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October 13, 2006
And why is the U.S. government watching?
The more the U.S. government knows about what the world thinks of us, the better, it always seemed to me. But I guess it depends on what the goal is. I tend towards the view that greater understanding might help us act more wisely, but from the article "Software Being Developed To Monitor Opinions of U.S." in Wednesday's New York Times it seems that the goal is simply to identify enemies, national or individual.
Here's the story at Islamonline.net, and an extract:
The US will spend 2.4 million dollars over the next three years to develop software to analyze and summarize opinion articles worldwide.WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is developing software to analyze and summarize opinion articles worldwide, providing a possible tool for better monitoring what is written about the United States in the global press.
"The work is really designed to get information extraction that would help the Department of Home Security (DHS) review statements for sentiments or beliefs contained in statements, and to provide intelligence analysts within DHS," said Homeland Security spokesperson Christophe Kelly, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Posted by Karen Christensen at October 13, 2006 2:54 PM