The Worldbank released a piece of software called BuzzMonitor that keeps track of what is being said about the Worldbank on the Internet. While I haven’t tried it (you have to set it up on a server) it has some interesting features like using the Yahoo terms API for automatic tag extraction from all incoming feeds. Three things that surprise me about this:
- Systematically tracking one’s own image on the Internet is something that probably not many public organizations do
- Not hiring Accenture for the job. That they worked with a small, dedicated team and a small software outfit while collaborating with other public agencies seems great
- Releasing the software open source…either there are some pretty open minded people in the Worldbank’s IT organization or someone collected a lot of signatures…
Anyways, maybe my impression of the Worldbank is too negative, but this certainly casts a positive light on them…
(discovered via Data Mining and Ben)
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Hi there, thanks for your post and astute observations. I am glad this little project helped somewhat change your view of the World Bank. Believe it or not, the decision to go open source did not originate from the IT department but from the department where i work, External Affairs, which shows that things are changing, albeit slowly.
onwards,
Pierre Guillaume Wielezynski
-Buzzmonitor team.