Supernova Award Category

Future of Work: Productivity and Collaboration

The Problem

Trust in the government is low and research shows that people are cynical about the citizen engagement process. Many citizens assume most decisions are already made and any outreach by government is just for marketing or public relations. Traditional methods of gathering public feedback, such as public meetings, neighborhood surveys, telephone surveys, etc., are largely ineffective. Online behavior is typically anonymous and not “place-based,” meaning there is no way to prove that someone’s location can be validated. This leads to disruptive online behavior, gaming of polls and surveys, etc.

Another current challenge is the huge amount of text/qualitative data in discussion forums. Analyzing this data is difficult, labor intensive and time consuming. Organizations often collect feedback that lacks transparency and legitimacy in the eyes of the public. Organizations lack the platform or the computing power to do anything meaningful with the data they collect.

The Solution

PlaceSpeak realized that in order for organizations to collect reliable evidence, digital identity authentication is crucial. PlaceSpeak created SentiMap, which is a way for many different organization types to collect geospatial feedback data. PlaceSpeak SentiMap uses text analysis from SAP HANA along with map visualizations to dramatically simplify analysis of massive amounts of qualitative text data. This allows organizations to instantly visualize and understand the feedback they get from constituents, customers, citizens, etc. The mapping capability provides a spatial view of the trends and differences in public opinion across regions and areas (e.g. neighborhoods, districts), allowing for more nuanced analysis.

The results

More accurate and correlated data allowed the public to see that their input had an impact on outcomes and on community decisions. The process was open, accessible, inclusive, transparent, and ultimately defensible. For example, transparent, verifiable results were used by the City of New Westminster, B.C, to persuade the regional transportation authority, TransLink, to work collaboratively on the replacement of the Pattullo Bridge instead of acting unilaterally without consultation with the affected communities. Public input had a direct impact on the outcome.

Organizations began to conduct engagement exercises on an iterative basis, not as a one-off. They demonstrated growth in the number of civically engaged participants in each community over periods of time and policy outcomes and decisions that were made aligned with the feedback that was provided by participants.

“The City of Encinitas values meaningful community input and is committed to making it easy for residents and business owners to learn about and weigh in on City projects and topics. We were impressed with the platform’s comprehensive features, thoughtfully designed registration process, and the ability to use the City’s geospatial data to identify and target participant feedback within our five communities. Support from the PlaceSpeak team has been outstanding, and they have guided us through every step of the way to ensure success.” - Lynne Tufts, Chief Information Officer

Metrics

Confidence and accountability increases, as organizations collect and share feedback that is verifiable and defensible

The cost of interacting with a community goes down, as organizations have a predefined and authenticated community that they can continuously engage without having to start the process over

Decreased time required for analysis and visualization of quantitative data

Increased confidence in accountability through both data quality and easy-to-grasp interface

Increased quality of reporting for technical and professional employees

The Technology

SAP HANA Platform – increased in memory computing capabilities

SAP HANA Text Analysis – Sentiment analysis (SentiMap)

Disruptive Factor

PlaceSpeak’s unique geo-verification process connects participants’ digital identity to their physical location, enabling organizations to easily tap into the knowledge and experience of thousands of civically engaged participants. Organizations conducting consultations can be confident that feedback data is coming from real, relevant people within affected communities.

They have recently integrated SAP HANA text analysis for real-time, location-based sentiment analysis. Color coded maps make it easy to understand and analyze large amounts of qualitative data. Organizations can use SentiMap to identify discussion forum trend in specific areas and visually show results in real time.

PlaceSpeak also includes a wide range of tools for collecting feedback data including polls, surveys, discussion forums, interactive mapping, and more. Both users and organizations can engage on the PlaceSpeak platform with an intuitive user experience from either their desktop or mobile device.

Shining Moment

2017: Partner was awarded an SAP HANA Innovation Award in the category of Social Hero

2017: Top 25 Canadian Ventures, SheEO

2016: Best Presentation, 39th Angel Forum Investor Choice Awards

2016: Geospatial Excellence Award (Infrastructure), Geospatial World

2016: Exemplary Implementation Award, Scenario Planning Applications Network