PlaceSpeak Wins 2017 SAP HANA Innovation Award

PlaceSpeak has been awarded 2nd Place in the Social Hero Category in the Partner Track for the 2017 SAP HANA Innovation Award.

The Social Hero Category recognizes organizations which have made a powerful social or public impact, such as significant improvements in public services. PlaceSpeak was recognized for its work on the new SentiMap feature, which analyzes and spatially visualizes large amounts of online civic engagement text data, such as discussion forum comments.

SentiMap simplifies the big text data collected by government and other public sector organizations and presents it visually. Real-time map visualizations make it easy to understand and analyze large amounts of qualitative data. A spatial view of the trends and differences in public opinion across regions and areas, such as neighbourhoods or districts, allows for more nuanced analysis and policy-making.

SentiMap represents a significant improvement over traditional methods of analyzing qualitative data, which can be challenging and time-consuming. The map view also makes data more accessible for non-technical users and citizen participants, increasing transparency and enhancing opportunities for accountability.

As part of the award, SAP will also be making a donation of $3,000 to TSiBA in PlaceSpeak’s name. Based out of South Africa, TSiBA is a nonprofit tertiary education institute that provides higher education access to young people from underserved communities.

“PlaceSpeak is honored to have been awarded the silver medal in the SAP Innovation Awards Social Hero category,” said CEO Colleen Hardwick. “At a time when public trust is very low, seeing is believing, and the SentiMap makes it possible to visualize authenticated feedback geospatially. Spatial visualization of qualitative data makes public opinion transparent.”

Learn more about the PlaceSpeak SentiMap here.