Friday, May 25, 2012

PoliticIT Looks To Predict Elections Using Social Sentiment

A new, Logan, Utah-based startup, PoliticIT--spawned out of Utah State University's Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, says it has launched a new service which uses social sentiment to try to predict the winners of political races. The startup, headed by Josh Light, is gathering data and looking to predict the winners of different elections. The firm claims it has been correct on calling 87 percent of 90 primary races for the Senate, the House, and the governor, by using social data. The startup said it was created by Professor John D. Johnson and five business students. Utah State's School of Business is named after Jon M. Huntsman, the father of 2012 Presidential Candidate Jon Huntsman, Jr. The senior Huntsman and his wife gave $26M to the school in 2007.