example: Filter list to drop out anyone
who has not tweeted in more than 6 months. Or show me “experts” defined as those people
tweeting 4 or more times a day.

75. 75Tuesday, March 25, 14
Summarize tools

76. 76Tuesday, March 25, 14
TweetReach offers a fee service to spot report on event info ($20). It is am inexpensive
service to help gage engagement, see who top contributors are, and to see impression reach.

77. 77Tuesday, March 25, 14
These tools offer a variety of ways to organize larger amounts of data into usable information
chunks. They have various functionality and associated costs.
Google Fusion tables offers ability to extract information from data inexpensively (free) and
maintain the data privately.
Tableau Public and Many Eyes offer great tools, but the caveat is that data uploaded to their
services will be made public.

78. 78Tuesday, March 25, 14

79. 79Tuesday, March 25, 14

80. 80Tuesday, March 25, 14

81. 81Tuesday, March 25, 14
analyze and summarize

82. 82Tuesday, March 25, 14
Example: Scanned for #SxSw using DataSift for a ~20 hour period. 70,000 tweets later, where
are these tweets occurring? Cleaning up the table (pull out tweets that have geo location info,
~10,000) and use Google Fusion Tables provides a view on where.

83. 83Tuesday, March 25, 14
Of course Austin, TX has the bulk of the tweets. Google Fusion Tables allows for zooming in;
it’s Google maps overlaid with your data.

84. Observations
• Spend time refining your questions, terms,
directional issues.
• Find the tools that can help save you time.
• This is a process and it will need adjusting over
time.
• Many of the techniques can be applied to other
social channels or digital sites.
• Pick up new sources and learn about other
tools.
84Tuesday, March 25, 14

85. Questions?
85Tuesday, March 25, 14

86. marketing
big ideas
news
technology
issues
86Tuesday, March 25, 14
Draw out your grid and place terms / questions you are looking for. Add in tools you might
use to learn more. List your go to people/sources.

87. Build your radar
87Tuesday, March 25, 14
Using the activities we have just done, let's outline some of your radar.

88. marketing
big ideas
news
technology
issues
88Tuesday, March 25, 14

89. Example Information Radars
89Tuesday, March 25, 14

90. Example Information Radars
NECSI plots tweets by sentiment, positive or negative. A
cluster of negative tweets in Queens, New York, for example,
led to the discovery of a leaky sewer pipe.
90Tuesday, March 25, 14

91. The ThoughtWorks Technology Radar
sets out what they think is interesting in software
development today. Things that you should pay attention to
and consider using in your projects.
91Tuesday, March 25, 14

92. 92Tuesday, March 25, 14

93. FYI
Resource page:
https://radar.hackpad.com/
This webinar is being recorded
and will be published when done.
93Tuesday, March 25, 14
This session is being recorded and will be published when done.
There is a support page on Hackpad (https://radar.hackpad.com/ )

94. Contact Information
info@TruffleMedia.com
@TruffleMedia
TruffleMedia.com/Facebook
(877) 558-7833
TruffleMedia.com
94Tuesday, March 25, 14