Hand in Hand – Big Data in Politics

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What does big data have to do with politics? In the United States, for example, party consultants use advanced data analysis to help plan electoral campaigns – and, as it turns out, the situation is similar in other countries as well. The recent elections in India are a good example.

The Indian BJP opposition party, for example, employes over a hundred consultants and analysts that are responsible for the party leader’s current status as a prime-ministerial candidate. These consultants and analysts, according to a CNBC report, used data analysis to help raise funds, design the party’s advertising campaign and form detailed plans for interfacing with voters in “trouble” districts. The same methods were used to plan the party’s policies involving gender and minority issues, for example, and in general helped strengthen the campaign strategically. The result, according to the report, is a data-driven elections campaign similar to that of U.S. President Barack Obama – although smaller in scale.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

Arvind Gupta, the party’s campaign strategist, said that his team developed their own electronic tools, allowing them to be in direct contact with voters. Gupta is responsible for the party’s online popularity: 3.67 million followers on Twitter, 12 million likes on Facebook and 68 million views on the party’s Google Plus page.

To conclude, big data analysis has become a standard element of political campaigns around the world, sometimes in unexpected ways.

Source: Fierce Big Data