{"id":870,"date":"2011-10-25T22:37:25","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T03:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ideasillustrated.com\/blog\/?p=870"},"modified":"2014-12-08T14:48:23","modified_gmt":"2014-12-08T14:48:23","slug":"politicians-discover-data-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ideasillustrated.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/25\/politicians-discover-data-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Politicians Discover Data Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign, the online design community devoted a lot of pixels to comparisons of the two candidate’s web sites (a few great examples here<\/a>, here<\/a>,\u00a0and here<\/a>). The overall consensus\u00a0was that Obama won the war\u00a0for eyeballs\u00a0by\u00a0emphasizing design, web usability, multimedia, and robust social networking. According to an in-depth study<\/a> by the Pew Research Center\u2019s Project for Excellence in Journalism, Obama\u2019s online network was over\u00a0five times larger than McCain\u2019s by election day and his site was drawing almost three times as many unique visitors each week.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that the web has fundamentally transformed the way political campaigns are run. Voters are\u00a0no longer tied to traditional media outlets for information\u00a0and they can participate directly in a campaign in ways that were unimaginable only a few years ago. Adam Nagourney, columnist for the New York Times,\u00a0summed it up nicely<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[The Internet has]\u00a0rewritten the rules on how to reach voters, raise money, organize supporters, manage the news media, track and mold public opinion, and wage — and withstand — political attacks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, with the\u00a0next campaign season gearing up, what technology-driven changes can we expect for 2012? If the rumblings are true, this election may see the ascendancy of data science as a formal part of the campaign toolkit.<\/p>\n

In a recent CNN article<\/a>, Micah Sifry wrote about the Obama campaign’s establishment of a “multi-disciplinary team of statisticians, predictive modelers, data mining experts, mathematicians, software developers, general analysts and organizers.” The article goes on to discuss the importance of data harmonization (a fancy term for master data management), geo-targeting, and integrated marketing.<\/p>\n

Obama may be struggling in the polls and even losing support among his core boosters, but when it comes to the modern mechanics of identifying, connecting with and mobilizing voters, as well as the challenge of integrating voter information with the complex internal workings of a national campaign, his team is way ahead of the Republican pack.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All this has some GOP supporters concerned. Martin Avila, a Republican technology consultant, states in the same article that he doesn’t think that anyone on the opposing side fully understands the power of organizing and analyzing all of this data. According to Avila, the current GOP use of information technology is\u00a0still largely shaped by its pre-Internet experience in broadcast advertising.<\/p>\n

In some ways, this cavalier attitude toward the value of data shouldn’t come as a complete surprise. One trait that many members of the so-called “party of business” share with executives in the private sector is a strong attachment to a “gut based” approach to making decisions.<\/p>\n

A recent Accenture Analytics\u00a0survey<\/a> of over\u00a0600 managers at more than 500 companies found that senior managers rarely used data-driven analysis when making key business decisions and instead relied heavily on intuition, peer-to-peer consultation, and other soft factors. According to the study,\u00a050% of companies weren’t even structured in a way that would allow them to use data and analytical talent to generate enterprise-wide insight. In addition, those organizations that did make\u00a0analytics-based decisions often depended on inconsistent, inaccurate, or incomplete data.<\/p>\n

Savvy voters, like savvy customers, have come to expect a certain level of performance and consistency from the IT systems they use. This is bad news for\u00a0businesses that still think that things like social media, data analytics, and master data management are gimmicks:<\/p>\n

Organizations that fail to tackle the issues around data, technology and analytics talent will lose out to the high-performing 10 percent who have leveraged predictive analytics to become more agile and gain competitive advantage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Creating a structured program for\u00a0better targeting and more efficient communications seems like a no-brainer these days, but, for now, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of competition.<\/p>\n

Further Reading:<\/p>\n

  • \n