Social media monitoring

The request was refused by Cheshire West and Chester Council.

Dear Cheshire West and Chester Council,

CWACC use the system meltwater buzz to monitor social media including Twitter and Facebook by the use of keywords which are entered into meltwater buzz which then searches social media sites and then generates reports .
Keywords are the core of any monitoring .
The keywords used have a positive or negative indicator. For example when the meltwater buzz system finds posts on Twitter which contain the keyword #quackcwac it produces a report and that report contains an image of a thumbsdown.

1. Please supply a full list of all keywords that produce a thumbs down in the generated report ( negative keyword) and please supply a list of all keywords that produces a thumbsup image (positive keyword).
2. Please supply all other keywords used on the meltwater buzz system.
3. Please state if any keywords entered into the meltwater buzz system by CWACC contains any names, usernames, account names or profile names of any online users from sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
4. Please state the date upon which CWACC first used meltwater buzz.
5. Please state the annual cost and cost todate of using the system.

For your perusal the meltwater buzz system will print off a list of all keywords you have entered by indicator.

Yours faithfully,

M D Pope

Liam Byrne left an annotation ()

Thank you for raising this issue.

Dear Cheshire West and Chester Council,

In addition to and as part of the attached FOI request please supply the following:

6. Do certain keywords entered into the meltwater buzz system have a location linked to the keyword which has been entered by CWACC.
For example a keyword entered into the system is an online users Twitter account name and that keyword is identified by meltwater buzz as being from a location set by CWACC.

Yours faithfully,

M D Pope

Cheshire West and Chester Council

RE: Your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000

Case Reference: 101001873595

Dear Mr Pope

Thank you for your email on March 10th 2014.

It will be treated as a request within the meaning of the Act: this means that we will send you a full response within 20 working days, either supplying you with the information which you want, or explaining to you why we cannot supply it.

If we need any further clarification or there is any problem we will be in touch.

In the meantime if you wish to discuss this further please contact FOIWEST. It would be helpful if you could quote the log number.

Yours sincerely

Will Webb
Solutions Team

Cheshire West and Chester Council

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Dear Cheshire West and Chester Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Cheshire West and Chester Council's handling of my FOI request 'Social media monitoring'.

As you have not responded within the statutory time limit of 20 working days.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...

Yours faithfully,

M D Pope

FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear Mr Pope

Thank you for your request for information contained in your email below
and with an additional question submitted in your email dated 9 March
2014.  I am able to provide you with the following response:

 

1.       Please supply a full list of all keywords that produce a thumbs
down in the generated report ( negative keyword) and please supply a list
of all keywords that produces a thumbsup image (positive keyword).

 

Negative and positive sentiment is decided automatically by Meltwater's
propriatory system and is decided based on the tone of the message and
words used within it.

 

2.       Please supply all other keywords  used on the meltwater buzz
system.

 

Certain keywords and phrases (operands) that we are interested in
monitoring change on a regular basis. These are added into existing
segments (called campaigns) or are the basis of new campaigns.

 

The words we look for are combined using Boolean operators into an
algorithm that refines the results. This is done by using AND, OR, NOT and
NEAR (in this case NEAR means that words occur close to each other in a
post) operators on a number of operands. As a result, we do not have a
‘list of keywords’, rather we have algorithms of operators and operands
that control the results and some of those operands are there to exclude
results.

 

Within these algorithms, the words relate to localities, schemes, places,
organisations, services, hashtags, handles and webpages. We will be able
to search through the campaigns’ algorithms to look for a specific operand
should you wish to make a new request.

 

3.       Please state if any keywords entered into the meltwater buzz
system by CWACC contains any names, usernames, account names or profile
names of any online users from sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

 

Keywords matched with names and profiles are used occasionally for
different reasons. 

 

4.       Please state the date upon which CWACC first used meltwater buzz.

 

The first date monitored is 26 February 2012 .

 

5.       Please state the annual cost and cost to date of using the
system.

 

This is information is already available in the public domain AS IT IS
SPEND OVER £500.  All spend over £500 is published on a monthly basis via
the Council’s Opendata site.  To find this information please visit the
following link and search for ‘Meltwater Buzz’.

 

[1]http://opendata.cheshirewestandchester.g...

 

6.       Do certain keywords entered into the meltwater buzz system have a
location linked to the keyword which has been entered by CWACC. For
example a keyword entered into the system is an online users Twitter
account name and that keyword is identified by meltwater buzz as being
from a location set by CWACC.

 

Yes some keywords from time to time will have locality elements in the
algorithm.

 

I trust this answers your enquiry.

 

The Council considers that your request has been answered in full by
either confirming that information is not held, providing you with the
information requested, or explaining why any information has been withheld
and the reasons for any redaction.    Where applicable, the Council has
also told you the reasons for the delay in responding to your request.

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been
handled you can request a review by writing to the Solutions Team within

40 working days from the date of the Council’s response.  You are entitled
to a review by the Council if:

·         You are dissatisfied with the Council’s explanation of why the
application was not dealt with within the 20 working day time limit.

·         All the information requested is not being disclosed and you
have not received an explanation why some information is not being
disclosed.

·         A reason for the disclosures under the request being refused is
not received.

·         You consider that exemptions have been wrongly applied, and/or

·         You consider that a fee has been wrongly applied.

Please set out your grounds for seeking a review together with what
specific part of your request those grounds apply to and the outcome you
are seeking.  The Council reserves the right to ask you for clarification
of the grounds for your review request if the grounds are not clear, and
to delay commencing the review if such grounds are not provided.

 

The Solutions Team can be contacted by email via: 
[2][Cheshire West and Chester Council request email] or at the following address:

 

Solutions Team

Cheshire West and Chester Council

HQ

58 Nicholas Street

Chester

CH1 2NP

 

The Solutions Team will acknowledge a request for an internal review
within 5 working days and complete the review as soon as possible and no
later than 40 working days from receipt of the request.

 

More information about the Council’s internal review process can be found
via:
[3]http://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk...

 

If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome of your review, you have
a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

 

The Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire SK9 5AF

 

Telephone: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45

Website: [4]www.ico.gov.uk

 

There is no charge for making an appeal.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Ruth Winson

Solutions Assistant

Cheshire West and Chester Council

 

 

 

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FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear Mr Pope

Thank you for your email. Please accept my apologies for the slight delay in responding to your request, however a full response was sent today at 10.59am. Please consider the response and let me know whether you still wish to proceed with an internal review and on what basis. Please set out in detail your specific grounds for review.

Yours sincerely

Solutions Team
Cheshire West and Chester Council

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Dear Cheshire West and Chester Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Cheshire West and Chester Council's handling of my FOI request 'Social media monitoring'.

I believe the answer provided by CWACC does not provide the information requested.

The original request asked for all keywords used by CWACC on the meltwater system. Whether they be positive, negative or with no indicator.
It is irrelevant if they change. All keywords on the system should have been provided at the time the request was made.

The keywords requested are easily printed off from the meltwater system. You have previously provided me with a demonstration link.

You have confirmed in your reply that you do use keywords. Those should have been provided. The entire list whether individual keywords or groups of keywords(phrases).

For the avoidance of doubt you state:
"Certain keywords and phrases (operands) that we are interested in monitoring change on a regular basis."

then you state:

"As a result, we do not have a
‘list of keywords’, rather we have algorithms ".

A clear contradiction.

The words in between AND, OR , NOT , NEAR are individual keywords entered into the meltwater system by CWACC.
My original request made it clear without any doubt that I required all keywords whether individual or grouped, positive, negative, either or neither. In any event combined keywords (or phrase as you prefer to call them) are still keywords and should have been provided.

I am fully aware on how the meltwater buzz system works and your statement:
"Negative and positive sentiment is decided automatically by Meltwater's propriatory system and is decided based on the tone of the message and words used within it."
is only possible because CWACC have programmed the meltwater buzz system when the keyword/keywords were originally and first entered into the system that the keyword entered was a negative or positive.
Further computers can not detect 'tones' in a human conversation without being programmed (with keywords grouped or not) by the operator of that computer system. In this instance CWACC.

Additionally keywords can be a single word or multiple words together. You have used the words algorithms of operators and operands . They are made up of keywords and are a keyword in themselves. You have confirmed you have these but have not supplied them. They should have been.

My original request requested all keywords in the meltwater buzz system, whether they be negative, positive, either or neither.
It is irrelevant if they are in a string, on their own, in a phrase or which ever technicality you prefer. My request made clear that I required '2) all other keywords'. This meant if you are unable to differentiate between positive and negative indicators then the keywords fell into this category. Additionally 'all other keywords' means all whether a single word or group of words. You prefer to use the word 'phrase'.
That means all keywords (grouped or individual)including account names, login names and profiles at the time of the original request. We are both aware that these keywords whether individual or grouped are printed off at the click of a print button.

Again CWACC has attempted to avoid providing information that you are legally required to or attempted to delay the full response by providing a nonsensical response at the last minute or because the requester uses slightly different words to your technical system and therefore delaying the information for a further 40 working days. It is unacceptable.

For your reference:

Meltwaterbuzz state:
"Search Deep – Use keywords to identify specific topics of conversation that are important to your social community, such as brands names, competitors, industry phrases, acronyms, social hash-tags, celebrities, trending topics, etc. The Meltwater Buzz Listen module’s search-based social media monitoring lets you dig deep into the social media chaos to target the most relevant conversations using precise Boolean logic.".
It is clear even the creators of the meltwater buzz software consider phrases, acronyms and hash tags AS keywords.

DEFINE KEYWORDS:
Keywords are words or phrases that describe content. They can be used as metadata to describe images, text documents, database records, and Web pages.

Whenever you search for something using a search engine, you type keywords that tell the search engine what to search for. For example, if you are searching for used cars, you may enter "used cars" as your keywords. The search engine will then return Web pages with content relevant to your search terms. The more specific keywords you use, the more specific (and useful) the results will be. Therefore, if you are searching for a specific used car, you may enter something like "black Honda Accord used car" to get more accurate results.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...

Yours faithfully,

M D Pope

FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear Mr Pope

 

Thank you for your email dated 8 April 2014 reference 1873595.

 

An internal review will be arranged and you will be advised of the date
shortly.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Ruth Winson

Solutions Assistant

Cheshire West and Chester Council

 

 

 

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FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear Mr Pope

 

Further to your request for information reference 1873595.

 

I acknowledge receipt of your email of 25 April 2014 asking if I can
advise a date for the internal review.  I am not able to provide that yet
but will inform you as soon as it has been arranged.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Ruth Winson

Solutions Assistant

Cheshire West and Chester Council

 

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M D Pope left an annotation ()

No such request for an update has been made regarding this FOI and I believe the response above is due to an administrative error on the part of Cwacc.

FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

Dear Mr Pope

 

Further to your request for information reference 1873595.

 

A date has been set for an Internal Review.  This will be held on 19 May
2014.

 

You will be advised of the decision by due date of 11 June 2014.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Ruth Winson

Solutions Assistant

Cheshire West and Chester Council

 

 

 

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Ray McHale left an annotation ()

Regarding question 5, and the reference to information being available publically:

This is information is already available in the public domain AS IT IS
SPEND OVER £500. All spend over £500 is published on a monthly basis via
the Council’s Opendata site. To find this information please visit the
following link and search for ‘Meltwater Buzz’.

[1]http://opendata.cheshirewestandchester.g...

Of course the problem is the search engine on the Open Data site is complete rubbish. When you search on "Meltwater Buzz" or "Meltwater" or "Buzz" it finds nothing.

I have encountered this problem before.

FOI West, Cheshire West and Chester Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Pope

 

Further to the Internal Review of reference 1873595 please find attached
the Decision Notice as reviewed on 19 May 2014. 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Ruth Winson

Solutions Assistant

Cheshire West and Chester Council

 

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