A demographic of one

In today’s interconnected world of social media and Big Data, IBM senior VP Tom Rosamilia is suggesting that we think in terms of a “demographic of one”. It is more than just eMarketing or maybe it should be.

Thinking in terms of a “demographic of one” is using technology for a much more targeted approach in reaching markets and audiences. It is using the power of analytics to develop a customized marketing program focused on reaching out to a market where everyone’s importance is not lost to a crowd.

The idea of a “demographic of one” is so different from what I am more familiar with in the mass marketing era. We used to think in terms of a faceless mass market segmented into market demographics of age, sex, social status, etc and focused on a main segment. In math terms, we planned based on the least common denominator.

With the “demographic of one” it is no longer efficient to think of the mass market as if the individual is an undifferentiated part of the whole. That means everyone deserves importance.

In practical terms, a tweet complaining of an airline’s service has the potential of trending or escalating to the point that the airline’s reputation is damaged. Today, one consumer’s sentiment in social media can be ignored only at a company’s or brand’s peril. 

Or think of Netflix or TiVo. The old mass advertising supported business model is crumbling in the US. A viewer will watch his favorite show when he wants to, not when the networks want to show it.

The irony of social media is that it has made us anything but social. It made going back into the safety of our cocoon easier. But how relevant is that back here? The “demographic of one” works with social media. Looking at the role played by social media in our just concluded election, one is tempted to say that we have to count years before a concept like that becomes useful.

The ABS-CBN and IBM’s Social Media Tracker showed that Nancy Binay is the most talked-about among all 33 senatorial aspirants. But she shouldn’t have won because sentiment analysis showed most of her social media buzz was negative.

On the other hand, Risa Hontiveros and Dick Gordon were the favorites of netizens based on sentiment analysis but they lost. Senators Trillanes and Honasan didn’t get so much social media attention but they won re-election.

Given what we saw last Monday, is any concept related to social media even relevant?

Of course it is absolutely relevant. Don’t let its seeming lack of influence over the electoral outcome last week mislead you. Once things get back to normal, social media sentiment will once again influence policy making, the legislative agenda and governance in general. 

Leading edge organizations here can use “demographic of one” today to get early mover advantage. Indeed, IBM’s Rosamilia observed that governments ought to think of it to deliver citizen delight, the government version of customer delight.

Rosamilia must be talking about positive consumer experience… where every consumer interaction counts. This is particularly true with regard to government’s front line agencies. Today, government has a bad image because citizens get a bad experience in their exposure to an inefficient and uncaring bureaucracy laden with red tape and corruption.

I am not sure state of the art technology can change an entrenched mind-set. No supercomputer could magically make bureaucrats go out of their way to make an encounter with citizens pleasant. But technology is not benign.

Social media works with traditional mainstream media and both are now online. Both use new technology to apply pressure for good governance. Netizens are too noisy and too involved to be ignored.

My discussion with Rosamilia was precipitated by IBM’s donation of a P61 million “Blue Gene,” supercomputer to the Department of Science and Technology. It is claimed that it is the Philippines’ first-ever supercomputer of its kind and scientists working in various government agencies as well as academics from UP can have access to it.

A supercomputer is “a computer that performs at a rate of speed far above that of other computers.” It is the size of a two-ton air conditioner and is part of the research collaboration agreed upon by DoST and IBM.

In other words, unlike other donations of expensive hardware to government in the past, IBM will be involved in its use here. IBM officials assured me that it will not rust away in some government store room because IBM will see to it that it is used extensively to harness science in the service of our people.

The supercomputer will be immediately put to work in Project NOAH or DoST’s Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards. This is government’s flagship program for disaster mitigation and climate change. Dr Mahar Lagmay, the scientist on top of NOAH, tweeted they “will use the power of the supercomputer to help keep us safe.”

The IBM supercomputer, I was told, will enable local scientists to process and gain insights from the massive data collected, to produce faster, more accurate forecasts and improve localized weather prediction for the country. Rosamilia said they want to be able to give advance predictions of floods and landslides that are precise down to a one meter area… to save one life… the demographic of one!

The other application is what DOST calls Smart Agriculture. IBM Blue Gene’s supercomputing capability will be used in modeling climate change scenarios, building database for agricultural land use, and computing for monthly irrigation requirements per province.

The IBM Blue Gene will also be used for genomics or to develop crops that are best suited for our changing field conditions to optimize yields and improve disease resistance. We already have a good gene bank in UP Los Banos and now all the information can be put to good use in producing practical applications for our farmers.

We don’t have to make do with varieties that work well in most areas but not in others. We will now have the capability of designing varieties of rice, corn and other crops that will work well in very specific areas… again we can now work to satisfy the “demographic of one”… one farmer in one area replicated nationwide.

 The supercomputer can also be put to use in crunching Big Data to help government in areas such as law enforcement or running our cities. It can theoretically be used to help put order in EDSA rush hour traffic with the help of GPS technology but I honestly wonder if there is anything in this earth, super or otherwise, that can really help us there.

As I wrote in this column recently, IBM helped crunch all the unstructured data coming from CCTVs all over the Boston Marathon route as well as relevant law enforcement files to help get the bombing suspects… no face today will ever be lost in a crowd. While the IBM Blue Gene is more designed for scientific applications, Rosamilia says a similar supercomputer or resources available from “the cloud” can be used to enhance public safety and improve quality of life for every citizen.

 It is good to see our government finally getting the enthusiasm and the resources to use the vast powers of information technology to effectively deliver the goods to our people. In the absence of a specific department in charge of IT, the DoST is performing beyond our usual expectations to take on the challenge of bringing the bureaucracy into the era of the brave new world.

Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating. How many lives will from now on be saved by a government that has the computing power of Blue Gene? How many otherwise deadly flooding occurrences or landslides will be accurately predicted early enough to broadcast proper warnings?

Food security is now no longer a wild dream with Blue Gene’s ability to apply genome technology for practical farm applications. This supercomputer can serve the needs of the public, one citizen at a time, all the time and at the same time.

The demographic of one! Everyone matters and every life is important. Let us now crunch all the data stored in all areas of government to make every citizen encounter with the bureaucracy a memorably pleasant experience. Now that we have the power of technology behind us, there is no excuse to be anything but world class.

Supercomputer

They say that the new supercomputer knows everything. A skeptical man came and asked the computer, “Where is my father?”

The computer bleeped for a short while, and then came back with “Your father is fishing in Michigan.”

The skeptical man said triumphantly, “You see? I knew this was nonsense. My father has been dead for twenty years.”

“No”, replied the supercomputer immediately. “Your mother’s husband has been dead for twenty years. Your father just landed a three pound trout.”

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is . Follow him on Twitter @boochanco